A Sales Compass – A Blog by B2B Sales Connections

Happy New Year! It’s at this time of the year when many of us evaluate the past and look forward to a better future. To help you make 2012 everything you want it to be, we wanted to offer you some of our most popular sales tools for free from the B2B Sales Connections Free Download Centre. (more…)

This post comes to us from Paul Letendre, a sales executive with extensice experience in food service sales.

Half-Empty?

It’s part of the ballgame, we will get discouraged from time to time.  At this time of year, it is especially common.  There is a lot of business uncertainty as to what the New Year will bring.  When a sales rep gets discouraged, that’s a good sign.  Reps are supposed to get discouraged; the work is not supposed to be easy: if it were easy, then anyone could do it and it wouldn’t pay crap.  (more…)

I was recently asked by task.fm to answer a question received by one of their website visitors.  The question was:  Can eliminating sales quotas increase profits?  It’s an excellent question, so I thought I would share my answer here.

Can eliminating sales quotas increase profits? 

Absolutely not!   It simply won’t work in a performance based career.  In fact, eliminating quotas would have the exact opposite effect on profits, in much the same way that guaranteeing a sales person a job for life without asking them to produce any sales would be.      (more…)

Whether you are dealing with customers or managing a sales team, if you keep saying yes to exceptions, they will become expectations.

Aim Higher!

Susan A. Enns, B2B Sales Coach from B2B Sales Connections

www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, www.facebook.com/B2BSalesConnections, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns

When it comes to sales contests, it is important to communicate a sales representative’s progress towards winning. The more excitement you can generate, the better. In fact, many managers believe that the communication about the contest is more important than the prize itself. (more…)

In sales, rejection is just something your sales team deals with every day.  Even your top performers hear “no” many more times than they hear “yes”.  When they let it get them down, it shows to everyone they meet, including their customers and their colleagues.  As such, as a sales manager, you must do everything you can to help them stay in a positive frame of mind. 

Sometimes it the simplest of things we do as managers that can put a negative spin on things in a sales rep’s mind.  For example, many sales managers always ask the question “How did it go?” after a sales call.  Unless they signed the contract, most sales representatives will give you a negative answer like “I screwed up part of the presentation”, “I didn’t get the sale” or “not as well as I hoped it would.” (more…)

It’s no secret that I am a fan of motivational quotes.  I like to start and end my day with a positive thought and I discovered long ago that a cartoon or a motivational quote always puts me in the right frame of mind.  Today a business associate used this quote in our conversation.  I liked it so much that I thought I would share it.

“Readers are leaders.  Learners are earners.” – Author Unknown

For more motivational quotes, download my ebook “Daily Motivational Quotes – If misery loves company, then motivation breeds happiness!”

This eBook is a collection of my favorite motivational quotes all in one place!  Some are sales related, some are business related, but most are just life related. They are in no particular order, just a random thought for each day of the year to help keep you on a positive note.

 This eBook is available absolutely free for a limited time from the B2B Sales Connections Download Centre.

Aim Higher!

Susan A. Enns, B2B Sales Coach from B2B Sales Connections

www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, www.facebook.com/B2BSalesConnections, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns

Now that the kids are out of school, and many business people have started their holidays or are rushing around doing last minute holiday shopping, sales people can find it hard to keep busy.  Instead of  clock watching, use your extra time to invest in youself.  You know all those tasks you said you would get done if only you had the time?  Well now you do!  (more…)

It’s that time of the year again!  There are only about 5 business days left in the year, and business  people and sales reps everywhere are in “hurry up and wait” mode.

We are all hurrying around doing whatever it takes to close every sale possible before year end.  We are also all waiting to prospect for new business since most companies don’t want to start new projects right now.

No matter how we wish it wasn’t so, new business slows down during the holiday season.  This can be very stressful as we struggle with how to stay busy.  When we let it get us down, it shows to everyone we meet; our customers, our colleagues and our family. 

We therefore have to make a consciously effort to stay positive, especially when we are pushing so hard to finish the year off right.  A great way to do this is to start and end each day with a positive thought. (more…)

One of the greatest gifts my sales mentor ever gave me was the belief in myself that I could be successful.  I can still hear John’s Scottish accent ringing in my ear saying, “Once you have done it once, no one can tell you that you can’t do it again!”  As he coached our sales team to greater and greater heights, I realized that John always made a conscious effort to keep us motivated as part of his daily routine.  Later when I managed my own sale team, I also made attitude coaching a part of my daily routine, and my sales teams flourished as a result. 

As a sales manager, you will be more successful if you help your team stay positive.  A negative attitude will cut into your team’s sales results like cancer cuts through a healthy body.  Simply put, have the bad tissue surgically removed.  More importantly, do something for your team each and every day to help them stay motivated.  (more…)