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7 Tips to Improve your Business Forecasting

Brainstorming is an extremely useful technique which leaders and managers can employ to help find creative solutions to problems and enhance productivity.

The concept of 'consultative selling' originated in 1970; the brainchild of respected American salesman Mack Hanan. As its name suggests 'consultative selling' involves the salesperson acting as a consultant to the potential customer.

If there's one aspect of their role that no successful sales manager or salesperson can afford to get wrong, it is the conducting of effective sales negotiation. In an age where competition between businesses is fierce and information is more readily available to the customer than ever before, it is vital that salespeople have the skills and knowledge necessary to negotiate and close every sale.

At its best, a business meeting is a constructive forum at which new ideas can be proposed and brainstormed, progress discussed, plans laid and problems solved. A meeting's effectiveness, or lack of, is entirely attributable to the way in which it has been planned, is conducted and is followed up.

Whichever business you're in, you'll almost certainly find that some customers will be delighted with everything you do, some will be slightly harder to please and a few will be downright obstinate and critical. However, a paying customer is a paying customer regardless of the challenge they present, and customers equal revenue.

If you've achieved a promotion from the position of Sales Representative or have just landed your first role as a manager in charge of a sales team, you'll immediately be aware that to be a successful team leader you'll need a whole new range of knowledge, skills and management strategies.

No business knowingly goes out of its way to frustrate or annoy its paying customers but, as the old saying has it, you can't please all of the people all of the time. Despite your best efforts, mistakes are made, accidents do happen and even when everything's just fine, you're probably going to come up against someone who wants to complain for whatever reason.

Sales team meetings are only of value if every participant gains something useful from them, but a meeting's effectiveness can be hampered by a number of factors. In this article, Maguire Training shares with you six barriers to effective sales team meetings and how to avoid them.

What future do you see for your business when you gaze into the crystal ball? Perhaps you've been established for a few years, business is good and things are going well. Good news so far, but in the ultra-competitive 21st century, no business can afford to rest upon its laurels and assume that business will remain as dependable forever. Sensible business planning is the answer...

Even though you may be a skilled writer and a talented salesperson, writing sales proposals that actually win business is something of an art form. For a sales proposal to be effective, it needs to possess a format, structure and content that uniquely and fully satisfies the requirements of the prospective client.

Defined in simple terms, a successful business leader is someone who holds a powerful, personal vision and has the ability to inspire and motivate others to join them in making that vision a reality.