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Kendra Lee Articles

Written by: Kendra Lee

Achieve Your Unachievable 2012 Sales Goals - Click To Read Article
We’re facing new sales goals for 2012, and I’ll bet yours are higher than last year.

Turn the Year-end Slowdown into Surprising Sales - Click To Read Article
At year-end people are in “holiday mode” and many businesses are in a holding pattern, waiting for budgets to be released in the New Year, but that doesn’t mean you have to write-off the last two months of the year.

To Become a Better Salesperson, Find a Mentor - Click To Read Article
Becoming an award-winning salesperson isn't something you just do, but rather a journey of constant self-improvement. There is another critical component that most top salespeople leverage which is a sales mentor to help guide them along the way.

The 20 Worst Prospecting Voicemail Mistakes Salespeople Make - Click To Read Article
Among salespeople who make sales prospecting calls, there’s a hot debate about whether or not you should leave a voicemail message. For a voicemail to have any impact, however, you have to avoid the common blunders.

Why You Don't Want Sales Prospects to Save Your Emails - Click To Read Article
It is critical that you write sales prospecting and lead-generation emails that compel your sales prospects take action right away. There are four rules to make that happen.

How to Find the Right Sales Mentor - Click To Read Article
Here are five tips to help you find your right sales mentor.

How to Put More Prospects in a Buying Mood - Click To Read Article
A reader shared with me recently that her email prospecting campaign was attracting attention and responses, but most of her prospects weren’t interested in buying right now. So it’s her job to create immediate interest.

Can you get to ROI faster by slowing down your sales cycle? - Click To Read Article
Close more profitable deals by slowing down your sales cycle. When you try to close the sale too quickly, before earning the prospect’s trust, it generally becomes a price game – and that’s a hard one to win consistently.

Are You Burying Prospects – and Future Sales – Under a "Solutions Dump?" - Click To Read Article
Selling solutions is far better than selling products and services; but even more important is that you learn to sell solutions to the problems your potential customers actually have… not the ones you imagine they have.

12 Tips to Close End of Year Sales Fast - Click To Read Article
It’s November and the fourth quarter of business for many companies, bringing with it crunch time for achieving your sales goals. You may find yourself pushing to attain your revenue goal but uncertain what you can do to speed customer decision making.

Why Holidays Make a Great Occasion to Email Your Prospects - Click To Read Article
Smart sellers can use holidays as an occasion to reach out to their prospects via email… especially contacts that have been hard to reach in the past. They give you an easy reason to reach out in a personalized, non-sales approach to reach those elusive prospects on your list.

Cold Calling Perfection: Are You Hearing This? - Click To Read Article
Many of your best and worst phone habits are the ones you probably aren’t even aware of until you hear them. They’re the same habits that may be keeping you from closing more first appointments. So, how do you assess your cold call effectiveness? Record them.

What's Your Value to Prospects? - Click To Read Article
As sellers, we know that one of the keys to opening doors with new prospects lies in positioning our solutions as something different from the competition. In fact, sales and marketing departments spend a significant amount of time trying to determine exactly what their company's unique selling proposition is, and the best way to explain it to potential clients. But is it possible there's more to the equation?

How to Prospect With a Catalog of Products - Click To Read Article
Last week an interesting question was posed to me: how does a seller go about cold calling, prospecting, and lead generation when they have a wide range of products to sell? How do you know what to tell prospects about when you have hundreds or more items available? This wasn't an abstract inquiry. The newsletter subscriber in question had recently moved from selling high tech to promotional items. Before, she'd had only a few solutions to work with; now, there were literally thousands. Her situation isn't as unusual as you might think.

Cold Calling Perfection: Are You Hearing This? - Click To Read Article
In email prospecting strategies, one of the first things I advise is that you send yourself a draft before hitting the final send. That way, you get a sense of what it's like for your prospects to receive your emails. You can quickly see where you need to make adjustments to grab your prospect’s attention and get a reply. This same checkup strategy works well for your cold calls, too.

How writing sales prospecting emails and negotiation emails is different - Click To Read Article
Have you noticed that suddenly you’re negotiating with your customers and prospects through email? They don’t have time for face-to-face or phone meetings. Instead, they’d just like “a few quick questions” answered through email so they can make a decision. As this occurs, it’s critical that sales reps adjust their easy-going sales prospecting email approach to a more formal and professional business writing style to successfully negotiate in this new manner.

Are you writing sales negotiation emails like prospecting emails? - Click To Read Article
It’s critical that folks recognize when the switch from prospecting to negotiating is occurring, and subtly change their writing style.

Client Communication as Easy as A-B-C - Click To Read Article
To be a successful consultative seller, you need to grow and maintain a broad base of client contacts. Before you know it, you have hundreds, even thousands of people on your contact list. Obviously it’s impossible to maintain personal contact, yet personal contact is a key to building and strengthening your client relationships.

Channel Training Trouble? Where to Look for Help - Click To Read Article
If your company sells products and services through channel partners (as opposed to selling directly to customers), you likely face a major challenge: finding ways to enhance your channels' selling skills without appearing as if your company is trying to dictate how its channel partners run their businesses.

8 Steps to Reach Your Sales Goals - Click To Read Article
The end of one year and beginning of a new one is a great opportunity to examine your successes from the previous year, determine what you want to replicate, what you want to change and then set some goals for the new one. Because setting attainable sales goals can be a lot trickier, and more stressful, then people tend to think, I'd like to offer a step-by-step guide to help you set and reach your yearly target.

What Are Your Real Sales Goals for 2011? - Click To Read Article
What do your sales goals for the coming year look like? The most successful sellers usually have two numbers in mind: their quota, which is their piece of the company’s yearly revenue target, and then another higher number that represents what they need to sell to achieve their own personal goals.

How to Fix Your Prospecting in a Single Day - Click To Read Article
Sales prospecting is a lot like exercise. We all know that we need to do it, we usually have a good idea of how to do it, and we can be pretty certain of what the long-term results will be... and yet, that doesn't make it any easier. The issue, of course, comes down to discipline. To enjoy that pipeline full of fresh, qualified sales leads later, we have to do some things that might be inconvenient or uncomfortable today.

What’s Holding Your Prospecting Back? - Click To Read Article
There aren’t many certainties in selling. What works well for one person can be a dead end for another, and what looks like a sure sale can easily deteriorate into a missed opportunity. One thing you can count on, however, is that a lack of strong, qualified leads will always be a stumbling block on the way to new business.

Break the Email Delete Barrier - Click To Read Article
In three seconds your prospects make a choice between reading and trashing your email. Clearly your objective is to get them not only to read it, but to respond so you can set an appointment and begin the sales process. That means you need to find a way to get past their delete barrier.

Are you keeping your customers up at night? - Click To Read Article
Effective consultative salespeople know how to keep their customers up at night. By that I mean they know “how to get in their customers’ heads” by asking questions that will force them to think about the issues that are important to their business. It’s up to you to become their business conscience.

How to Avoid Becoming a Digital Prospecting Lemming - Click To Read Article
My article “Prospecting Letters Still Open Doors” sparked quite a response from readers recently and I just have to share their ideas with you! They disclosed their best secrets for using letters to gain access to some of their toughest prospects.

Gathering Good Requirements - Click To Read Article
Successful training programs come from knowing exactly what the training must accomplish for the business, the department, and the individual. They don't just happen. Whether you are developing or contracting training, use these steps to improve your requirements-gathering process, spend less time doing it, and drive more effective training:

Give Your Prospecting Legs with Social Media - Click To Read Article
Social media is all the buzz in prospecting lately. You hear about it everywhere with Facebook Fan pages, tweeting, and LinkedIn profiles. You may even have an account on several different social networks. But have you given thought to how to use it to increase your prospecting results, or do you just see it as something fun to do when you have time?

The Prospecting Dilemma - Click To Read Article
When you approach a new prospect, what do you have to offer? Whether you’re sending an email or cold calling, you need to grab the attention of your contact and make them want to talk with you. But too often sellers spew on about their product or lead off with a trap question that screams sales person.

Get Proactive About Referrals - Click To Read Article
Once you’ve set up a Referral Rewards Program, the next step is to get proactive and make asking for referrals a part of your sales and account management processes. This way you aren’t waiting for clients to think of you to offer them up. With a good process in place, you create a steady stream of referral prospects while letting your customers know how important referrals are to you.

Keep Them Hungry: Innovative Bonus Plans for your Best Employees - Click To Read Article
Even amid talk of an "economic slowdown," the job market appears quite healthy heading into 2007. And the competition for seasoned sales and management experts remains high.

Create Email Subject Lines That Draw Prospects In - Click To Read Article
Email is now the preferred prospecting tool, far surpassing the phone to the relief of many sellers who hate cold calling. Yet it hasn’t necessarily made prospecting any easier. Response rates are low and many sellers are discouraged by how difficult it is to engage contacts.

Measuring Results: Key performance indicators can help set better goals for sales reps - Click To Read Article
Sales managers often rush to judgment if sales reps aren't meeting their quotas, and automatically assume that they either don't have the skills or the understanding to perform.

Attract Prospects with Easy Web 20 Techniques - Click To Read Article
The Internet is my best friend for attracting new prospects. In a flash my name and an article I’ve authored have “gone viral”. I’m promoted all over the world and I’m suddenly the expert everyone wants to talk with. Leads start flowing in from people I’ve never met and new opportunities abound. Is it magic? No! It’s Web 2.0, and you can do it too with little investment other than your time.

Cool Sales Tools to Make Prospecting Easier - Click To Read Article
Prospecting has never been harder – or easier. Yes, it’s hard to get responses, but you have all the tools at your finger tips to increase your odds of grabbing the attention of your top contacts and getting a reply. Gone is the dialing for dollars mentality. You can do better than that.

Getting Past the Executive Gatekeeper - Click To Read Article
Some sellers fail miserably when trying to gain access to a company executive. Unfortunately, rather than taking the time to develop a strategy, they smile and dial, hoping their canned pitch will be enough to get an appointment. This strategy doesn’t get many sellers past today’s sophisticated executive gatekeepers, and many aren’t willing to give a seller a second chance.

No Voicemail = A Missed Opportunity - Click To Read Article
Leave a voicemail? Don’t leave a voicemail? This is a question that sellers are passionate about. Many suggest not, but isn’t that a missed opportunity?

Increase Attendance at Your Events with Social Networking - Click To Read Article
I find events to be one of the most effective strategies to uncover qualified leads. The people who participate choose to come because they’re interested in your topic. You get to share your perspectives and recommendations, highlighting yourself as an expert they want to work with.

Increase Your Sales with Actionable Emails - Click To Read Article
I hate long emails. They take too long to read and typically include action items I just don’t have time for. No doubt you’ve experienced it, too. Your customers are no different and it’s impacting your ability to close sales.

Your Value is Like a Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie - Click To Read Article
Selling is a lot like baking. I love to bake. Every Sunday I make 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies for my family of three growing boys. Friends who stop by know the cookie jar will be full and ask to dip in. No kid or adult is immune and they can never stop at just one.

Your Path to Effective Service Selling - Click To Read Article
Selling services is far different than selling products, and for reps who want to be successful at "service selling", it's imperative to understand where the differences exist.

When Sales Training Isn’t Working - Click To Read Article
Nothing is more frustrating than investing the time to identify the need, design, develop, and deliver great sales training and then discover that sellers aren’t implementing what they learned when they get back to the field.

Want to Boost Technology Sales? Incent Your Support Staff - Click To Read Article
Clues for sales are everywhere, and many times they fall in the lap of someone who is not part of your company's sales team. While most of these leads are passed along to a sales professional, it's not a bad idea to provide incentives to the support team to continue to look for clues.

Using the Right SMB Sales Approach - Click To Read Article
The sales approach to employ in the SMB accounts depends upon a number of factors, such as the culture of your organization, the offerings you sell, and what the customer needs from you in the sales process. Knowing when to use a solution sales approach versus a consultative sales approach is a dilemma that confronts many sellers and directly impacts your odds of success.

Use Testimonials to Attract Prospects and Win Sales - Click To Read Article
In today’s economy you need every advantage in your sales kit. Prospects are scrutinizing all requests for their time and each purchase decision. You want to pass their piercing investigation but the sales tools you’ve used in recent years aren’t cutting it. You need something more, and testimonials are the answer. They can be the difference maker in not just winning opportunities but also in attracting attention in the first place.

Uncovering Your "Best-odds" SMB Prospects - Click To Read Article
As a seller in the SMB market space, you want to target groups of companies where you have the best opportunity to get business in the door. You cannot afford to waste time pursuing all the companies in your territory. Rather, you want to identify the groups of companies that will require the least amount of times and money to get the highest return for your lead generation efforts. Those are called your "best odds" target markets.

Top 3 2009 Sales Resolutions - Click To Read Article
It’s a new year, with a fresh sales quota and a new set of sales resolutions. I’m always looking for ways to improve and January consistently finds me evaluating my performance from the previous year then setting goals for the coming one.

Three Tips for Improving IT Reselling - Click To Read Article
For the information technology (IT) reseller, the need for continual improvement can't be overlooked, especially given the fierce competition in the marketplace. It's important for resellers to revisit some of the basics when it comes to bringing in and retaining new customers.

The Subtleties of Selling Services and How to Recognize Them - Click To Read Article
My company has the opportunity to work with a number of outstanding sales professionals who are excellent at selling products. They understand the sales process and excel at getting customers to buy specific products and solutions. Many companies hire these superstars thinking they will help their services business skyrocket at the same pace the product sales would.

Start Blowing Your Own Horn! - Click To Read Article
Training organizations aren't always valued as highly as they should be. Self promote. Blow your own horn.

Shortcuts to the Decision Maker - Click To Read Article
Every seller knows it can take as many as nine phone calls and emails to finally get the attention of a busy business owner or executive. While this persistence can be aggravating for everyone involved, its work that must be done to make an honest introduction.

Six Keys to Success's Door - Click To Read Article
That's a pretty accurate description of how most sales reps enter the marketplace. They understand their title and their assignment, but nobody ever tells them how to fulfill their responsibilities. What is needed are tangible sales tips and techniques that can help them unlock the door to success.

Show Your Clients the Money! - Click To Read Article
Are you wondering how to close those opportunities lingering in your funnel? While these are admittedly challenging times for many, I still see lots of sales being made. So what're those sellers doing differently? They're showing their clients the financial justification behind their decisions.

Seven Ways to Leverage Your Happy Customers - Click To Read Article
A satisfied customer, they say, is a company's best advertisement. But advertising only works if people see it. So, how can you make sure you take advantage of your satisfied customers and leverage them to grow your business?

Reinforcing training: Getting Managers Involved - Click To Read Article
Just because a training session was completed doesn't mean that information and skills learned will "stick" with trainees. In order for that to happen, it's imperative that managers understand how to reinforce what was learned and how to use that learning to meet the goals of the company.

Now is the Time to Master Financial Conversations - Click To Read Article
While these are admittedly challenging times for many, I still see a lot of sales being made among the companies we are working with. The biggest difference in selling today is the amount of time it takes for sales to close, especially compared to the last few years. But some sellers aren’t feeling any pain – their sales aren’t taking longer in spite of the economy – and yours don’t have to either.

No Socks Day: An Excuse to Prospect? - Click To Read Article
I’m always looking for a new reason to connect with a prospect that hasn’t yet responded to my emails. Clearly triggering events are the number one message to center on, but what if they haven’t responded? After 3 or 4 emails I find myself trying to establish my personality so the contact will begin to feel as if he knows me and want to reply. However, that’s hard if all I ever talk about are issues they might be facing and how I can help. It starts to sound repetitious and boring. If I don’t mix it up a bit, my email will hit the contact’s delete barrier before it’s ever opened!

Mine Proposals for Hidden Gems of Opportunity - Click To Read Article
With the economy causing prospects and clients alike to clamp their wallets shut, we’re looking everywhere to fill our pipelines. One place you may not have examined recently is in your past proposals, yet they could be the quickest place to find new opportunities.

Leverage Subject Matter Experts - Click To Read Article
Effective trainers must be able to break through the SME (Subject Matter Expert) wall to access the expert knowledge they hold. SMEs are the golden key to training and tools that deliver the results their clients expect. However, it often isn't easy to tap into all a SME has to offer.

Lead Generation - Make It Work - Click To Read Article
Have you ever found yourself with a less than exemplary lead list, spending your day "dialing for dollars" and nothing to show for your efforts? Your lead list needs help, and here are four ways to beef it up:

Launching a New Nontraditional Offering - Click To Read Article
KLA is often introduced to companies that want to launch a new offering outside their traditional suite of products and services. These companies have developed a valuable service, but aren't sure how to generate awareness and drive leads with their customers and prospects.

Keep Your Pipeline Full! - Click To Read Article
It’s not uncommon to lose focus on your pipeline – or funnel – and consistently filling it with new opportunities. Reps often spend too much time on a few opportunities that are on the verge of closing at the bottom of the funnel, and don’t seek out new leads to fill the funnel.

Is Email Hiding Your Personality? - Click To Read Article
Email is so much easier to use for prospecting than the phone. You can write it at any time day or night. You don't have to worry about being hung up on and you won't catch your client "at a bad time." But it's also easily deleted with no response. When you put yourself into your email, your chances of getting prospects to respond escalate. You stand apart from the other sellers who blend together as Inbox clutter.

Involving Sales Managers in Development and Delivery - Click To Read Article
Sales Managers bring a level of expertise and respect that can instantly make - or break - your training program. You know the typical ways to involve sales managers in training:

Increase prospecting results by integrating your touches - Click To Read Article
Connecting with prospects for the first meeting requires persistence, consistency – and simply wearing them down. You can speed your access time by integrating your communication strategy with multiple connection methods without frustrating prospects.

Increase Sales Jumpstart Your Lead Generation - Click To Read Article
Are you getting the sales you need? If not, consider diversifying your lead generation techniques. Cold calling and direct mail are common approaches to lead generation however there are many other ways to make your leads flow.

How to Gain Access to that Executive You Simply Must See - Click To Read Article
To get in the door in new accounts at the executive level, you must first establish your value with the executive. There in lies the challenge.

Hidden Secrets to Crack the Voicemail Gatekeeper - Click To Read Article
Voicemail is perhaps the hardest gatekeeper to get past in the SMB market space. Executives play many roles and have little time for sellers. They use voicemail as their screening tool and you need not only a great message, but perseverance and creativity to crack through.

Gearing Up for Managed Services - Click To Read Article
Managed services can be a great revenue source for solution providers. VARs that specialize in managed services will generate 20 percent annual revenue growth compared to 5 percent to 10 percent growth for traditional product resellers, according to MAI-Partners, Inc.

Finding alternate lead sources within your company - Click To Read Article
Many sales reps often overlook valuable lead sources within their own company, and spend precious selling time looking for leads outside their office doors. They attend networking events, travel to conferences and trade shows, partner with other sales reps, and research potential external lead sources, but rarely consider all the invaluable sources of information around them.

Fill Your Pipeline by Refining Your Referral Requests - Click To Read Article
Lately I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how to get referrals. No doubt about it, they’re one of the quickest ways to fill your pipeline. They’re definitely easier and less stressful than cold calling. They’re more accessible, and there’s less competition to close the deal. Knowing this, more and more sellers are asking for referrals as a primary approach to filling their pipelines.

Email is the New Phone - Click To Read Article
But, expectations and how email is used have changed. Many customers now expect you to hold whole conversations via email, sometimes with emails flying within minutes of each other, just as if they were instant messages or a phone call. With these changes email is now as important as face-to-face meetings and phone calls.

Don’t be Afraid to Help Clients Reach Financial Justification - Click To Read Article
Most sellers know the technique behind a conversation that will gather the needs required to make a strong solution recommendation. But, to be a true consultant to your clients and stop the competition in their tracks, the conversation must evolve into much more. It must build a business case for investing in your recommendation and providing the client with a strong feeling of confidence in the return on investment (ROI) your solution will bring.

Creating Your Own Buzz - Click To Read Article
Almost every business owner, from entrepreneurs who are just starting out to the leaders of large companies, is looking for ways to increase their sales, profits and visibility. Obviously, not everyone can afford a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to get their message out, so they resort to less expensive, guerilla marketing tactics that often can create the same buzz as an expensive ad. Here are some of my favorites:

Create Opportunities in our Tough Economy - Click To Read Article
Every day we’re hearing about how tough it is out there. Prospects won’t take calls. Budgets are on hold. And yet, I remain optimistic, seeing opportunity all around us. While many clients are halting spending, others are getting creative and looking at their businesses from new perspectives. They are seeking ways to leverage these difficult times and evolve their own companies. They refuse to let the difficult economy stall their growth.

Closing - No Tricks Required - Click To Read Article
So you are hoping for a magic trick to closing? Wouldn't it be so much easier if we could just utter a special phrase that would make our prospects suddenly forget the competition, forget the hard-to-calculate return on investment requirements, and magically say "yes, let's do it"?

Cold Calling Isn’t the Only Way to Get Prospects - Click To Read Article
Not many sellers like cold calling. They may be forced into it but they go kicking and screaming, avoiding it with any excuse. Unfortunately, they think it’s the only approach to prospecting, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Are You Selling to Customers or Clients Know the Difference to Succeed as a Consultative Seller - Click To Read Article
How do you refer to the people you represent? Are they "clients" or "customers"? Or, perhaps you struggle with what you call them, and bounce back and forth from one term to the other, depending on what comes to mind first.





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