Have you ever been in a situation where a customer has said to you, “I like what you’re selling, I like the product or service, and I’m all in favor of it. I’m going to talk to my boss, and I’m going to tell her that I think this would be a valuable investment. Let’s see where that goes.” So often, we hear these kinds of things and we assess how much potential this new opportunity has, how much time we should be spending on it, and how many resources should be applied towards it.

As a kid your biggest goal was probably something along the lines of riding your bike without training wheels. In high school, maybe you were focused on making the varsity basketball team as a freshman. During your college years perhaps your greatest ambition was to land a prized internship or graduate Summa Cum Laude. Different goals capture our attention at different stages of our lives. Now, your goals are likely more career oriented. This means you must learn how to become your own career coach. If you know what your number one desired career outcome is, all you need to do is commit and then get started! ....Easier said than done. Once you've committed to becoming your own career coach, the very next thing to think about is identifying your priorities and uncovering your next steps. So, what can you do to start being your own coach?

What is the difference between a sales demonstration and sales presentation? The distinction between the two comes down to timing and intention. A sales demonstration is typically what happens early in your sales process and is meant to show your prospects and customers how to apply your product, service, or solution. It's the cumulative result of research, process, and most importantly, an effective needs assessment. A sales presentation is typically what happens toward the end of your sales process. It is meant to highlight and prove the value of your solution as well as tell a compelling story and align your message with the needs of your audience while also providing a strong call-to-action that appeals to the emotions and desires of your audience. Knowing the difference between the two will help you enhance your sales approach and allow you to apply the proper strategy to each opportunity and sales situation. Let's look at demonstrating and presenting from 4 different perspectives:

Did you know that around 92% of all customer interactions take place over the phone? This means being able to communicate effectively over the phone is a skill worth perfecting. You need to be able to seamlessly handle objections, address concerns, and answer questions. Whether you're in a sales or customer success role, there are four things to consider when speaking with prospects and customers over the phone: Slow Motion Agree Know Can I Ask?

It is a common challenge among many media organizations, and businesses in general, they are swimming in data from a variety of sources and platforms, yet uncertainty remains when it comes to identifying ways to improve or enhance sales efforts. The real problem is not being able to connect data with insight. Data is the guiding element for creating effective (and interesting) success stories. Meant to summarize how and why you worked with a particular client as it relates to the current sales opportunity at hand. For the purposes of this post, data is referring to a collection of what is known about a segment of people and their attributes. For example, common attributes are demographics, device, location, etc. This includes data collected from your digital assets too, such as: your website, CRM, social media pages, paid advertising, etc. So, what data should you be looking at? And how do you convert it into a story that helps you sell more effectively?

Sales principles are foundational concepts that influence your sales perspective and point-of-view. They are short, memorable tips that provide a simple framework to help you sell more effectively. You can think of them as ground rules to adapt in order to improve your results and habits. You’ll want to personalize these to your unique sales situation, but here are a few examples to get you started: