The Sales Head Office; Selling and Sales Management

A Sales Blog

Bill Porter - Door To Door

Bill Porter is likely the most intriguing sales person you’ve never heard of.
Bill Porter started with the Watkins Company in 1955 selling their products door to door. For those of you that haven’t heard of Watkins, they have been selling natural home and health care products since the late 1800’s. Their roots are as [...]

Prospecting and Follow Up

My current team is generating excellent prospecting activity. They are willing to hit the street every day and meet with business owners to uncover opportunities.

The biggest challenge my team is having is managing follow up; more accurately ensuring that follow up is taking place in a timely fashion

2 Left 2 Right Prospecting

2 Right 2 Left Prospecting
If you are doing business in an area of town, an office building or an industrial complex, you should always take 10 minutes and visit each 2 companies to the left and right of the company you are there to see.
If you keep some information packages in your car, you [...]

Sales Resume Tips

I am in the process of hiring 4 more sales people for a new market we are entering in Western Canada. Our organization is in growth mode (good) and we do not have the resources to have HR pre-screen candidates (bad). This puts me in a position where I am responsible for the full hiring process - from reviewing incoming applications right through to the eventual offer. I currently manage 12 sales people so I have to make sure that the time I dedicate to recruiting is efficient. Each resume I look at gets a 60 second run through. If it catches my attention I’ll spend a few minutes with it and if the candidate looks promising I’ll fire off an email to book a telephone interview. Below are some sales resume tips for sales people that are looking to make a career change: Make it personal. Your cover letter should show that you have put at least a little effort into applying for this position. Spend some time with the job description and write a brief cover letter that is specific... more

Sales Resume Tips

Posted by Matt On April - 28 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

I am in the process of hiring 4 more sales people for a new market we are entering in Western Canada. Our organization is in growth mode (good) and we do not have the resources to have HR pre-screen candidates (bad). This puts me in a position where I am responsible for the full hiring process - from reviewing incoming applications right through to the eventual offer. I currently manage 12 sales people so I have to make sure that the time I dedicate to recruiting is efficient. Each resume I look... more

Sales Interviewing

Positioning and Messaging

Posted by Matt On April - 7 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

When I first started with FedEx Kinko’s in 2001 we were a young sales organization. I was one of the first Account Managers they hired in Canada. We had a new to the industry Director of Sales and, with a few exceptions, all of the sales people we hired came from outside the print industry. As a group, our print industry experience was limited. Our task was to penetrate corporate accounts and bring commercial print business to our local Kinko’s locations. The team did a great job selling... more

Sales Management

Bill Porter - Door To Door

Posted by Matt On April - 3 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

Bill Porter is likely the most intriguing sales person you’ve never heard of. Bill Porter started with the Watkins Company in 1955 selling their products door to door. For those of you that haven’t heard of Watkins, they have been selling natural home and health care products since the late 1800’s. Their roots are as a direct sales organization with reps selling and distributing product door to door. Bill Porter has cerebral palsy and the story of Bill Porter is one of perseverance.... more

Prospecting

Sales Team Chemistry

Posted by Matt On March - 25 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

I’m watching my Habs play right now, and although they’re winning tonight, the team has terrible chemistry. They play for themselves and don’t back each other up. Watching the Habs play got me thinking about team chemistry and the impact it has on a sales group. A team with great chemistry is a lot of fun to manage. The reps support, motivate and coach each other. Discussions on your team calls are dynamic and there are emails going out daily from the team with success stories and... more

Sales Management

About Me

Don\'t worry, I shave the beard for meetings!