Burnt-out, tired, had enough?

Sales is not for the faint hearted, nor is running your own business. For those of us who run our own businesses and/or have careers in sales or sales management, we find we are often faced with stressful situations such as:

  • Budgets to achieve in tougher markets.
  • Challenging clients, staff, peers, bosses or suppliers.
  • Changes that effect your competitive edge with products and services.
  • New market competitors, products, ideas and innovations.
  • Dealing with unethical people or business tactics.
  • New system upgrades or old systems that don’t work well.
  • Not to mention our personal lives and the many changes we face on a daily basis.

How do we …

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Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus.

Last week I explained that my blog is called Sell Like A Woman because there is an increasing body of research overseas showing that woman are often outperforming men in achieving sustainable results in sales and client relationships. And I promised you I would start to highlight, from my research, what successful sales women do especially well. So here is your first snippet.

Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus.

I asked 50 highly successful sales women across a wide variety of industries about the differences between male and female sales people.

There was a uniform feeling among all the women interviewed …

Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Read Post »

Get me a woman

Some of you may be wondering why my blog is called “Sell like a woman”. First, Sell like a woman is not a feminist manifesto nor is it a male bashing exercise.

The creation of the title was inspired by an increasing body of research overseas showing that woman are often outperforming men when it comes to achieving real and sustainable results in sales and effective sustainable client relationships.

This led me to begin my research project and the book I am now writing, also called “Sell Like A Woman”. I have always been curious about women and their success in sales …

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What is good selling?

Like many people, I have always been curious about what makes “great sales performance”. This is a perplexing question that has been asked and attempted to be answered by many people over the years.

Also, are great sales people born? (most people believe this to be true – but it’s not). What does it take to be an elite sales performer, and can anyone learn how to sell well?

Many people have looked for one magic quality, one key ingredient that distinguished top performing sales people from all others- a magic ingredient with which only the special are anointed.

Here are some of …

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The huge cost of hesitation

I knew that being hesitant in the sales arena was a no-no, but I didn’t know just how much business it could cost.

From my experience, hesitating sales people miss out on about 15 new sales opportunities a month. People who do not hesitate to prospect or make contact with customers are five times more productive than their hesitant colleagues.

I find that most people in business hesitate to make contact with prospective buyers on a regular consistent basis, often leaving prospecting to chance. It is one of the biggest issues facing most businesses when it comes to making sales and staying …

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Professional Visitor or Professional Sales Person?

I am seeing a lot of time wasted by sales staff aimlessly chatting with clients.

How often are you left with the feeling that your sales people are seeing clients, but beyond the “hello” and general chat, nothing of substance is happening?

I call it the phenomenon of “professional visitation”.

Often the cause can be isolated to a sales person’s reticence to ask the “hard questions”. Preferring to operate at a more superficial level, there is little chance the sales person will ever become involved in negotiating their way through customer demands and price issues.

Contact time with customers should always be productive. It …

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