The New Role of Inside Sales
Simple order taking doesn’t cut it anymore By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales The role of inside sales is changing to be more demanding. Your customer’s expectations from your customer service department is greater than ever. It’s no longer adequate to simply “be there” when a customer is ready to order. These days, customers expect you […]
Use Pete the Parrot to Help You in Sales Calls
Is using an imaginary exotic bird to help you close more sales as ridiculous as it sounds? Maybe. Maybe not. Read on to find out. The number one problem area for sales teams in terms of technical selling skills is doing the “feature push.” A feature push is the nasty and deep rooted habit of simply […]
4 Ways to Keep Your Team Engaged
This great article from Fast Company discusses how sales training delivered by the right means, is critical in getting your sales team performing exceptionally. Although Fast Company is one of my favourite reads, it doesn’t often have articles focused around business sales so when I see one, I usually jump on it. This one hits on […]
3 Steps to Handling Discount Requests
Dealing with a discount request while maintaining profit margins and closing the sales requires delicate balance. By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales Despite your best attempts to sell value and remain firm on your price, some clients will press ahead with their request for a discount. After a solid attempt from you to reassure them that […]
The Challenger Sale is Highly Overrated!
Does the bestselling book on sales provide new insights? Geoffrey James is one of the best sales expert bloggers and is the sales go-to guy for Inc. magazine. I’m pushing this along because he and I are in sync on the bestselling book, “The Challenger Sale” in that it’s mostly a retread of proven selling […]
Six Tips for Coaching Salespeople to be Productive Again
Everyone who has been selling for a while knows sales can be a roller coaster. The peaks and valleys of sales are a fact of life. One of the most challenging tasks is coaching a veteran salesperson that has reached a plateau and is struggling. Or worse, has reached a performance level where they are […]