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It's 9:30 a.m., and you need another cup of coffee. On your way to the break room, you stumble over computer cables and weave around employees who are conversing in [...]

Evolution proved to be good for the fish, but not so marvelous for the dinosaurs. When it's time for an entrepreneurial company to launch a new product, sales reps may [...]

SALES FORCE: DOWNTURN GOT YOUR SALES TEAM DOWN? TURN THEIR FROWNS UPSIDE DOWN. CAPITALISM IS A MERCURIAL MASTER of fates--smiling and generous one day, cruel and miserly the next. Many [...]

GAME PLAN: IF YOU FIND THE RIGHT BAIT. YOU'LL KEEP YOUR SALESPEOPLE MOTIVATED-AND SELLING. BEFORE BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR, I supervised a sales team that was responsible for supporting clients with [...]

WHEN LABORATORY-LIKE FOCUS GROUPS AREN'T CUTTING IT, YOU NEED OPERATIVES IN THE FIELD. SO A POLLSTER WALKS INTO a bar ... no, really. He wants to find out what kind [...]

A CASE STUDY IS SIMPLY A 'SUPERSIZE' client testimonial. Exceptional case studies weave a company's products, benefits and solutions into a narrative that's easy to digest and that immediately connects [...]

IF YOU WERE TO UNEARTH A METHOD to retain premier talent, reduce overhead expenses and punch up sales productivity, you'd likely do somersaults of glee, yes? One way to potentially [...]

IN TOKYO, TWO ATHLETES dangle at more than 26 feet from a billboard and play a round of soccer. Is this the Asian edition of Fear Factor? Nope, it's just [...]

WOULD YOU KNOWINGLY ENDANGER the viability of your business? Not likely, but many entrepreneurs inadvertently risk financial life and limb by placing all their top accounts with just one great [...]

IF YOUR SALES FORCE IS FOUNDERING, IT MAY be time to bring in a sales trainer, A sales trainer can fire up your team by teaching real-world ways to close [...]

IF YOUR SALES ARE GREATLY IN NEED of an elixir, some sort of pick-me-up to boost production, one way to ramp up sales is to hire a rainmaker--a seasoned sales [...]

HAVE YOU OR YOUR SALES REPS EVER experienced phone choke? It's a pernicious malady that strikes most sales reps at one time or another. You know the symptoms: a quivering [...]

FOR MANY SALES PROS, DAILY OR WEEKLY sales meetings rank just a sliver above cold calling on the 'dreadful work stuff to do' list. Sales meetings that are poorly run [...]

STRESS SERVES ITS PURPOSE IN OUR LIVES. Say you're on safari in Africa, and a lion makes its way into your campsite. Making a beeline for your Land Rover certainly [...]

AT THE WIZENED AGE OF 27, I BECAME a staff manager for the first time. All Type-A bluster and bravado, I thought that simply relaying my wishes would be enough [...]

BARBS BEING BANDIED ABOUT YOUR SALES floor? Cutting remarks getting lobbed over cubicles? If you've got warring sales reps, you're in a world of business hurt. Infighting among your sales [...]

ARE YOU STRUGGLING TO FEED THE EVER-voracious payroll monster each month while failing to achieve the sales results you need? You're not alone: According to Deloitte & Touche's '2003 Strategic [...]

TRIUMPHING EVERY DAY IN SALES IS A game of inches. It's the little JL stuff that can either bury you or catapult you past the competition. One method for winning [...]

IN THE SEMINAL WORKPLACE COMEDY Office Space, the embittered and embattled Milton loses his tenuous grasp on workplace reality when his boss takes away his prized red Swingline stapler and [...]

AS A SALES MANAGER, THERE ARE WORSE experiences than enduring a ceaseless loop of 'O Tannenbaum' as you navigate the aisles of your neighborhood big-box store in search of holiday [...]

FOR YOUR BUSINESS TO THRIVE, YOU may need to relinquish the reins of sales force management to new blood. But turning over control of the team you've nurtured for years [...]

ARE YOU ATTEMPTING TO PILOT A sales squad while shackled to your desk? While you may be cranking out an awe worthy pile of paperwork, succumbing to the never-ending administrative [...]

'IMAGINE THAT A SALES GENIE HOVERS AT the perimeter of your abundant inbox and offers to grant you three wishes: lower overhead, less trifling-matter management and more sales. You'd likely [...]

SALES FORCE: THERE ARE PLENTY OF WAYS TO MOTIVATE REPS TO STAY ON THE PATH TO SUCCESS, EVEN ON A BUDGET. PERKS ARE A COMPELUNG WAY TO Encourage your staff [...]

EYES GLASSY, MOUTHS AGAPE, TONGUES lolling. No, you haven't stumbled into the mysterious diseases room at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but rather an equally deadly environment-the tedious [...]

WHEN IT COMES TO COACH-ing your sales force, you musn't wander down Egalitarian Avenue--it's a corridor of dashed expectations and unmet challenges. Well-meaning entrepreneurs may be forgiven for thinking a [...]

TIME WAS, WATCHES, MOPS and sofas enjoyed life spans exceeding that of a new Madonna movie. But then, along came IKEA, Swatch and Swiffer to say hey, it's OK to [...]

LOG A LITTLE COUCH TIME WITH Animal Planet, and you will observe that many of nature's superlative hunters opt to seek prey in packs rather than go it alone. Though [...]

FIRING AN EMPLOYEE IS A MESSY business. Just the thought of having to recruit, train and manage a new sales soul is enough to keep some sales managers from following [...]

WHAT CAN MAKE AN OTHERWISE winning sales pro go wobbly in the knees, croaky in the throat and flustered all over? Cold-calling, a sales strategy wherein said salesperson calls another [...]

SLITHER INTO SOME GLORIA Vanderbilt jeans, open a Fresca and whip up a batch of Shrinky Dinks; it's time to talk brand revival. Bygone brands, with their built-in goodwill and [...]

MARX ACOSTA-RUBIO BUILT HIS million business with a sales force made up almost entirely of 'green' talent--employees who were completely new to the world of selling. In 1998, Acosta-Rubio, 32, [...]

MANY SALES MANAGERS REGARD performance reviews as a ghastly task. The process has such a bad reputation, it's regular fodder for corporation-lampooning comic strip Dilbert. In one scene from the [...]

DESPITE HER GAUDY CLOTHES, BIG hair and New Jersey address, Tess McGill's perseverance in 1988's Working Girl earns my vote for the best sales-related film. Using pure smarts, Tess closes [...]

ALONGSIDE SUCH PERSONALITY-describing adjectives as 'competitive' and 'assertive,' the word 'egotistical' is often cast in a pejorative light. But being a little egotistical can be a good thing in sales. [...]

THERE'S NO GREATER PANIC-INDUCER for an entrepreneur than the loss of computer data. At the end of 2001, in my infinite cleverness, I unwittingly changed my computer's preferences while attempting [...]

THE POOR WOMAN LOOKED stricken. She'd just hired on as a rep for a media company, confident with the assurances her interviewer had given her about the sales support she'd [...]

FOR THE BRIEFEST MOMENT, NEW Economy inmates were running the talent ward of the asylum. Managers scrambled to attract and retain talent, whispering sweet nothings of stock options, fat salaries [...]

THERE ARE SOME LONG-HELD MISconceptions about how inside and outside sales teams work. While some truths remain constant--inside teams that do all their selling over the phone are generally cheaper [...]

YOU NEED A SALES FORCE THAT'S MOtivated to pad their pocketbooks by moving your product. Structuring a compensation plan is critical to attracting and retaining sales professionals whose success will [...]

NEW YORK CITY MY MARKETING action. Three hundred miles, at least five accents and an entire way of life away from my Maine perch, I do more business in the [...]

WHILE QUICK TO STOMP THEM when down, we Americans are exceedingly forgiving when fallen sports, political and entertainment heroes show signs of recovering their former glory. With a soft spot [...]

I'M EVER AMAZED BY THE UNDIGNIFIED mien of many sales reps. Out of the hundreds I've met over the years, only about 10 percent have projected an image that inspired [...]

If a customer calls to grouse about one of your sales reps, what should you do? Assuming you're otherwise happy with this rep, Bette Price, author of True Leaders and [...]

USE AN ELEVATOR SPEECH TO CAPTIVATE CUSTOMERS. Your reps need an elevator speech--a 15- to 30-second sales sound bite that succinctly communicates your company's offerings. Dianna Booher, author of Speak [...]

ENTREPRENEURS are always making presentations--pitching to customers, unveiling new products for staff, making keynote speeches before trade organizations, even giving spiels to bankers to secure financing. But many entrepreneurs could [...]

Check out these new books to help you honey our sales management chops: * In Selling to Big Companies (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $15.95), Jill Konrath shares her strategies for sellers [...]

GIVE REPS A BREAK BEFORE THEIR STRESS BUBBLES OVER. Some stress is fine for sales reps--it can be a motivator and keep productivity high. But heap on too much tension, [...]

Trips are marvelous, awards are dandy, but money is the number-one incentive sales reps crave. According to Linda Leake, 'You can line up 10 great sales professionals and ask 'What [...]