Competition, love it or hate it, is an essential part of being in sales. Whether you’re dealing with internal competition from fellow sales reps or an external threat from competitor companies in your industry, competition drives us to be the best we can be. But when it comes to winning new business and increasing market share, what are you doing to differentiate yourself from the competition? If you’re not already testing new and different strategies or tactics, here are 5 ideas to consider as you position yourself against the competition.

It’s amazing how far a simple “thank you” can go.

As soon as you close a sale, what should you? Hopefully you’ll give yourself a moment to celebrate and give yourself a pat on the back. But the most important thing to remember is that your work isn’t over, but rather it’s only just begun.

Let’s face it. Time is the biggest factor when determining your sales success.

Let’s start by admitting the enormity of the challenge - onboarding and getting sellers up to speed is a huge task. On average, new sales hires spend 10 weeks in training and development and only become productive after nine months or longer. And guess what? Even after you find and develop these new sales hires into great professionals, they are hard to keep. The annual sales force turnover rate is 20% according to CSO Insights. If that wasn’t enough, turnover is exceedingly expensive. According to a study from DePaul University, it costs organizations $97,960 to replace the average sales rep. That’s a lot of wasted time, money, and resources, which means developing an effective sales onboarding program is critical to the success and retention of your sales force. Your new hire training and sales onboarding process shouldn’t be thought of as a one-time event. It should be thought of as an ongoing process and journey that will continually evolve and develop over time. In each wave of new hires, you’ll deal with different personalities, experiences, preferences, and perspectives. Your onboarding and development process must be flexible and adapt to these factors. Here are 7 ideas for every sales manager to get the training and development process started:

All management roles are stressful to some degree, but managing a sales force is arguably one of the toughest jobs out there. With so many competing priorities and interests, pressures from key stakeholders across the organization, and not to mention the burden of the company’s financial success on your shoulders. And that’s just the beginning.