4 habits to improve your client relationships

If you work with business customers – as an account manager, an owner, a consultant or a customer happiness representative – you know that great service doesn’t mean that friendliness fixes the problem. Results trump even the most friendly interactions. For business-to-business client relationships especially, customer satisfaction isn’t driven by a one-time issue resolution. Instead, it’s about forming and maintaining real, long-term relationships.

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Getting the Most Out of Your Sales Organization: Effectiveness vs. Efficiency

The sales team is the life force of every business. If it’s a healthy team, the business will thrive and grow, but if the sales team is weak and not united in their efforts, the business will without a doubt suffer in the long-term.

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Sales Bonuses Are Supposed to Motivate, So Don’t Waste Them on Easy Targets

Most companies pay salespeople a combination of a salary, a commission, and a bonus for hitting a quota, putting a portion of their pay at risk. The belief is that at-risk pay motivates salespeople to work hard and direct effort towards sales activities that encourage achievement of sales goals.

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7 Tactics for Ramping Up Sales Hires

Prepare your sales hires for optimum performance with these seven tips.

The faster you can ramp up new sales hires, the faster they can be out there closing deals. However, it’s not just about getting bodies on the phone to sell your product or service. Even the most talented sales hires need exposure to your target buyers, the buying cycle, product features, competitive landscape and how to overcome objections. You want to ensure that ramping up your hiring process gives sales reps everything they need to succeed.

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The Problem With Saying ‘Customer Experience Is Everyone’s Job’

Have you ever noticed if you don’t make something official and you assume someone will take care of it, it never gets done? That’s my view on customer experience. When we say “customer experience is everyone’s job,” and it’s technically not, the customer experience will get lost.

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The End-of-Quarter Sales Rush Costs Companies Money

Ask any organization what’s happening in the sales department on the last few days of the month and the entire last week of any fiscal quarter. You’ll probably get an uncomfortable laugh and a shake of the head. Sales teams are closing deals, at all costs.

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Six Keys to Building New Markets by Unleashing Disruptive Innovation

Managers know they need growth to survive—but innovation isn’t easy. In this Harvard Management Update article, HBS professor Clayton Christensen and co-authors detail the six keys to creating new-growth businesses.

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