The Law of Reciprocity states, “If you do something nice for someone, human nature dictates that the recipient will feel compelled to do something nice for you in return.”

The philosopher Confucius simplified it when he said, “Do unto others what you want others to do unto you.” This second definition is very important.

Selling is a two-way relationship. The same applies to managing a sales team. If the team wants to be able to grow beyond what it started out with, it needs to surrender under the guidance of its sales manager. If the sales manager wants to earn the respect of the team, he needs to work hard and earn his sales people’s trust one brick at a time.

I know this much is true: that the Law of Reciprocity is essential to a career in sales. (more…)

One thing’s for sure: Cork Walgreen REALLY knew how to sell.

In one of our previous posts, we talked about how Walgreen’s Drugstores figured out how to sell more stuff and become one of the top-performing stocks in the last forty years in the process, beating Intel, GE and Cisco! Their formula for success was simple: have the best, most convenient drugstores, with a high profit per customer visit. A simple formula, no doubt and that‘s the formula for creating the single most successful company in terms of market return in the past forty years.

What  Walgreens did is what you as a sales manager must do as well. If you are to fully distinguish yourself from the competition just like Cork Walgreen, then you’ll need to think about what you can be the best in the world at – and then funnel all your energies into pursuing that one thing. Figure out what one thing you do better than anyone else and teach that one thing to your salespeople over and over and over again. (more…)

Back when the idea of a “virtual office” or a “paperless office” was all the corporate world could think about, for many of us, the concept sounded very appealing. Everything was to be done and stored in computers. You could do it all in the flick of  switch, the click of a mouse. You wouldn’t even need to talk to your co-workers anymore.

In 2007, a study showed that by the year 2009 (this year), 41% of the time employees spend in the office would be used for responding to emails.

Forty-one percent! In case you haven’t noticed, that’s a pretty big number. But who could blame anyone? Emails are quick and easy to use. No wonder the people in your office would rather just send emails than have to talk to anyone face-to-face.

That’s the problem. Sending emails is safer, more convenient, and to a sales person, its so darn ineffective. (more…)