Critical Pathways Articles
We're always thinking about how best to build and manage a successful selling organization. That's our job. Often, when a few thoughts come together into a new approach or insight, we write them up as articles and share them with our clients and friends. Here are some of our most popular articles, filled with sound advice, valuable strategies, and fresh perspectives on all things sales.
When clients get clear, powerful messages from all of the members of your selling team, they begin to see value in what you and your team offer. Hearing the same message from your entire organization lets the client know that you are truly working for their best interest and success.
We asked sales and marketing VPs and directors the question, "What are the most common mistakes today's sales leaders make?" This article captures their representative responses and what we can learn from them.
Through collaboration, companies, their customers, and their suppliers learn far more about each other—and themselves. Information flows freely, companies have a clearer picture of what customers need, and the resulting products are more successful in the marketplace.
Team members typically work in the customer’s environment and experience first-hand the industry and competitive issues. The team members have the insight to proactively develop and propose creative, out-of-the-box solutions that deliver high value to the customer. So, why not let them lead the sales team?
The values and lessons learned from good sales coaching can have a significant and long-lasting impact. Seizing coachable moments that surface through normal activities in a sales process gives sales managers their chance to provide effective coaching. Read how these four critical coaching habits can produce breakthrough results for selling teams.
How can you create a sense of urgency within your clients or prospects to close potential deals? How can you uncover their individual motivations to create motion and closure?
Recent headlines about Toyota and BP remind us that the time to prepare for a crisis is not during a crisis. Before a crisis ever occurs, segment your customers and develop a customer recovery communications plan.
Taking shelter is a natural response when times get tough. But there are glimmers of improvement in the most recent economic indicators. How do you convince your customers that the worst is behind them and it’s time to loosen their purse strings?
“Is that your best price?” After working flawlessly on a transaction for months, the last thing you want to hear is this question. Yet most salespeople hear questions like this one every day. How best to respond? These strategies will help you sharpen your negotiation skills, increase your close rate, and improve your bottom line results.
We asked some successful sales veterans to imagine that they are new account executives assigned to five key accounts. What are the top three things they would do to learn to think like their customers?
Personal relationships are a strong component of every successful business development organization. As the business landscape changes and companies grow and diversify, they must continually refine their business-development organizations to ensure that customers experience a focused, adaptive, and valuable relationship with every element of the company.
The graduation season has passed, and new graduates--lucky enough to find a job in this economy--are taking their place alongside Veterans, Boomers, and Gen Xers. What's the best way to manage such a diverse collection of people? Fortunately, there are sound management basics that extend across the generations.
Engaging your customer in creating new and innovative products and services is a win-win for both of you. You can develop an in-depth understanding of your customers’ business, and your customers can creatively enhance your offerings in ways you may have not imagined.
Different mandates result in different approaches by procurement and line-of-business operations groups, but each have the same ultimate goal—getting the best deal for their company.
Organizations can expect a 10X to 100X return on investment within 12 months after successfully training and developing well-managed, customer-focused in-house and outside sales teams.
Using this technique for sales planning and keeping it current with knowledge gained during client calls will increase your odds of closing sales and allow clients to see you and your company as a highly valued partner.
The structure of most organizations has significantly changed during the last 20 years, introducing new complexity for sales teams trying to determine who has authority, responsibility, and accountability for buying decisions. Learn how to map your customer’s organization in four easy steps.
In the face of chaotic markets and relentless change, your company’s selling organization is the key to competitive advantage. That is why sales leaders deliver sales training that improves sales operations and product knowledge, enhances sales skills, and increases industry awareness. But enlightened sales leaders are taking training one step further—to sales certification. The results show that certification drives more consistent performance in all businesses throughout the sales process.
There are some very specific best practices that can greatly enhance successful selling to the CSO of any enterprise.
In selling to the CXO of any company, it is important to remember where your focus must be in order to get in the door and to make the most of it once you are there. Read these best practices for scheduling appointments with key executives and getting the most value from the call, both
for your company and your customer.
To ensure that customers perceive value and benefit from each interaction, it is imperative that conversations with customers are oriented toward their business issues. Only then can sales teams align with them to deliver on the customers’ value propositions.
Cooperation is one of the fuels that drive a sales team to success. Cooperative team members harness their collective experience, talents, and skills with one goal in mind: to create value for their customer.
Understanding why customers didn't buy from you is as important as why they did. Reviewing your wins and losses presents a unique opportunity to improve your sales performance. These must-do's for conducting a successful win/loss review will help you diagnose sales cycle performance, verify competitive differentiation, and ensure your sales process is aligned to your customers.
Glimmers of improvement in the economic landscape are increasingly apparent. So how do you reshift your thinking from the recent head-down, in-the-bunker survival mode to gear up for the new reality?
You’ve done everything you know to do to remedy the situation, but there’s just no pleasing some customers. They waste your time, energy, and resources. Do you dare “fire” them?
We know that strong customer relationships are critical to be successful in sales. But what qualities do customers really want from salespeople?
Company climate, empowered employees, and externally focused management tools that help employees decide the right way to treat customers combine for a customer-centric organization.
Account Management is the process of continually providing value and always being aware of your client’s changing business environment and needs. It's an effective way to set your organization apart from the competition and keep competition away.