Sales Training Articles

One of the most important activities of the training department is, the promotion and marketing of its products. So many times we get wrapped up in training people, developing new training programs, and testing, etc, that we lose sight of the big picture. We need to look back and define our ...

Tip Number One: Mix up your approach There are many conflicting opinions out there on the subject of how best to deal with gatekeepers. Even the foremost sales trainers rarely agree on how best to approach the subject. This suggests there are many effective techniques but there is no single ...

After years of chasing numbers and sales goals, I realized something was very wrong. I felt empty and disillusioned with the entire world of business and sales. As an entrepreneur I had worked extremely hard for more than 10 years. All I had to show for all of my hard work and discipline was 2 ...

She made the telephone call, scheduled the appointment and everything seemed to go well. She wrote a thank-you note after the appointment and after that, made a follow-up telephone call to the client. The client wanted a demo. The demo was a success. The client asked for a proposal. Wow. Time to celebrate. But then something unexpected happened. A competitor came in and offered the same product for a lower price. The client bought from the competitor. What happened? How

So, who is “G?” And, what is the importance for remembering him? “G” is my father. To his family he is “Bill,” and to his grandchildren he is “G.” Rather suddenly, “G” passed away at the ripe old age of 90, in April of 2011. Needless to say, for the last couple of years, my life has been halted for pursuing my own goals and dreams. Instead, my time has been consumed with trips to Santa Barbara, to aid my sister, as we watched our Mom succumb to the disease of Alzheimer’s and our Dad fight to keep the home front strong and intact.

Reinventing yourself! Why not become the salesperson you always wanted to be? Well you're probably thinking that's easier said than done. Of course. But why not try? Why keep your head draped over your shoulder always looking behind you? You are responsible for the life you have. I mean ...

© 2004nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnIt seems to be a phenomenon. You try Google AdWords Select, your ad gets “disapproved” by the powers that be at Google, you count your losses and give up. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are two primary factors to succeeding at Google AdWords. The first is getting the right keywords. The second is writing little tiny ads. Neither is all that easy, but they can both be done.nnMark Twain said it best. “If I would have had

Just imagine, if every prospect you met said ‘where do I sign’ or ‘when can you deliver it’ to a salesperson wouldnt that be the ultimate dream. Sales trainers all over the world would probably be redundant as there would be no need for your sales team to attend sales training courses. Companies could reduce commission rates or even pay no commission at all, if only sales were that simple. Unfortunately all sales do not close with a ‘yes I‘ll take it’, in fact most sales don

If you have invested in sales or sales management training, you probably have not been satisfied with the results. In many cases, after spending tens of thousands of dollars on sales training programs, there was no positive change in behavior or no measurable improvement in sales results. Why Most Sales Training Programs Are A Waste of Money

There comes a time when many of us evaluate the past and look forward to a better future. For some, that means the question arises as to whether they should make a career change and start looking for a new postion. Should you move to greener pastures with a new employer? After all, we spend far too many hours at work not to be happy in what we do. On the other hand, changing positions is risky as you really don’t know what you would be getting into. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, as they say..

© 2003nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnI just had to laugh! During a recent conversation about how often you should change your copy, I had one person tell me “Well, if there were any *good* copywriters out there, they’d be able to write it once, and it would work forever!” Oh really? Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.nnIt is extremely rare for advertising copy to last for extended periods of time. Changing your copy is a given, the reason being that

A Gardner I am not, but a few years ago some Raspberries were transplanted and took over the North side of my house. As I was taking my evening stroll in my yard, I noticed that they were loaded with sweet red berries. I decided to spend the time picking several quarts of the elusive red ...

One of the most important skills that any salesperson must utilize is to set out a strategy to achieve your objectives and to plan in advance how you intend to manage your time and sales territory to reach the end goal. It is often said that time is the most valuable asset of any sales person. When a sales person loses hours the end result is always lost sales and therefore less earnings.

Sales is about decisions, thus master questions and get better decisions. Despite all the science, the input of experts and top producers, the majority of salespeople still create more resistance, objections and price wars by focusing on product! In the past decade psychology has examined the decision/buying process of people and the science does not support the old sales approaches. In fact, much of the research by Dr. Eric Knowles *and his associates find that most sales approaches actually build up resistance, cause objections and focus the sale on price.r

I was reading a very powerful article written in the New York Times (printed on Saturday…March 14th ), and it centered on the benefits of having your own home based franchise; which if you are thinking about starting a home based franchise, should be of great interest to you.

10: Driving all Day Spend the minimum amount of time traveling and the maximum amount of time prospecting or closing deals. Divide your area into manageable chunks and work each smaller area on a specific day each week. Only deviate from this plan where there is a very good reason such as ...

Here is a fact: As a leader the more questions you ask, the more your people will develop and ultimately win. To help people develop, you must first help them become aware, on their own terms, of the need to change. To do that, you ask questions. Unfortunately most leaders do not ask enough questions.

Cathy, a business writer, emailed me and said, "Boy, do I need to work on my Web site this year!" I gave her a couple of ways to improve her site and had her look at several websites that sell effectively on the Internet. Her response was a common one; she thought those sites were marketing aggressively and she worried about turning her prospects off with a "hard sell". Are you conce ed about being too aggressive in your marketing? No one in business wants to be seen as the

Three teen girls entered the subway in mid-conversation: "Is he in our school? " "Yes." "In our grade?" "Yes." "In our calculus class?" "Yes.” “Is he fine? "Yes!" "Steve? " "Noooo. " "Seth? " "Phillip? " "It’s Jeremy!" Indeed it was!!! n nThese girls were playing the game 20-Questions. They were playing to win. They were asking closed-ended questions to qualify/disqualify the field. They were expert at cutting to the chase. n nKids in fact are excellent question-masters

When cold calling Canadians, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. Just as diverse as Canadians Alex Trebek, Shania Twain, Mike Myers and Celine Dion are, so too are the Canadian people. Canada is a polite, resilient multicultural nation. We thrive on our individuality and respect the customs of our indigenous people, and our French and British cultures. Our unique open-mindedness makes us a lot less intimidating to cold call than other nationalities.

Challenges posed by recent economic and market shifts, though predicted for some time, have instigated chaos in the lives of many business professionals and factory workers alike, not to mention just about everyone else who is paying attention. Instead of embracing change and allowing it to fuel ...

© 2005nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnI do site reviews. Needless to say, I see a lot of Web copy. One thing that always befuddles me is the lack of focus many site pages have. It's as if the writer assumes the site visitor will read the copy and automatically know what to do next. The fact is you have to know what action you want visitors to take before you get them to take that action. That means knowing what the preferred action you want visitors to take is, before you

Every time a potential customer has contact with you or your company, an expectation has been set as to how the business relationship is going to work. If a website promises 24/7 technical support, it creates an expectation. Or if you promise installation within 24 hours, the customer now expects it. Why? Because you told them to! It’s been said many times that prospects must feel they can trust you before they will buy from you. But what does “trust you” really mean? It’s simple really.

The damage of working with difficult people can affect the whole office, including customers. In this article, I'll explore tips that will help you deal with challenging people! Have you heard the people in your office saying the following?rn - “I’m just trying to do my job. I don’t know why he keeps starting things.”rn - “What else can I do when she acts that way?”rn - “This place would fall apart if it wasn’t for me!” Sometimes angels are among us and sometimes they are not! If you feel like you are working with an individual who is not residing on earth it can be difficult at best.r

Sales Prospecting in the 21st Century means you have to be blogging to raise your industry profile. Here you will discover the essential first part - the right name choice. Are you blogging? If you are not then you are missing out on one of the greatest tools for accelerating your sales success in 2011 and beyond. If you are a business then you absolutely must have a blog. If you are a sales individual then you absolutely must have a blog. A blog can provide you with: Credibility in your marketplace - become an instant Industry Networked Expertr

If you are a business owner or sales manager responsible for getting your team of sales reps to make their numbers or achieve sales quotas, then I feel your pain. If you're like many of the sales managers and owners I work with, then I know you're being pulled in many different directions. You're busy; you have endless meetings to attend to, reporting to do, and on top of it all you have many different personalities to deal with on your team, and each of them have different skill levels, motivation levels, etc. It can seem like an overwhelming job.

Whether it’s a prospecting approach, a fact find, or a presentation, there has always been plenty of disagreement among sales professionals as to whether what will be said should be scripted ahead of time. Those that say that every sales call should be scripted, regardless of its purpose, believe that without a preplanned script, important information will be missed, therefore decreasing the chance of making the sale.

Company uses sales training is the logical choice for most business owners started. Gone are the days of long ago to give the phone book for the employee and tell them to continue to ask the companies. Well, if you want to achieve excellent results in the current business environment and this is it! As a business owner, I'm sure like me, you said the words: "This is the sales team to do" reflect on the issue is more of a painful personal "What have you done for them?" Can thi

When I was just out of college, I was lucky enough to have a mentor. He was a successful businessman. He had a lot of energy and a million things going on at any given moment. We’d meet a couple times a month to talk about different things. I enjoyed our meetings because he did a good job of sharing with me some of the business and life lessons he had learned over the years. One day we met for lunch at the Lincoln Del. This was a popular place for business lunches. They had

I can’t help but be reminded of Edvard Munch’s painting, The Scream, every time I speak with a salesperson or professional who is complaining about the ineffectiveness of their marketing. In the painting, Munch places a man on a bridge, hands to mouth, screaming as loudly as he can. Behind ...

Someone once said that worrying is praying for things you don’t want to happen. What a great saying, and, like all sayings, there’s a lot of truth in it. When you think about it, praying is when you concentrate on one thing and then you meditate or “pray” on it to the exclusion of all else. Usually, too, when you pray you put a lot of emotion into it and, of course, you have a lot of faith in what you are praying about. When you think about it, isn’t that what you do when you worry about something as well?

The way you're trained to ask for referrals is pushy, obnoxious, and downright embarrassing. You hate it and your clients hate it, and it does nothing to further you’re relationship. You ask clever questions like, who are the three people who speak most highly of you. n n Choke, puke, gag. Stop it and stop it right now if you’re using these horrendous highly manipulative tactics. You don’t have to stoop to these high pressure approaches to get the referrals

© 2004nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnIn part one of this article series we began looking at the Cruise Vacation Center site: a travel site whose copy was sorely lacking in emotional appeal and visual imagry. (You can see the previous version of the copy here: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/CruiseVacationCenter-Original.pdf.) In the conclusion, you’ll see how all the rewrite turned out and how exciting the end results have been. nnThe RewritennIt took me a while to ge

© 2003nhttp://www.ktamarketing.com nnAsk Bobette Kyle about building a Web business on a small business budget, and you’ll be amazed what she’ll tell you about planning and coordination. By getting to the heart of the online business structure, Bobette saves small businesses lots of time and money. She’s agreed to talk with us today and to share a little of her wealth of knowledge.nnKARON: Hi Bobette. I’m excited about our time together. nnBOBETTE: Thanks, Karon. Me,

When it has come to sell your website for profit , some people may think what makes you stop from running website. You must have so many reasons before you sell. Running website does take time because you have to always manage and monitor the activity on your sites. You have to make sure that the traffic healthy, good contents and also the performance of the ads from your site because you may get additional cash from your established site. There have been many people that got

Sales are frequently developed through the relationships we have created with other people. Networking functions provide the opportunity to expand our contact list, particularly when we create and nurture quality relationships. It is not enough to visit a networking group, talk to dozens of people and gather as many business cards possible. However, every networking function has tremendous potential for new business leads. Here are five strategies to make networking profitabl

Increasing sales is vital to the success of all businesses and we can always do more to better promote our products to our customers. At the end of the day, it all comes down to having great products, that truly help out our clients. However, in addition to that, we must also have effective sales strategies to bring our goods to the market as well. So hereby I provide 7 great strategies to increasing sales and achieving higher profits: 1. Having a Unique Selling Propositio

We all have the “elevator speech” ready – those thirty seconds of perfectly-worded text built to get anyone at any level of business to notice us and to consider us an indispensable asset. Getting to use it is another story. We may have the pitch planned perfectly for the moment we accidently run into the client of our dreams. But landing an appointment with your dream customers takes more than luck and a great “elevator speech.” It takes time, effort and a little planning. Here are five steps to landing that appointment with your dream customer.

© 2004nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnAsk any copywriter what the first commandment of copywriting is and they’ll quickly tell you “Know Thy Target Audience.” In order to write effectively you have to know this one group of people and know them well. I guess that’s why many people get so frustrated when it seems they have more than one preferred customer base. One of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “What if I have more than one target audience?” In

Digging deep and drilling down to uncover mutual interests and potential business opportunities is the very essence of effective networking. These same skills are also the key components in maximizing your existing business relationships. The fastest new business opportunities can be recognized within your existing account base, however it requires discipline, expert probing techniques and the ability to peel back the layers and uncover areas of mutual need and potential gain. Think about it: Are all of your customers aware of ALL of the products and services that you can provide t

Your results in sales – and all of life – are completely dependent on what you think about all day long. Your thoughts lead to your actions, and it is your actions that determine your results. But everything starts by your mental attitude, by what you dwell on all day long.

We recently recruited a senior salesperson for a top company in the construction industry. Needless to say, there was a lot of interest in the role and it carried a great salary and fantastic benefits package. Eventually two outstanding candidates were short-listed, however it was proving ...

© 2003nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnHave you ever been to one of those sites that has obviously been written to get high search engine rankings? You know the ones… they have copy that sounds like this:nn“When you buy quality silver jewelry from us, you know your quality silver jewelry is of the highest quality because we only sell quality silver jewelry that is top-notch. No other quality silver jewelry site on the Web offers the selection of quality silver jewelry

Sales is not a numbers game and the way you control that is by clearly identifying who you would like to be working with and who is a good fit with your company. Define your ideal client or customer. Sales is only a numbers game game if you let it. It is your choice. If you can't identify who you should be calling and speaking to then you can only ever operate on a mass market "it's a numbers game" principle. Take 10 minutes to identify the ideal characteristics of your ideal clients. Start by thinking of the characteristics of your best clients you have now.

One of the biggest mirages in sales is the proverbial rubber stamp. Sales people believe that they have won the business, but have left a deal-killer in play. It's September, also known as back to school time. My neighbors and I escort our children to the bus stop for the first day of the new ...

I recently passed the 100 post mark on my blog. To say that I have learnt a lot in between would be an understatement. To say that I have lots more to learn, would require an even bigger understatement. It has been an enjoyable, frustrating and fascinating experience. I have gained readers; I ...

It's that time of year again when salespeople peak their heads up from their cubicles to see if there is a better opportunity out there. So, what do I mean by "that time of the year?" Actually, it's most every day. The way most salespeople are wired, they have an insatiable urge for more. More ...

© 2003nhttp://www.copywritingcourse.comnnMost marketers don’t give a lot of thought to the buying processes of their customers. That’s a shame. Lending due attention to the buying process can have a dramatic effect on your sales. nnWhat is the buying process? Where does your customer fall within it? How can you use it to help bring your customer to the point-of-purchase? Follow me as we take a look at the decisions customers must make before deciding to buy.nnEach and ev