sales
Have a Burning Business Question? Ask the Expert
Entrepreneur and workplace expert Liz Elam wants to answer your big questions about office layouts, productivity and sales.
Don’t Get Too Excited: 4 Reasons Why Passion is the Enemy of Sales Success
Having too much enthusiasm, a common condition among young treps, can bungle a deal before you even open your mouth. Here's how to temper your resolve and make the sale.
How Much Traction Is Enough for Investors?
Besides the famed "hockey stick" adoption rate, here are a few ideas for showing investors why they should pay attention to your startup.
The Danger of Discounts and How to Avoid Them
In starting up, tech talent can be hard to find. But what about a grade-A sales force? Consider these words of caution.
Young Treps Kick Off New Sports Ventures
As U.S. schools cut back on arts and sports programs, administrations are increasingly turning to private providers and startups to fill the gap.
A Business Idea for the Big Game — And Beyond
In the tradition of solving consumers' problems, two young treps set out to eradicate the hangover.
5 Tips for Targeting Your Ideal Start-Up Customer
Generating lots of traffic is only part of the battle. Here are some tips to help you avoid the blunders of blind traffic generation.
Social-Media Maven Amy Jo Martin on Working Hard and Being a Renegade
Digital Royalty's Amy Jo Martin left the Phoenix Suns to launch her digital and social-media empire. Here are her tips for how to score more points with customers.
How Pre-Teen Entrepreneurs Cut Their Teeth in Book Publishing
From illustrated fantasy to business reality, see how these young treps learned stiff business lessons, care of their children’s-book author dad.
Seal the Deal: The 6 Laws of Successful Sales
Each and every business focuses on its sales numbers. Whether a company offers products or services, their ultimate success depends on how many people they can convince to invest in them. While many believe that the executives in their ivory …
Finding Your USP — And Why You Need One
The harsh truth is that there are very few unique businesses — those that are unlike any other in the market. In fact, it's increasingly difficult to think of even one business that began as a unique enterprise and has …
How Satisfied are Your Customers?
Being able to measure the satisfaction level of your customers can be pretty difficult at times. Not only do you rely on customers for their feedback, but you've also got to trust that they are being completely honest when providing …
Seven Tips to Establish Rapport with Potential Prospects
Being able to build rapport with potential prospects will be a very valuable skill when trying to launch a new business. This is important because not only do people buy from people they like, but also because having rapport will …
Attracting Your Ideal Customer — Every Time
We often see entrepreneurs using what I would call a "shotgun approach" for their marketing efforts. They have the "throw enough [mud] at the wall and something's bound to stick" philosophy. Not only is that an expensive tactic, it's also …
What Your Customers (and everyone else) Really Want
Is there one thing your customers, employees, friends, and family all have in common — one thing they all want from you? Your relationship may be very different with each group of people in your life, and their needs and …
What the App Store Taught Me About Making an Awesome First Impression
Getting our new game Goop prepared for the App Store was no easy task, once we realized what we were up against. We had millions of potential customers at our fingertips, each with different cultural backgrounds, speaking different languages, and …
Four Steps to Strengthen Your Sales Strategy
We can have the best products or the most quality services, but if our sales strategy is not strong, our success will not be as great as it could be. And while business owners and sales managers can easily debate …
One Thing a Business Will Fail Without
Too often, entrepreneurs focus so intently on one thing, and they completely forget the other important pieces that are vital for their business. For example, a business may look just at making themselves better with social media, when they completely …
Implement a Bidirectional Lead Generation Strategy
Effectively generating leads is critical for most young businesses and entrepreneurs and the ability to execute in this area can often be a significant factor in the business successfully getting past the startup stage. One way that we can improve …
Getting Quality Testimonials Instantly
One of the best things any of us can do to market our business is to get some great testimonials from current and past customers. A testimonial is better than anything else, because it is someone who has experience dealing …
Identifying Your Best Customers – and What to do with Them
Who are your best customers? Are they the ones who spend the most? Are they the people who you enjoy dealing with? You might think this is a subjective question, but there is a methodical way to identify the customers …
Are you providing customer service or sales assistance?
How often have you visited a store and found that the customer service assistant knows less about their products than you do? As a business owner, how much are you paying for “customer service” employees who add little or no …
The Sale: The Hard or Soft Approach
The harsh reality is that all business owners at some point in time are going to have to make an offer. Â Whether they are selling physical products, informational products or offering their services, a request will need to be made …
The Secret to Creating an Irresistible Marketing Message
Are you sick of people visiting your website, only to leave two seconds later? Are you tired of pitching to non-responsive prospects? Maybe your marketing message needs a makeover. Here's the approach that I use to come up with effective …
4 Critical Aspects of Closing Any Deal
In the business world there is a term called the "unqualified prospect". This is an individual who claims to want or need your service/product, but who has not yet confirmed whether or not they will be able to make the …
