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Sales culture is a key contributor or roadblock to the success of a company. In the present business scenario, buyers are demanding more unique answers to their complex business problems, and salespeople must be able to customize and personalize the information and knowledge from the previous sales eras to create their own unique selling approach.

The application of emotional intelligence to enhance the performance of sales teams by improving the learning abilities of salespeople is described.

Listening behavior, which determines a salesperson's success or failure, is dependent on the rewards system in place, the salesperson's intrinsic motivation, gender and education.

Salespeople who train themselves to follow a four-stage road map to excellence can become high performers. A four-stage road map to excellence of Lorna Riley, an elite sales and productivity speaker is presented.

It's easy to assume that sales incentive programs are expensive. After all, they usually involve merchandise, travel, or just cold, hard cash. As a result, in this era of tight […]

Linda Wallace had a training problem on her hands. As vice president of global learning for FileNet, an e-commerce service provider in Costa Mesa, California, she realized that the company's […]

New salespeople need some more hand-holding than veterans. Here's how to quickly turn them into top sellers Sales is a cutthroat profession. The strong make or exceed their quotas and […]

"It's a war out there." I have echoed this statement to my sales force, more than I care to remember, and I'm sure from their perspective at least an order […]

Crazy. Unpredictable. Intense. Five days of nonstop information, pure energy, and near-lethal doses of motivation. The Southwestern Company has turned training upside down and called it Sales School And there's […]

Sales managers can motivate their salespeople to work harder and be more productive by resorting to sales management techniques. Some of the more important areas which should be given attention include sales teamwork, sales training, supplier relations, hiring practices and sales manager characteristics. High performance salespeople build sales, profits, market position and customer satisfaction. Sales managers should thus strive to correct any imbalances in perceived hurdles in the design and implementation of sales improvement methods.

Multi-awarded sales representatives are compared to old samurai warriors and they are encouraged to perform selling activities like them. The samurai sales representatives are expertly trained, creative thinkers and dedicated workers. Several recommendations on how to increase sales are presented such as focusing on a particular product's feature that would catch the prospect's attention., What do award-winning sales reps have in common with samurai warriors? Like the samurai, they are superbly trained. They react to adversaries as they've been trained to react--with daring, courage [...]

Training accurately predicted sales forces' performance nearly 50% of the time in a national research study of paper and plastics merchant wholesalers' sales force effectiveness. The top performing sales forces front-load the length of training for new salespeople and broaden its methods, sources, and contents. Managerial recommendations are to: (a) reallocate training budgets that balance new and experienced salesperson's training, (b) re-focus on training content to balance strategy-oriented training with knowledge and interpersonal communication skill areas of training content, (c) diversify training sources and methods for new salespersons' training, and (d) involve suppliers and customers in merchant sales force training. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

If recruiting is considered the lifeblood of an organization, then training must certainly be its pulse. Experienced salespeople are often reluctant to take time away from their busy schedule for [...]

One of the nost critical issues facing today's sales manager is cost-effective sales training. Many firms are substantially increasing investment in sales training; however, little research has studied the usage and effectiveness of various sales training methods. This article compares and contrasts the usage and perceived effectiveness of high-tech and traditional approaches to sales training. Findings suggest that despite optimistic predictions, high-tech training methods have not been widely adopted and use of these methods is expected to increase only modestly in the next several years. Traditional sales training methods, such as role playing, continue to be widely used. In terms of perceived effectiveness, managers rated methods high in participant involvement and trainer interaction as the most effective in achieving selected training objectives. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Today, many suppliers utilize relationship selling as an increasingly important element of their marketing strategy. The goal of the relationship selling effort is to earn the position of 'preferred suppler' by developing trust in key accounts over a period of time. Relationship selling required the learning of new skills particularly in the areas of understanding customer needs and relationship development. Coaching strategies and programs developed for teaching transactional selling skills - probing, handling objections and closing - are antiquated and in some instances dysfunctional. Coaching must now teach a new way of thinking about selling and managing. This article draws on 10 years of consulting experience in large and small corporations in North America and Europe and describes a new approach - Insight Coaching - an action oriented teaching strategy to help salespeople build trust in their key accounts. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

How does today's sales manager motivate a sales force? In the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, sales managers primarily used fear as a motivating factor. The prevailing attitude was "make […]

The sky's the limit for companies that train their salespeople via satellite. A rush of computer-generated images flashes to the beat of the background music. A voiceover bids you welcome […]

ARE YOUR SALESPEOPLE TRADE SHOW DUDS? Even field sales stars can fizzle on the trade show floor if they're not adequately prepared. In military parlance, a dud is a bomb […]

It's the lowly audiocassette, and it remains an ideal bridge between the manager and his sales force. Why don't more sales managers make greater use of audiocassettes in their field […]

Most of our sales management contract and consulting work comes from our sales training clients. We do not start a training assignment with the goal of turning it into a […]

NO ONE IN THE SUPPLY chain is more responsible or gathering and disseminating information than the middlemen -- distributors and industrial representatives. They are required to understand and pass on [...]

Training plays an essential role in developing a successful sales force automation (SFA) system in a business organization. Some companies devote a large part of their efforts and financial resources to technology as well as other services but not on training. As a result, their SFA systems fail to deliver the maximum benefits expected from them. Staff training offers several advantages which include easy product maintenance, fast implementation process and quicker return on investment., Introduction Over the past few years, corporate management has accepted Sales Force Automation (SFA) as a mission critical part of their organizations. These products revolve around a database including productivity [...]

Manufactured housing companies can boost their sales by refining their sales management techniques. Sales managers have to find new techniques to train their sales personnel in a more efficient way to stimulate their companies' product sales. Salespeople need to learn how to approach their potential customers in order to sell their companies' products successfully.

Sales prospecting seminars illustrate that the company and the salesperson fully comprehend the customer's situation and that they have the required expertise and experience to help the customer. The seminar shows how the salesperson can avoid the negative connotations of selling and how to foster a lasting relationship with prospects. Fourteen tips for designing, using and benefiting from these seminars are presented., 'It's 10 times more difficult to get customers as it was 10 years ago,' exclaimed the marketing director of a major corporation's eastern region. 'Our sales reps are working harder [...]

How does today's sales manager motivate a sales force? In the 1950s, '60s and early '70s, sales managers primarily used fear as a motivating factor. The prevailing attitude was 'make [...]

WHAT ARE THE BEST WAYS TO BREAK IN NEW SALESPEOPLE? Introduce them to the product, the industry, and the customer, say panelists. Then, give them some training. While most of […]

As sales compensation is increasingly up for discussion, Jeff Gardner gives some tips on the best ways to keep your sales team satisfied and motivated. Whenever I meet with dealer [...]

By Jack Keough, Editor It's a sales manager's toughest, but most important, job There's a memorable scene in the movie 'Glengarry Glen Ross' in which a sales manager, played by [...]

During most 20 Group sessions or training meetings, the subject of salespersons' productivity, turnover and compensation comes up. I mean no disrespect when I note the goal of these conversations [...]

What Would You Do? SALES MANAGER MARGE Lippin is crushed. Word just came down from the corporate office that this year's budget for Lippin's annual incentive trip for her staff […]

The author describes a project coordinated between a personal selling class and a sales management class. The project is intended to help students in the personal selling class improve the [...]

IT WAS THE first day of Penton Group's three-day sales meeting. The company's 10 salespeople talked excitedly during breakfast about the upcoming events: a few rounds of golf, some white […]

IN MY APRIL ARTICLE, I covered the importance of having a training plan and continuously improving it. Having a training system in place separates elite dealers from the ordinary, but [...]

Granting a salesperson the power to make concessions so that he gets the sale but does not risk your Profit margins risky going, even when the salesperson a veteran. Needed […]

Tell that to your trainer and he's likely to surprise youwith dollars-andcents evidence. Don Waite recalls when he was in charge of training for all of Continental Can's sales and […]

An examination of meeting costs for different locations reveals which pieces of the pie are most easily digested. Where should you hold your next sales meeting? The answer is not […]

Businesses need only to apply the philosophy of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc to their business to boost their sales. Kroc realized that the true product of all businesses are how rather than what they sell and that a documented process of selling can enable even a staff of high school children to effectively market products. A documented selling process primarily entails establishing easy-to-copy, predictable selling steps., So, you think your employees are a challenge? Try managing a bunch of teenagers. That's what McDonald's does, and with astonishing success. Each year the fast-food giant trains roughly 400,000 [...]