Colleen’s Blog

Do you turn your computer on each morning only to find a mountain of unread emails that need your attention? Email overload is an epidemic in the workplace. Most salespeople that we poll tell us that they spend up to 40% of their day just managing email correspondence between clients and internal partners. If this sounds about right for you as well, let me put things into perspective. If you continue this trend throughout 2016 and work 5 days a week, you will spend 104 days next year in your email inbox. If you manage a sales team of 10 people, that is almost 3 years of collective time in 2016 between your sales team that will be spent in an email inbox and not actually selling. If you manage a sales team of 100 people, well...you can do the math. It's time to re-align your mindset. Email does not close business for you. You close sales based on your personal relationships. Stop working so hard behind your computer and go meet customers in person, or pick up the phone and call them. In order to increase productivity (and sales) you must learn to manage your email inbox. <-- Click To Tweet Here are 5 tips for staying on top of your emails:

It's that time of year again. With a few weeks left of 2015, I hope you've given 2016 careful thought and examination. It's time to figure out what's worked, what hasn't and create goals to achieve greater results in the new year. When a plane takes off, the pilot knows all sorts of specifications so the destination can be reached. The exact coordinates of the destination, the amount of time it will take to get there, and other details are confirmed before takeoff to ensure the safe and timely arrival of the flight. A similar process is required for successful goal setting. You must set goals that are detailed, time specific and achievable in your mind in order to create success. ← Click To Tweet The following are example goals that are more likely to generate positive results: - “Increase written and oral communication skills by attending 5 seminars or workshops by December 31st, 2015.” - “Double next month’s sales results by prospecting for an extra hour each day.” - “Make 20 new professional connections before December 31st, 2015 by attending 10 networking events or gatherings by the end of the year.” Notice how each goal has a well-defined result, a time frame and a general “plan of action” to achieve it. Not only can these goals be easily measured and executed, but they are reasonably realistic while still maintaining a respectable “reward” for putting in the work. Let’s compare these with the types of goals that most sales leader set:

How can you ensure that you’re hiring the right people to join your sales team? Many sales leaders have been asking me how to hire new sales reps and build a profitable team, especially as we inch closer to 2016. I often suggest taking a step back. There are a few things you need to do before you proceed with interviews in order to ensure that you hire the right person and create the best team possible.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to sell to everyone that comes into your pipeline. I know, it’s intuitive as a salesperson to sell as much as possible, but effective salespeople know how to pick and choose which prospects to sell to. They know the good from the bad. The reality is, not every prospect is an ideal candidate for your product or service. The sooner you learn this important lesson, the sooner you can focus on the prospects that are ideal candidates for you to work with. By selling to anyone and everyone, you are setting yourself up for huge customer service problems in the future. ← Click To Tweet