Category: Sales

Sales

Sales Quota 2.0

We are living in an era of constant change. The speed of change is simply astonishing. Though all of us are aware of this and the impact it has on businesses (more significant for the small businesses), not many have changed the way we conduct the business and subsequently, the way we define and set sales targets for our sales force. The most common way to define this is still to decide an annual quota for each sales person (probably an increase by a certain % on his previous years sales figures) and incentivize him/her if they over achieve on […]

Marketing, Sales

How to deliver a killer presentation

Today, I was going through my video collections and stumbled upon the video of my (6 year old) son’s graduation day speech which he delivered using a power point slide show. Now that I watch the video and remember the slides that he used (which I prepared for him with my wife), I can not help but get awed at the enormous potential we all possess as children. As my son was 6 year old when he delivered the presentation, we could not use bullet points or text in the slides.  We were forced to use only pictures that we […]

Sales

Tips on how to sell to a CIO by a CIO

Today, I was attending a sales training workshop and we had invited a CIO to share his experience on buying and dealing with so many vendors who pitch their products and services. He shared his thoughts on the do’s and don’ts about selling to a CIO. Do’s: Do your homework and understand the CIO better. There are people who want to be buy into a vision and then there are people who buy into a product/service. Tailor your approach and presentation accordingly. If you try to mix them up, it is almost impossible to get a sale. Know when to […]

Sales

Perseverance & Engagement

One of the most important and under-rated virtues of successful sales people is “perseverance”.Successful sales people stay in contact with all their prospects and keep them engaged despite not getting business from them. The ability to stay engaged with these prospects helps them get the sale whenever the prospect decides to buy or provide references. This helps build relationships. This is the key differentiator between also-rans and the hugely successful sales people. The insanely successful people build great relationships with not only those who give them business but also who do not give business. The key to build and keep […]

Sales

Restrospection & Introspection

Let’s consider an example of a sales person. Sam is a sales manager for a software company and is responsible for selling software licenses to a set of customers. He had a meeting with one of his primary clients which did not go well and he lost the deal to his competitors. He had thought that his relationship with the customer was very healthy and he was very sure that would land the deal. He did not realize when he lost the deal. He now has to go back to his manager Tom and inform him about the lost deal. […]