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

The VITO Letter

Posted by <ADMINNICENAME> On February - 1 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

The idea of the VITO letter comes from a mid-nineties book by Tony Parinello called Selling to VITO. VITO stands for Very Important Top Officer. Basically, the VITO letter is supposed to get you in front of that hard to reach executive. Whether or not you believe in the effectiveness of Parinello’s version of the executive letter, there is no doubt that it makes sense to use a number of different mediums to reach decision makers. One of those is the standard letter. A well crafted message... more

Sales Management

A Good Definition of Hard Work!

Posted by <ADMINNICENAME> On January - 6 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

I read a review in the Globe and Mail on a book from an author named Seth Godin called Small is the New Big. I wanted to share a quote with you from the book: Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things you would rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier and after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day. What... more

Prospecting

360 Degree Feedback

Posted by <ADMINNICENAME> On January - 3 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

360 degree feedback survey’s are a great way for managers to solicit feedback from their boss, direct reports and colleagues. The purpose of a 360 degree feedback survey is to help managers learn more about their perceived strengths and weakenesses and ultimately to identify opportunities to be more effective. For The Business, 360 degree feedback surveys offer a glimpse into the mindset of the field salesforce, and how they percieve their managers overall effectiveness. The process can be... more

Sales Management

Sales Interview Questions

Posted by <ADMINNICENAME> On December - 12 - 2008ADD COMMENTS

I’m in the process of recruiting for two open territories. Below are a few of the questions that I’ll ask in an interview, in no particular order. The bullets are potential follow up questions. What does a great day selling look like? How many face to face calls, telephone calls happen in a great day? How do you manage your day? How do you prioritize? How do you handle distractions? How do you balance strategic and tactical activities Tell me about your strengths? Identify some weaknesses... more

Sales Management

About Me

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