Just like that, Q4 is nearly upon us! Hopefully you've spent the summer selling, or if things have been slow, completing sales-related projects and activities to prepare the sales team for a productive Fall. One task you should complete before summers-end is the review of your annual sales plan going into Q4.

“Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer” applies to your competition; to beat them, you need to know how they intrinsically function, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to position against them. You can do this first by researching and gathering pertinent information on your current and up-and-coming competition, then using it in your differentiation, messaging, and strategy.

The most effective prospect-facing collateral is the result of collaborative sales and marketing teams. While the marketing team is responsible for the development and design of sales collateral, it is marginally effective if it doesn’t incorporate the needs and goals of the sales team. 

What better time to train your team than a slower summer? Whether you manage an inside, outside, or hybrid team, chances are that sales activities have reduced in early Q3. Take this opportunity to do some hands-on training with your sales team.

If you’re reading this blog and thinking “I don’t need to do this, my CRM is spotless”, then we applaud you! Few can say they have the time, resources, and/or interest to clean up their CRM systems, and even fewer can say that they’ve completely wrangled their dirty data.

 In our 2017 summer blog series 8 Weekly Projects to Stay on Track During a Summer Slump, we'll be sharing weekly ideas and suggested activities for sales leaders to keep themselves and their team productive in the typically slower summer months.. 

Sales enablement is the process, practices, technologies and tools that improves the productivity and performance of the sales organization and sales team. Examples of sales enablement include playbooks, processes, collateral, CRM system, success metrics, and sales portals.

A sales manager is a critical hire to any selling organization. At Sales Result, we encounter sales managers all the time, and it’s rare we meet one that isn’t in need of leadership coaching or additional tools and training to guide their team.  

The first 90 days of a new hire’s time at your company is largely tied to their overall success as an employee and productive salesperson. Successful onboarding leads to reduced turnover, increased ramp-up time, and less stress all around. New hires that are onboarded properly generally have higher success potential then their untrained counterparts.