Tag Archives for " Sales "

Until It’s Perfect, Practice Isn’t Effective

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

Players (employees) have to perfect individual skills before they can excel within the “team” framework. Unfortunately, few companies provide that type of practice environment. In sales, for example, a salesperson needs to learn how to interview, ask questions, get referrals, respond to objections, present dozens of different solutions, tell compelling stories, present pricing, and so much more. But how many salespeople actually practice these things before they go LIVE in front of a customer??

Continue reading

Social Cold Calling: The New Scourge of Selling

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

People misuse social media and create a bad impression of the tool. Eventually, its users (like the individual above) will take on the same negative perceptions common to a used-car salesman. But, used effectively, the real value of social is two things: 1) the ability to engage with a specific target audience, and 2) the ability to create credibility with that audience distributing world-class content.

Continue reading

Concerning the (Alleged) Death of the B2B Salesperson

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

The basic premise of the idea that 1 million salespeople stand to lose their jobs because social is replacing them is this: If people know more, they can make decisions without help from some pesky, aggressive, obnoxious salesperson (Thank God!). But, while no one that I know of denies the power and usefulness of social media in the B2B landscape, to assert that social (and the Internet) will precipitate the loss of 1 million jobs in the next five years is nonsensical.

Continue reading

Are You Practicing The ULTIMATE Performance Killer?

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

When I started in sales, my first boss made it very clear: I would be able to demonstrate to him that I could adequately present our products before I went into the field to represent the company. Oh, and the clock is ticking. You’ve got a certain amount of time to do so. If you can’t, we just can’t use you.

Continue reading