Sure, your company has satisfied customers. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be in business (at least not for long). But here’s a question few companies ask: How loyal are they? Will they recommend your products and services to others? Will they stick with you through thick and thin? Or will they run at the first sign of a price increase or some other change that rubs them the wrong … [More]
Do You Have a Noble Purpose? Or Do You Just Sell Stuff?
If someone asked your employees, “What’s the purpose of your business?” how would they answer? If the majority of your people believe that the primary purpose of your business is to make money, you’re on the road to mediocrity. It sounds harsh, but it’s true. Consider Monster.com. Monster was originally founded on the belief that helping people find jobs was a noble … [More]
Mixing the Perfect Sales Cocktail
Sales can be complicated! Even career sales professionals find being a good salesperson can be frustrating and complex. Different factors contribute to sales complexity: being able to find the right lucrative opportunity, having access to the right resources, selling the right product or service that appeals to businesses and consumers, developing effective lead generating … [More]
Top 5 Marketing Strategies for Success
Marketing options are wide and varied, offering more opportunities than ever before for companies to connect with their customers. Everything is on the Internet, and this has dramatically changed the landscape for business. Even small companies in Arizona are selling internationally, observes Matt Silverman, vice president and managing director of R&R Partners’ Phoenix … [More]
Who Are You – What’s Your Brand?
As a professional recruiting and staffing executive, I am amazed at how few business owners and corporate executives have consciously built their personal brand. Perhaps they don’t think of themselves as a brand, but in the competitive business marketplace, they can ill afford not to do so. The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines a brand as a “name, term, sign, … [More]
The Reputation Economy
Your reputation defines how people see you and what they will do for you. And today, thanks to rapid advances in digital technology, anyone can access huge troves of information about you at any time. In a world where technology allows companies and individuals alike to not only gather all this data but also aggregate it and analyze it with frightening speed, accuracy and … [More]
Avoid Desperation Selling
Have you ever done this: Looked at the bank account, looked at the bills, looked at your upcoming schedule and then just went into a major panic? What are you doing to do? The bills are coming in, the clients are heading out, and you are stuck right dab in the middle with what seems like no solution in sight. The last few months might have been great, but now, for some reason … [More]
Never Be Closing
Everyone knows that the first rule of sales is “always be closing.” But what if the less time one spends trying to close, the more time one can devote to helping people solve problems and seize opportunities? This book isn’t just a catalog of techniques to wrestle money out of a client’s pocket. It’s a comprehensive strategy that starts with a well-researched process for … [More]
Making Conflict Work
Conflicts at work are as inevitable as they are frustrating. In Making Conflict Work, Peter Coleman and Robert Ferguson address the key role of power in workplace tension. Whether butting heads with a boss or addressing a direct report’s complaint, one’s relative position of power affects how one approaches conflict. Coleman and Ferguson explain how power dynamics function, … [More]
Social Media Not a Bonanza for Sales Prospecting
A vigorous social media presence is widely seen as essential for success in today’s hyper-competitive direct sales environments. But even among the younger, always-connected generations, it is not found to be most effective for actually generating new sales. In a survey of more than 2,200 salespeople, Trelitha R. Bryant, senior V.P. of field testing and research at Behavioral … [More]
Storytelling App Enables Peer-to-Peer Marketing
Splicity, a new mobile app from Phoenix entrepreneurs Caleb Barclay and Ben Hall, offers businesses a platform to enable their loyal customers to create 17-second videos for strong peer-to-peer marketing. The initial idea was to make storytelling more accessible to the everyday person, Barclay explains. “We wanted to create a community around story-art framework.” But he notes … [More]
Mortgage Lender Targets Underserved Phoenix Market
Recognizing opportunity in Phoenix’s housing market, Carrington Mortgage Services has opened a new Scottsdale office, its second in the area. This is part of the company’s national strategy to target a specific underserved segment — those with a FICO credit score of less than 630. Arizona was among the areas hardest hit by the recent housing collapse, a distinction it shared … [More]
Sales Leads – Lost by Mistake?
U.S. businesses spend billions of dollars generating sales leads every year only to lose more than 70 percent of them simply because they don’t make contact quickly enough or follow up consistently, according to one study. But that’s not the only way they’re losing out on opportunities. A study of more than 600 companies by James Oldroyd, Ph.D., of MIT found the odds of a … [More]
Authenticity
Most sales training focuses on getting to know the product, analyzing the market and identifying the competition, but there is more to sales success than that. Successful selling takes three types of preparation: the “what”: knowing the product, the industry and the competition; the “how”: applying the knowledge, enhancing social interaction, developing relationships and … [More]
Pitch Perfect
Media coach and Emmy Award-winning correspondent Bill McGowan shares his secrets of pitch-perfect communications, showing readers how to communicate with confidence. Saying the right thing the right way can make the difference between sealing the deal or losing the account, advancing one’s career or suffering a demotion. McGowan shows how to craft just the right message. Along … [More]
Duct Tape Selling
It’s no longer enough to view a salesperson’s job as closing. Today’s superstars must attract, teach, convert, serve and measure while developing a personal brand that stands for trust and expertise. In Duct Tape Selling, Jantsch shows how to tackle a changing sales environment, for both individuals and those charged with leading a sales team. Readers will learn to think … [More]
Put Client Interest Over Self-Interest
Any entrepreneur willing to endure the proverbial “blood, sweat and tears” it takes to start a business knows how important clients are. They write the checks that pay the bills, so keeping them satisfied is rarely just lip service. In fact, most business owners believe they are putting their clients first — and would be shocked to hear they’re putting clients last. But in … [More]
Unlimited Sales Success
The art of sales is continually evolving, and for sales professionals worldwide, Unlimited Sales Success is a must-read for staying ahead of the curve. Brian Tracy is unquestionably one of the world’s most revered masters in achieving success, and this book, with its unfailingly smart strategies and techniques, reflects his supreme knowledge and innate understanding of every … [More]
