Evaluate If Recent College Grads Are Right for Your Company By Peter Lyle DeHaan When hiring a salesperson, you can seek someone with relevant experience or someone with related education. Sometimes a candidate has both. The opposite is when they have neither. I’d been hiring salespeople who had varying degrees of selling experience, though sometimes […]
Successful Selling in One Area Does Not Universally Apply to All Others By Peter Lyle DeHaan Frank had a successful sales career in one industry, but his desired career path wasn’t an option at that company. To pursue his dream, he needed to change employers. He soon landed a job as a sales manager, the […]
Sales Compensation Requires Careful Consideration By Peter Lyle DeHaan Our company had multiple offices. Those in larger cities called for having full-time salespeople. At one of those offices, one with a larger geographic workforce to draw from, my ads always received a response. Yet not all respondents were good fits. For one applicant, Jennifer, our […]
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures By Peter Lyle DeHaan Her words surprised me. “I can’t run this ad!” The rep’s response caught me off guard, but it wasn’t completely unexpected either. “I agree that it’s a bit unorthodox.” “I might get fired if I publish this.” She fumbled for words. “Or we might get […]
Ill-Conceived Incentive Programs Can Actually Hurt Sales By Peter Lyle DeHaan John was a salesperson who periodically visited our business. His company supplied specialized equipment to our industry, and we regularly bought from him. He cultivated relationships with many people in the company, including me, even though at the time I was scarcely an influencer—let […]
Promote a Product, Service, or Idea to Achieve a Desired Outcome By Peter Lyle DeHaan Every business or organization has a sales and marketing function. It’s only the details that vary. They may have an existing department, or two, to address this need. Or the sales and marketing functions may fall under the purview of […]
Seek Initiatives to Stand Out from Your Competition By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD You’re proud of your telephone answering service; at least I hope you are. You strive to serve your clients and their callers well. You do things with excellence. You relish the fact that you facilitate hundreds or thousands of communication efforts every […]
Sales Success Comes through Attitude and Execution By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD People often ask, “How can I get more sales?” Increasing sales stands as a primary concern at most businesses. No one has ever told me their company closes all the deals they want. I wish they would ask me easier questions: “How can […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Conference planners sometimes ask me to sit on a panel. The common format is that each panelist makes an initial presentation, followed by a Q&A. Other times the presentations are longer, with no time for questions. Most of my panel experiences have not been positive. For my first one, my […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD I often share customer service stories in this column. While I prefer to pass on examples of excellence, they are harder to spot than service gone awry. Even so, I try not to let these tales become a rant but instead offer helpful information in an interesting way. As my […]