For those who have worked for me over the years (a lot of salespeople) this will not be news. I am definitely “Old School” when it comes to some sales fundamentals. It’s like Madden football, you can’t escape the need for great blocking and tackling no matter how many trick plays you have in the [...]
The current trend among technology companies (and others) is to assign accounts based on company size. While definition of size varies across the market, the three categories generally defined are: SMB (small, medium businesses) Mid-Market Enterprise Gartner defines SMBs by the number of employees and annual revenue they have. The attribute used most often is [...]
Most of my professional life has revolved around well-defined geographic territories, defined by state borders or sometimes down to the local zip code levels. When you are developing a sales strategy, why is this a good thing compared to other territory management strategies? Some benefits: Efficiencies of time/travel expenses Clear accountability Concentration of effort Long [...]
Since the beginning of time, man (or woman) have fought over boundaries defining, their farm, their country and yes, even their sales territory. Gangs kill over turf and so do nation states. Drug wars are all about territory with millions at stake, so we can see that territories defined has universal value. In this series [...]
Steve LePatner’s insights on employee turnover are spot on. The impact on the organization can be especially costly for sales organizations for several reasons: Loss of revenue is an immediate and certain issue when you lose salespeople Recruiting and hiring new sales talent often takes longer than other positions Disruption of customer relationships, often the [...]
A great post below from my fellow Sales Xceleration Advisor Bill Morrow. I’d like to add to his observations by reminding all salespeople that perhaps the dumbest questions are the ones you should have asked and did not. Did you ever leave a call and say jeez, “I wish I had asked him who else [...]
For a quick assessment of your company's sales readiness, check out our new Sales Agility Assessment. Take the short assessment or email me for the full 40 question deeper dive into all the components of your sales process. At FlyCloud consulting I use the proven Sales Xceleration platform to grow and manage sales in any [...]
We have talked about the key components of successful sales compensation plans that include: Timing and frequency of changing compensation plans Aligning comp plans with the top and bottom lines of the business. Strategic and tactical goals Rewarding the behavior you need to run the business More complex products generally require richer compensation programs Paying [...]
It should come as no surprise to you that sales compensation varies widely by both geography and industry. The general rule is the more complex, and the more expensive the product, the more you must pay people to sell it. The same may be true even if your product is not so complex, but hard [...]
Do you pay commissions on revenue or margin, or a bit of both? It depends. Many channel companies that live on razor thin margins, by necessity use margin (or gross profit, contribution margin) as the sole indicator of sales success. Most small business owners know you cannot pay the bills with revenue, it is all [...]
