You may not be able to manage the relationship, but you should always strive to understand it. Read full article...

Leadership and innovation are the glam aspects of entrepreneurship. But the job description of many founders also includes a whole lot of selling. Entrepreneurs must sell investors on their ideas, employees on their workplaces, and customers on their products, value, and reputation. Read full article...

Cutting-edge Authors Leverage Web 2.0 Tools to Promote Book. Hit book examines tactics and lessons learned from world-class sales forces and shows sales professionals how to get to the next level of success with a new approach to selling based on helping customers achieve their key business objectives. Read full article...

It’s important to remember that quality is in the eye of the beholder, finds Alan Earls. Quality counts for nothing, if customers aren’t interested in the product or can’t afford it. Sometimes, in the virtuous cycle of building better products and manufacturing processes, manufacturers lose sight of that. Read full article...

What should a venture capitalist look for in a company's sales force when evaluating a potential investment? Hint: it's not what you think. Read full article...

You've got 12 minutes: Explain how your product can help a prospect succeed. Read full article...

If there's only one department in an organization that conjures the words “bottom-line impact” more than any other, it's probably sales. After conducting research with more than 100 executives who make large-scale purchasing decisions to identify what they consider important in sales professionals, as well as studying some of the world's best sales forces in companies such as UPS, Nokia and Lexus, Lou Schachter, senior vice president of The Real Learning Company and co-author of “The Mind of the Customer,” uncovered four key pillars for effective sales training: understand, create, communicate and manage. Read full article...

In “The Mind Of The Customer,” Richard Hodge and Lou Schachter expound on how Lexus, Nokia and UPS are evolving the art and science of their corporations’ selling process to match the changes in consumer behavior. Read full article...

Fast-Growing Sales Leadership and Management Training Firm Singled Out for Unparalleled Customer Service and Supportive Employee Culture. Read full article...

Contrary to what most sellers think, top executives do shape the ultimate purchasing decisions in a company. In fact, a recent survey by The Real Learning Company, an Arizona-based sales management training firm, found that top executives get involved in buying early and often in the game. Read full article...

Picture a Lexus. What comes to mind? Few brands are as well associated with success as Lexus. In fact, Lexus has been America's best-selling luxury brand for six years in a row... How does Lexus do it, and what can we learn from that about customer-centric selling?
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Imagine you are finally meeting with the c-level executive you have been trying for months to see...How do you advance the account relationship? What can you do to stand out from the competition?
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Managing a Sales Staff Means Understanding How Your Workers Communicate. By Bob Rosner. Read full article...

In The Mind of the Customer: How Great Companies Like UPS, Lexus and Nokia have Reinvented the Sales Process to Accelerate Their Customers' Success (McGraw-Hill, 2006), Richard Hodge and Lou Schachter outline tips and best practices gleaned from interviews with nearly 100 sales executives at the world's most successful corporations. The focus of their book is on a new approach to selling based on helping customers achieve their key business objectives. Read full article...

Which qualities do customers admire most in salespeople? Hint: They are more obvious than you think. Good customer relations are vital for success in business—but you knew that, right? Well, maybe it's time for a refresher course on what customers want from your salespeople. A recent study looking into the buying habits of executives highlights the top qualities purchasers expect from sellers. Read full article...

Book Excerpt: The Mind of the Customer: How Great Companies Like UPS, Lexus, and Nokia Have Reinvented the Sales Process to Accelerate Their Customers' Success. Read full article...

Solution selling, the leading business-to-business sales model for the last twenty years, is finding itself eclipsed. The notion of selling integrated solutions, rather than point products, has been so widely adopted that it no longer serves as a differentiator. What matters to business leaders today is not solutions but results. Read full article...

As every sales rep knows, it takes a lot of work to secure a meeting with a top-level executive. So if you get one, it’s important not to blow it. Richard Hodge, founder of The Real Learning Company in Scottsdale, AZ (www.reallearning.com), interviewed more than 150 vice presidents and C-level executives of global companies when he and Senior VP Lou Schachter were researching their book, The Mind of the Customer (McGraw-Hill, 2006). Read full article...

In the book, The Mind of the Customer by Richard Hodge & Lou Schachter, there is a passage that talks about the idea that it is the manager's responsiblity to develop a customer-centric system and processes. The authors highlight steps that managers can take in making this system work. Read full article...

While your reps are probably brimming with knowledge about your products and can deliver a forceful pitch with confidence and panache, they may be coming up short when it comes to an often overlooked, but vital selling skill: Asking questions. Read full article...

To transform your business, be passionate about customers’ results. How does your product impact clients’ rivals and help your clients gain market share? How does it help your clients’ customers? What other key needs does it fill? Read full article...