Category: Sales Prospecting

Reading Time: < 1 minute Nobody would dispute that referrals are a vital aspect of sales success but do you really understand where they come from and how to systematically generate them?  Vistage Chief Research Officer Joe Galvin asked several thousand Vistage members running SMB companies to contribute their best practices in referral generation.   This short article

Reading Time: < 1 minute We all have outgoing voicemail messages but have you ever wondered if these messages are inviting people to not call you again. Nancy Friedman’s has some advice about his matter. Known internationally as “The Telephone Doctor,”  Ms. Friedman has trained thousands of salespeople and customer service reps how not to shoot themselves in the

Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s hard to imagine a sector that’s been disrupted more than retail. So disrupted in fact that one retail observer has concluded that “great is no longer good enough.” Wharton School marketing professor Barbara Kahn explains her comment in this podcast and review of her book “The Shopping Revolution.”

Reading Time: < 1 minute We are constantly reminded about the importance of a strong company-wide culture.  But there are sub-cultures within the whole.  Take sales, Do you know who owns the sales culture? Is it the CEO, the Sales Manager, the COO?   Collen Stanley, Vistage Speaker and president of Sales Leadership, Inc. knows, and if

Reading Time: < 1 minute Peter Drucker once remarked that the best business in the world was a mailbox to which people sent money. While this may be ideal, most businesses require some intermediate steps; such as lead generation. Historically, lead generation required many outbound activities by sales and marketing.  Social media has turned that on its head and

Reading Time: < 1 minute We think of Steve Jobs as a great creative entrepreneur whose feel for the market and insights into design created great products that people stand in line for. He was also very persuasive and a great communicator.  If you’d like a few tips on one particular aspect of his abilities,

Reading Time: < 1 minute Microsoft paid $26 Billion for LinkedIn.  The following will help C-Level execs understand why.  Many CEOs and direct reports have a personal or company page on this site but know little about the power that LinkedIn offers them, so they don’t challenge their teams to use it to its fullest. 

Reading Time: < 1 minute Remember the movie “Tommy Boy” and how he strove to save the family auto parts business?  One writer thinks that there is significant business wisdom in this movie.  Check out these five important sales lessons from “Tommy Boy.”

Reading Time: < 1 minute Great advice can come from unexpected quarters if we are ready for it.  To wit:  check out this short story about how a father’s advice created a great salesman and how we often make our jobs harder than they need to be.  Consider some surfer dude sales advice before you

Reading Time: < 1 minute Life’s a first impression business; a sad fact and perhaps unfair but there are ways to make it easier.   Consider these 25 psychological life hacks that will help you gain an advantage in social situations – these are good reminders for us all. Whether you are just beginning your career or