Colleen’s Blog

You can discuss sales strategies, ideas, tips and methods to no end. You can set sales targets for your team to hit, implement a promising new strategy and motivate your sales reps with morning huddles. But, when the day starts, it's up to your team to do the work and create the results. Salespeople don't always struggle due to weak strategy, at times poor productivity habits will seriously hinder their progress as well. Let’s cut to the chase. The best way for your team to achieve true productivity in their work day is to ask them to cut off all inbound access. Now, before your jaw drops too low, let me clarify that you should only ask that they do so temporarily, ideally an hour or two each day. Consider asking them to turn their phone to silent or completely turning it off. They will also benefit from logging out of their email inbox while they work through important tasks. When your team is focusing on outbound business development prospecting, they should not have to deal with distracting, time consuming tasks which take the focus out of their work day. It's great to be able to multitask, but your team will always be able to accomplish more by laser focusing on the task at hand. Want a perfect example of how this simple tweak in productivity can benefit your team?

Are you actively seeking referrals from your current client base? According to recent studies, 78% of happy clients want to give out referrals. Yet only 8% of salespeople actually ask for them. Can you see the disconnect? It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that many salespeople are missing out on key opportunities to increase their sales and grow their businesses. I understand the intimidation factor, but the truth is in order to achieve and maintain any kind of success in sales, you have to push through the intimidation and ask for referrals anyway. They are such a powerful tool to grow your customer base, and not asking for them often enough is doing a huge disservice to yourself and your business. Here's the truth, you will always get a rejection if you're asking for referrals the wrong way. Just like anything else, being successful with gathering referrals requires strategy. <-- Click To Tweet Consider this quick strategy to get the ball rolling:

Is global expansion the next item on your business to-do list? Recently, I’ve been receiving many questions surrounding the idea of global expansion. It seems to be a topic of interest for my Fortune 500 clients as well as my coaching clients with only one employee. The idea of expanding globally spikes the interest of businesses of all sizes. Now, let’s address the obvious. The idea of “global expansion” has certain levels of allure surrounding it. I get it - it sounds sexy and exciting. But, I can never recommend a serious global expansion based purely on how attractive the idea may sound at first. The truth is, expanding globally can be expensive and takes a lot of hard work. It’s important to ask yourself this key question:

Are you truly catering to your customers? It’s one thing to provide a great product or service, but unfortunately, that’s where the experience stops for many people. Sales is all about truly understanding your clients’ needs and issues. Their experience with you should not end immediately after their signature is on paper. The way I see it, all customers want the same 13 things from you. That’s right. Regardless of the industry you’re in, or the product you sell, customers all essentially buy and remain loyal for the same core reasons. <-- Click To Tweet Stay true to all of them and you will develop a loyal and profitable customer base who will refer you to everyone they know!

Let’s face it - a salesperson constantly running out of time will likely become a salesperson that will soon run out of sales. It’s easy in this world of distraction to lose track of our time and lose focus on the daily tasks that bring us sales success. When you’re trying to manage multiple tasks at once, you may find it difficult to manage the hours in your day. So, to ensure that you don’t become a victim of lost time, I’ve compiled a few tips to help keep you on track, so you can stay ahead of the clock!