Sales Training – A rant on priorities and aligning to necessity

Sorry to go on another rant…not really. I am sitting here listening to these house and senate Republicans and I am wondering who is really buying this steaming pile of “please”. This gang wants us to believe that they have a solution when really they are just looking at getting themselves in the good graces of their constituents by fighting the President. Now that they have failed at that, they turned to attacking the “Old House Dem’s” who allegedly authored this bill. These guys need to be taken to the back alley and put out of their misery.

See, Charlie Crist, the Governor of Florida has it right. See Crist is a Republican, and he is still backing the stimulus package, and it is apparent why. See it is apparent to EVERYONE WHO IS HURTING OR CARES ABOUT PEOPLE THAT ARE HURTING, that if we do not get some relief going, we are going to slip into a depression. Then we are all going to have to give up a lot. Forget your blackberry, forget satellite TV, most of us will be scraping for food and shelter. You know what, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Someone is advising these Republicans in the house and senate to think politically not practically. This is folly and a lack of priorities. They are convinced that being on the President’s team puts them at risk. They are wrong. Win or lose on this package, it is clear that Obama is going to be the winner here. If he succeeds, then everyone who opposed him should just retire. If he fails, those that fought him will be blamed. He is telfon don, slickwilly, and Rico Suave all wrapped into one. The people advising these politicians are fool-hearty and wrong.

Now, you may be asking, “Karl, what the f–, does this have to do with sales, you psychopathic leftie!” First of all, this is not about your politics, this is about doing what is right. That is what this has to do with sales, because good sales people always do what is right. Their top priority is serving those they want to call customers. The company may pay the bills, the sales may fuel the paycheck, but the customer is the only catalyst that can put you into a successful role.

Some things to think about:

Even in hard times a bad sale is one to walk away from. What is a bad sale?

1. Delivering product to someone who will not benefit from it.
2. Glossing over your weaknesses when you know they will afftect the customer.
3. Putting in an offering that is not the best option for a potential client.

Moving fast for the sake of doing more will not necessarily translate to more sales

1. This is for you sales leaders out there. Do not increase the metrics, increase the research. Find out who is worth calling and stop spinning your wheels.
2. Targeting is the key and it requires pateince. If you are drowning, it is time to call for a life preserver. That preserver is intelligence or a better lead cultivation plan.

The point my fellow sales people is a simple one. Do not align with what you think will score you points, just do what is right. If you think this way, you will always perservere, even in the darkest of times. Let’s see how many repubs lose their seats in 2010 for playing the game instead of doing what is right.

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Not familiar with the Union?

The Sales bloggers Union (www. salesbloggers.com), is nine of the world’s leading sales bloggers.

The Union started in June of 2008 in an effort to share ideas and improve the sales trainings and offerings of the group. Through blogging and commenting they share ideas with the sales community and work towards improving the reputation sales people have with potential buyers. The new website offers a central repository for their thoughts and an accessible place to help sales people hone their skills.

Members of the Sales Bloggers Union are:

Brad Trnavsky, Founder of Sales Management 2.0
Colin Wilson, Managing Director of First Border
Ian Brodie, Founder of Lighthouse Business Consulting
Karl Goldfield, The Startup Sales Mentor
Nesh Thompson,Sales System Developer at Symvolli
Skip Anderson, Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training
Tibor Shanto Principal at Renbor Sales Solutions, Inc.
Tim Rohrer, The Sales and Marketing Loudmouth
Will Fultz, Top Sales Blog “

Ask the coach about CRM: Some great tools for the Sales Evangelist

A reader and great friend to the entrepreneur,

Cheryl Liquori, asked me the following:

“Do you have any knowledge of, or experience, working with ZOHO.com for CRM?  I’m not interested in the desktop applications, but only in the CRM.  I\’ve read reviews, but they seem to focus on large enterprise applications.  For the sole propriator on a shoe string, wrestling with excel and overwhelmed by user-unfriendly ACT, I was wondering about zoho as an alternative.  Your expert thoughts?”

Now you all know I support Landslide as the ultimate Workstyle system. If you need something that focuses o the sales process, YOU MUST ADD LANDSLIDE TO YOUR TOOLKIT!

What you do not know is that I am designing a fully automated CRM system for a client that is based on the combo dialer-crm Insidesales.com. These guys have designed a complete system that allows you to do anything via javascript. I am literally making it so reps can make 200-300 quality calls a day with almost no admin work. EVERYTHING IS AUTOMATED BY A BUTTON CLICK!

If you are CRM hunting, let me know, as I get a referral fee for either of the above.

Now back to the question. What a coincidence! I found Zoho and have loaded one of my clients into it. Mind you, I havenever talked to the company, but intend to!

As their sole sales person for my startup client I have started using it for everything. Frankly, it is awesome! I believe it is based on SugarCRM, but SalesForce look out. At a price of $12/mo after 3 FREE USERS, this is going to get the small businesses, entrepreneurs, individual consultants… onboard and adopting.

So far:

1.  Fast, I mean super fast

2. Complete sales and marketing system with all of the trimmings

3. The reporting is easy to use

4. Forecast tool is great

5. Opportunities are called potentials, how adorable!

6. Uploads work really well.

7. Mimics the standard SalesForce, SugarCRM, Netsuite methodology of lead to accounts.

8. Really flexible design

9. Did I mention that the first 3 users are free?

10. Upgradeable to an enterprise system with a load of featers for $25 a user. YES I SAID $25 A USER!

I would strongly recommend any small budget player with little demands on automation to play with this system prior to looking at anything else.

Ask the coach: Interesting question – How do you build a successful sales training company?

This was an interesting question, and one I am not 100% qualified to answer as I am not 100% running a sales training company. What I can share is my intentions of building a dominant global sales training company, as frankly how I intend to do it.

1. Trademark a unique sales methodology that actually improves the way people sell

2. Design the content and media for effectively teaching people how to adopt your methodology

3. Build a reputation as an effective coach

(more…)

Sales Training: A group of sales bloggers has united

Time to let the cat out of the bag. For the greater good of sales people everywhere, a group of 10 of people focused on sales training and development have united forces to compile and share the best sales content available on the web. We are still finalizing our name and our new blog site, and here is the jist.

Every quarter we will offer an E-book with an article from each of us focusing on a specific theme. Since each of us has a different niche in sales training and education, and all live in different parts of the world, he plan to deliver dynamic perspectives on subjects, instead of giving you a linear opinion on a topic. The first E-book will be out at the end of the summer, and it will be a free download for all list or RSS subscribers. I will share the topic in the same post that I announce the new site. My gut says, in a week or two there will be news.

Addi tonally, every two weeks we will have a blogging topic. Each of us will write a post on that topic during that period again offering you many sides to the same coin. Our aim is to elevate the possibilities and engage in dialog with our readers that helps them grow as sales people.

Here is the bio of each member on Brad’s Sales Management blog:

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/TiborShanto

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/CraigElias

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/TimRohrer

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/JimKlein

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/SkipAnderson

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/NeshThompson

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/KarlGoldfield

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/IanBrodie

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/ColinWilson

http://www.salesmanagement20.com/profile/bmtrnavsky

As leaders in sales training, sales plan designers, pipeline experts, sales management consultants, business consultants, (man the list goes on) we intend to deliver something different than the other group blogging sites. If you have any ideas for topics or concepts you want us to explore, speak now or forever…ah you can share with us whenever you like. Sales training in the form of articles and blog posts is my favorite part of this Web 2.0 world.