Tweet

Are Sales Tools the Solution?

Written by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: When your salespeople focus and play with the tools instead of using the tools to support their selling efforts, the tools become part of the problem. Am I suggesting a 15-hour work day? No. You need balance, you should spend time with your family. But salespeople must do the work that doesn't involve interacting with their prospects, at times when they can't reach their prospects.

Are Sales Tools the Solution?

When Sales tools are used properly, they become tremendous solutions, for example: * your salespeople update their opportunities in your Sales Force Automation application of choice (mine is Landslide.com) in real time (a minute here, a minute there)

* your salespeople create slides for presentations, proposals, webinars and demos

* those in your company that blog use it to generate credibility, visibility and leads

* other social networking, like the use of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are also used to generate leads

* email is used for updates but not in place of conversations that should take place on the phone

But how often do you observe your salespeople doing any of these things?

* taking a couple of hours, during the day to update the pipeline

* taking a couple of hours to work on a power point presentation they'll need next week

* spending time using a social networking site to communicate with others

* responding to emails that can wait until evening

* doing something other than focusing on finding, moving and closing opportunities

When your salespeople focus and play with the tools instead of using the tools to support their selling efforts, the tools become part of the problem. Am I suggesting a 15-hour work day? No. You need balance, you should spend time with your family. But salespeople must do the work that doesn't involve interacting with their prospects, at times when they can't reach their prospects.

Related Articles
  Why Hosted Exchange Makes Sense for Small Businesses
  Sales 2.0 Tools Have Their Place, But Where Is It?
  Solution Sales - What is it?
  How Much Time Do Sales People Waste?
  Sales Training Materials that Work!

Article Tags: conversations, credibility, email, facebook, landslide, pipeline, power point presentation, proposals, prospects, real time, sales force automation, sales force automation application, sales tools, salespeople, slides, social networking site, spending time, visibility, webinars



Related Forum Posts
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters - Hi, My name is Jeff, I work for WebBizIdeas.com and we are developing an article called "50 Most Useful SEO Tools for Webmasters." We have ranked & listed our top 30 SEO Tools but want to get your opinion on what SEO Tools are most useful to you; as Internet Business Owners. Google Webmaster Tools Google Analytics Google Alerts Yahoo Site Explorer SEOBook.com Keyword Research SEOBOOK.com SEO For Firefox Tool SEOBOOK.com Search Engine Rank Checker SEOBOOK.com Back Link Analyzer SEOChat.com Keyword Difficulty Compete.com Quantcast.com Alexa.com Archive.org Stompernet Site Seer Technorati.com PRWEB.com ADDTHIS.com SHARETHIS.com EzineArticles.com Scribd.com Squidoo.com YouTube.com StumbleUpon.com Reddit.com Digg.com Del.icio.us Wikipedia.org Flickr.com NewsVine.com Yahoo Answers NOTE: When you list your answers please include a description on what the site is, why it is important to you, and your experience please....we may include it in our article. Jeff
Re: 1000+ unreachable urls (google webmaster tool) - Google Webmaster Tools is a must for managing your websites. There's a lot of information it can give you and that you should know but may not be aware of.
Hello From Marietta GA! - Hello All! My name is Tim Naylor and I am in Direct Sales! I am glad I have found EC's sites and I hope to learn and share a lot!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

TRADE SHOW FOLLOW-UP: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

How To Calculate A Minimum Fee For Your Services

What Is The Foundation for Your Vision?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.