15 Sep 2018

Today’s post is by Deidre Moore, director of demand generation at TimeTrade, where she devises new ways to save the world from bad meetings while making the process for setting appointments easier and more productive for all. What exactly is a “high-value” meeting?  For many sales professionals, this label is most commonly defined by the size and strategic value of the compan...

28 Jan 2018

After delivering an action packed training program, it was now my time to unwind. In simple terms it meant allowing the foodie in me to take over for an ultimate Biryani experience . After a thorough research in net I zeroed in on Alpha Hotel in Secunderabad. It's a place well known by the locals but very less known outside Hyderabad. I reached the location, the restaurant was next to...

06 Dec 2017

There have always been debate in the retail industry as to who/what is the most important element in a retail store. Some would say it's the stock which is of utmost importance hence the most important position for a store is the merchandiser. Some might say how can we forget the sales executives who are the front line of interaction with the customers. Some may say without proper amb...

13 Apr 2016

This week, I finally watched the movie “The Martian,” starring Matt Damon. Damon plays Mark Watney, an astronaut trained in botany who is left for dead on Mars. Watney must stretch his food rations to keep himself alive in case help arrives. Using all the tools in his mental toolbox, and with no way to communicate with NASA, he engineers methods to keep certain death at bay until the nex...

13 Apr 2016

Bar none, the biggest objection a customer ever raises is price. Often they don’t comprehend the value of your solution, therefore concluding that the number you’ve quoted is completely arbitrary, maybe even greed-based. It’s true that today’s customers exist in a climate of global competition; they know how to “Google it,” etc. But information isn’t always knowledge, so they’re not nece...

13 Apr 2016

Research shows that salespeople will never reach their performance potential without a well-defined sales-call procedure that they can follow and learn from. “Winging it” on sales calls has grim consequences – lost sales, extended sell cycles, margin erosion and no clear path to improvement. Bottom line: Your entire sales career can be mediocre if you “wing it.” Performance improves b...

13 Apr 2016

In business, there’s an expression: To have and to hold, from this day forward. … Oh, wait, that’s a marriage vow. And even then it doesn’t bind. Here in the sales-verse, people coming and going like serial monogamists can sting your bottom line: Onboarding new hires is costly and time-consuming. Organizations must pay to find and vet potential new hires; they also need to invest at leas...

13 Apr 2016

Sales forecasting is commonplace among sales managers, despite the fact that it’s a ridiculously difficult undertaking and the further fact that forecasting accurately is nearly impossible. It’s typical to end up with forecasted numbers that miss the mark by a sizable margin. Sales managers often find themselves in a familiar situation: running around in a postmortem panic over why th...

11 Apr 2016

Spring is starting to show through here in our hometown of Las Vegas. We’re in the midst of trade show season and companies from a host of different industries are visiting the city to promote their offerings and vie for future business. The sales-verse is inhabited by better-educated customers these days, and we have innovations meant to streamline the getting and keeping of business...