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The role of the sales executive in building a high performance team is changing, and this is largely due to the shift in communications to digital content based interactions. Executives far and wide are being told to do more with less, and make better use of supportive technology. 

The fundamentals still play a crucial role in this new paradigm, and this week we take a fresh look at those fundamentals of sales performance management, and how new thinking is weighing in on traditional concepts. 

Today we take a light and fun look at what happened earlier in August with Donald Trump, and the comments that got him uninvited from a republican event that weekend. We’ll take a lesson from Trump in content management, and look at some tools that sales reps have in their arsenal for understanding a buyer’s reaction before the worst possible outcome occurs. In Trumps case, the uninvite, for a sales rep, it could be a lost sale.

Read on to learn about the one tool Trump didn’t have that every sales rep can take advantage of.  

What is sales enablement? It’s almost impossible to put your finger on an exact sales enablement definition. This is largely because of two reasons, one: the market is relatively new, and each player tends to define sales enablement in their own way, and, two: enablement isn’t actually a real word (yet), as I’ve come to realize through composing my written content on Microsoft Word.

This week we take a stab at defining sales enablement by combining and analyzing a number of external definitions. We also examine why we need sales enablement as it relates to current trends, and whether the current model is mitigating challenges, or chasing symptoms.

Sales training is big business. Every company participates in it, and many new and intuitive ways of training Reps have popped up over the last decade or two, but something isn’t working. The state of the Sales Rep is in a continued decline, the humble sales presentation is losing effectiveness, and buyers are starting to find Sales Reps less and less meaningful to the sales process.

Today we examine where and why Sales training is and is not effective, and how to rebalance the scales of buyer-seller relationships in the face of declining motivation, and greater investment in training.

Blogging takes on many forms and has grown to be more than just a way of expressing thoughts. Blogging is still a relatively new form of media but has reached new heights over its roughly twenty years of existence. Initially, the concept of blogs was similar to an online diary, but now people have taken it from posting personal ideas to boosting company exposure.

GUEST BLOGGER: Jeffrey Mortensen at DataXoom 

The rate of mobile device usage throughout the sales process has increased significantly during the last decade, and not by chance either. According to the Aberdeen group, 90% of sales organizations have invested in tablets as their newest digital sales aid, and 70% say they’ve already achieved a positive ROI. 

If your sales staff have not yet embraced a mobile sales application, they’re making a huge mistake—tablets have dramatically improved the way in which salespeople make sales. Not convinced that tablets are the way to go? Allow us to explain how tablets can improve the effectiveness of your team’s sales. 

Email is one of the most basic and reliable forms of online communication that has relentlessly maintained its importance in the business world. In recent news people have claimed that email is “Dying” merely because, in our minds, something that seems as old and rudimentary as email should be dying. In reality the effectiveness of email is still on top, especially within multi-channel engagement strategies. Although we acknowledge the importance of email, using it effectively continues to elude many of us.

Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) waterfall,

As a sales rep, you’ve probably already felt the disconnect between the plethora of leads that marketing gallantly throws your way, and the qualities that a prospect must exhibit before you would even consider engaging that contact.

You’re not alone, and it’s not your fault. More likely than not, Marketing is working with a different set of goals and targets than you are, and though it may seem that a little sales and marketing alignment is in order, a quicker and less complicated solution is in dire need.

In this 3rd piece of our 5 part series, you'll find a lighthearted guide to enabling sales reps to close more deals.

One hour before a scheduled face-to-face sales meeting with a new prospect, spring the following questions on a high performing all-star sales rep. Chances are, they won’t know: