Is your sales team stuck in a quote-based mentality?

“Why don't you send me a quote and we'll look it over?” This is a common conversation in the business world. A salesperson has a brief chat with a prospect, sends a quote and hopes to win the business. The prospect responds “yes” or “no” and that’s it. Often the answer is "no" because the prospect is concerned with price alone. This is what happens when salespeople send quotes without really knowing the likelihood of getting that business. When we ask [...]

Calculate the Total Lifetime Value of a Potential Customer

We all know that some customers are great customers, while some aren’t. One way to differentiate the two is through lifetime value. Lifetime value is the potential revenue you could earn from a current customer or prospect. We’ve developed a calculator to estimate lifetime value and we walk you through how to use it below. The first thing to look at when calculating lifetime value is the total amount a prospect spends with your business. Then, consider how many suppliers that prospect [...]

5 Tips for Writing a Sales Management Job Description

It is a job-seekers' employment market and employers are having a difficult time filling key positions – especially in sales and sales management. But we’ve found the low unemployment rate isn’t the only reason for this. The real issue is poorly written job descriptions. Even when unemployment is low, people are still looking for sales position opportunities. Maybe they don’t like their current job, maybe they want to try something new, or maybe they aren’t even looking and your job just magically [...]

4 things to avoid when selling yourself

You may know your company’s product lines backwards and forwards, but the simple truth about sales is your customers are buying from you. If they don’t like you, there’s a good chance they won’t buy from you. Many forget that during every sales meeting, one of the products you are selling is: you. During the small-talk portion of every sales meeting, there’s a chance to sell yourself by answering the simple questions almost everyone asks. We’ve put together a few examples [...]

5 things you should never say during a sales meeting

Saying the wrong thing during a sales meeting can bring your pitch to a screeching halt. What's the wrong thing? Here are five things you should never say during a sales meeting. "I don't know" – In sales there is never a reason to say "I don't know." It makes your potential clients think, "If you don't know this now, will you know the answer to a really important question once we've hired you?" Not to say you should lie (see tip [...]

How to make your next online sales presentation a success

You've scripted the perfect PowerPoint, assembled some magnificent imagery for your slides, and you've out the invites to your online presentation. The only thing you need to do now is show up and press start, right? WRONG! Online sales presentations are only effective if you've done your best to eliminate all potential issues you could encounter in the virtual conference room. We've all been looped into really bad online presentations, and they are more frustrating than informative. If you want to keep [...]

10 Reasons Why Salespeople Fail

If making a lot of money in sales was easy, then everyone would be doing it. These ten things separate the winners from the losers in sales.

Should you hire a full-time Marketing Manager?

Marketing your business has never been more complicated. Traditional avenues – television, radio, trade shows and print - are still in play, but so are new ones like the web, streaming video, social media and more.   You hear terms like search engine optimization, social media strategy, content management systems, video pre-roll, site analytics, paid search & display advertising, and email marketing platforms, and your head starts to spin. You know you need someone to manage your marketing efforts, and your first [...]

The first rule of sales presentations: Be Prepared!

It’s the day of the big sales presentation. You and your team put in countless hours making sure the PowerPoint is flawless, your brand is accurately depicted and your final sales pitch will be pontificated perfectly. Then you show up 10 minutes late (you’ve gotten lost and couldn’t find parking), you say hello to Steve (Scott) with a confident handshake before finding out your laptop can’t connect to the wireless network and you were supposed to bring a projector for your sales [...]

How to Improve Sales Productivity

Sales productivity is the #1 challenge for B2B organizations and it continues to decline. Consider these 7 helpful hints for increasing sales productivity.

Activity is the illusion of accomplishment

Are you suffering from org chart disintegration? Since the recession of 2008, many companies have been operating lean — keeping the “do more with less” philosophy alive. While this seems like an effective way to maximize productivity while minimizing expenses, it has a harmful side effect. At the VX Group, we believe many companies – especially mature ones — are now seeing org chart disintegration – as people in traditional leadership roles are now devoting more time to short-term tasks [...]

How to Get Millennials Onboarded and Selling Quickly

Millennials have a reputation for not staying in jobs long. If that’s the case, sales managers need to quickly onboard them and get them selling. Doing so not only ensures they are productive for you in a short amount of time, but it could also make them want to stay with you longer.

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