Where Sales Teams Turn for Better Sales Tactics
Welcome to "Chalk Talk," Dave's blog geared towards helping your sales team close more sales with better prospects. Want Chalk Talk in your inbox? Sign up below!
8 Clues to Help Manage Your Time
It’s 8/8 so let’s review 8 ways to improve your time management. It doesn’t matter what company you work for — self-employed, small company or large corporate environment. If you don’t have the soft skills that make you able to handle a very large work load you will be replaced by someone who does. […]
5 Ways to Ask the Budget Question in Sales
If you have been in sales for longer than a week you have been told, ”You have to uncover their budget.” Your director or manager has asked, “How much money are they willing to spend?” “What’s the budget?” “What’s their target price?” “How much money do they have?” Been there? Of course, you have. The […]
It’s almost ALL MENTAL!
Yogi Berra is known for wacky sayings & quotes that make you say, huh? He had a lot of them. His best? Hands down has to be, Baseball is 90% mental, & the other half is physical. What’s so great about that quote? It applies to EVERYTHING! It applies to every sport from baseball to […]
3 Ways to Stop Trying to Sell Rolaids to a Person without Heartburn
Ok, so the title might sound silly. It certainly won’t make sense until you’ve read the entire blog – so, looks like we’ve got you hooked. Let’s set the stage: Tommy the Salesperson has a giant bowl filled with every flavor of Rolaids ever invented. He’s in a large room filled with 200 people (ages […]
3 Ideas to Help you Stop Asking for Referrals & Start Asking for Introductions
Referral. The very word gives people an upset stomach. The thought of putting myself out there & the chance that something could go wrong… “Nope… I can’t think of anyone.” You’ve all been there. On both sides: As the consumer: A salesperson asks you for a referral, “Do you know anyone that I should talk […]
Seating Chart? Are you kidding me? I’m in sales!
If you think it doesn’t matter where you sit on sales appointments, you’re wrong. If you think your customer is always “in charge” & will tell you where to sit, you’re also wrong. Where you sit matters… & you do have a say. Please note: This is written & intended for selling in North America. […]
5 Ways to Stop Saying, “Just Following up…”
As sales leaders & salespeople, how do you feel on the 4th or 5th time that you call a prospect to let her know that you are “just following up”? Be serious. Raise your hand if you feel like a stalker. Keep your hand up if you feel a little bit more of your […]
Sales Manager vs. Sales Leader
Everywhere you turn there is an article on leadership. Not a day goes by that you can’t find a blog or white paper on effective management strategies. A cluttered space to say the least. At the risk of adding to this already-cluttered-space here’s a hard look at the difference between people that just have the job […]
Not Another Negotiation!
Negotiation. One of the worst occupational hazards of the sales profession. It’s not fun. Nobody ever looks forward to it. We want it to end up a win-win for both sides (but does it ever really turn out that way?). It’s inevitable. Hear me out. If a sale is qualified properly (all items in the qualifying […]
Participate in Sales Role Plays… I’d Rather Poke My Own Eyes Out!
We facilitated a role play session with a client last week. Were the participants dying to do it? Nope. Was it awkward? Yep. Were they nervous? Oh, hell yes! Did it help them? Absolutely. It’s not uncommon for salespeople to really dread a role play session. After all, as Jerry Seinfeld says in his stand-up […]