Archive for 2005
Motivating the Sales Team
How do managers motivate salespeople to perform? Much research has revealed a number of tools that managers can deploy to motivate their sales team. Some of the tools can be considered as structural in nature, affecting the manner in which the job is done; the company interacts with its salespeople; the salesperson perceives their job;…
Read MoreHow “Intervention” Can Improve Sales Management for Smaller Firms
When it comes to sales management, there is a forgotten market segment crying out for professional help. This forgotten market segment are companies and organizations with sales/revenues in the $1 million to $25 million range. This includes manufacturing companies, distribution organizations and service firms. All of these companies depend on sales or some form of…
Read MoreWhat’s In a Name?
Microsoft might very well have shot itself in the foot with the branding of its new Windows operating system. The code name for this product was “longhorn,.” But it recently announced its official brand name of the product is “Windows Vista.” In addition to being highly unimaginable, the new name might very well nourish the…
Read MoreBranding in Business Markets
Repeatedly, executive teams in business markets are frustrated by the issue of branding. While a marketing executive pushes for a greater branding budget or a sales executive complains that no one knows about the value proposition, the rest of the executive team sees little value in branding. To solve this impasse, executives turn to historical…
Read MoreMarketing Playbook Review
If there is one book that every marketing department should have it’s John M.. Fox’ new “MARKETING PLAYBOOKTM The Manual for Growing Organizations.” This marketing manual features “102 of the best marketing plays to get your sales team across the goal line.” The author, John Fox, is president of Venture Marketing, a marketing firm for…
Read MoreWhy Fly in the Days of Webinars?
In the age where technology and communications has brought us instantaneous and continuous connectivity, why do we still make customer visits? Isn’t the purpose of webinars, live-camera aided telecommunications, VoIP, email, and cell phones to free us from having to be there all the time? And yet, we do still have to be there, in…
Read MoreSo You Want to be a “Rainmaker”
If you look at who is really successful today in business, it is NOT the most brilliant or capable professional, the smartest lawyer or cleverest accountant. That key person, who makes far more income than the top practicing professional, is the person who possesses that unique ability to bring in business – the “rainmaker.” While…
Read MoreConverting Productivity to Profitability
Our economy’s last two major growth eras – the Clinton prosperity of the 1990s and the current expansion – followed the same pattern. Rather than investing in human resources, business people invested in technology that yielded unprecedented growth in productivity. So, while the economy was surging ahead, employment growth lagged. Finally, when the envelope of…
Read MoreDollarizing Effectiveness in Sales & Marketing
Every investment has its own risk and reward profile. While this cautionary statement usually refers to investments between different businesses and asset allocations, it also holds for executives making budgetary decisions within their own business. Investments in production capability verses sales and marketing productivity have very different risk profiles. The high uncertainty and variability of…
Read MoreOptimal Sales & Marketing Expenditures
Is there an optimal level of expenditures in sales and marketing? A simple mathematical model of a business reveals that there is and what effects where it is. Assumptions In making any mathematical model, assumptions must be made regarding the business. Some assumptions are made to improve the simplicity of the model and others are…
Read More