Without question, Twitter is everywhere.  One would be hard pressed to visit the website of a company and not find their Twitter icon prominently displayed.  Today, businesses tweet, follow, track, list, recommend and work feverishly to build their followers.  I must admit – Twitter is cool, fun and a decent distraction from the daily grind.  But, is it a legitimate lead source that can justify the time invested for the output received?  Can it replace an existing source of inbound leads or is it just a complement to existing efforts? Read the rest of this entry »

As sales people we all love to hear ‘Yes.’  We call, we pitch, we charm and we educate; we overcome the objections and we sell.  Great sales people have it in their DNA; they love the ‘Yes’ and hate the ‘No.’  I contend that getting beyond the hatred of the ‘No’ can not only benefit us as sales people, we can actually use it as a hedge against failure. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, I want to get right out in front of this one; there is nothing worse than having a sales person call me as a consumer or as a business owner and read from what the company has determined to be the holy grail of scripts.  Well, perhaps there is one worse thing… having a sales person call without a clue of how to convey his or her point, the value of the call, or ability to discern any of my pain points as it relates to his or her product.   Give me the guy with the script.  At the very least I will be able to follow his side of the call. Read the rest of this entry »

There is lots of buzz these days around Inside Sales Enablement, and there should be.  The space is as hot as it has ever been. Recent studies show that more and more companies are relying on their inside sales team to create added demand, to nurture prospects, and to drive additional revenue. In many cases, organizations rely solely on an inside sales team. In part, recent economic changes have placed budget strains on sales and marketing departments and there has been even greater pressure for management to get more for less. Read the rest of this entry »