tl3
Account Management
Posted 8:02 PM on 05/12/09 -
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Is there an average of how many accounts/prospects one sales rep should have assigned to him or her? Our current environment has about one sales rep per several hundred accounts/prospects. As you can imagine, managing this many accounts in conjunction with the task of bringing on new clients becomes very difficult. I find that we tend to lose track of leads and opportunities because there are so many, and so few people to handle them. We are attempting to streamline a lot of our account/lead/prospect management processes but ultimately its coming down to just not having enough people to do a good job with everything.
Makarand Deshpande
Account managment and sales people!
Posted 9:11 AM on 05/19/09 -
Reply to this postHi,
My name is Makarand Deshpande and just want to share a short story i hope we all have seen honey bee's and this little wonder work hard for all day, she try to go to every flower and believe me she just achieve it at the end of the day.
If you ask me i would love to work with as many as accounts i can but what i did is i prioratise each account and then plan action.
It is not the question of handling accounts but it is a question of delivering result and we can only achieve it if we have capable people who can think about their accounts day and night. We need to bring them into sales system they should feel it or they have to leave it.
Once we achieve this problem of handling accounts would be over.
Thanks
Mara
Managing accounts
Posted 11:28 AM on 06/09/09 -
Reply to this postDo you have good contact management software? Salesforce, Goldmine--anything that allows you to sync among sales reps. Also, you have to prioritize or rate your accounts and your prospects--surely not all customers or prospects deserve the exact same treatment. And, customers require a different type of communication and service than prospects do. Perhaps one requires weekly contact and another one only once every six months, as an example. Most CRMs will allow you to do this.
Trickyd
Intro letters?
Posted 8:35 AM on 05/12/09 -
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I run a sales team of external sales execs for a very succesful UK packaging distributor. Our success has come through adding value and helping reduce costs for our customers. Consequently our customers save more money when using us, than with anyone else in our market, while we remain the most profitable in the industry. My question is this.... my sales team often use intro letters sent over email in order to follow up and discuss with buyers and business owners, (personally I use purely telephone introductions which is probably a function of experience and confidence); do any of you have any advice on how my team could put together a credentials letter that actually interests rather than bores buyers.... I am trying to think of a way to put across value and cost savings in a succint "english"way....
Joe
same company?
Posted 12:04 PM on 05/13/09 -
Reply to this postHi Trickyd. I work for a packaging company too but it is in Italy and our success depends on the same advantage you wrote above... just wondering if the company we work for is the same... :-)
Trickyd
intro letters
Posted 6:34 AM on 05/18/09 -
Reply to this postThanks for the support Joe. We dont work for the same company though, the company I work for is a purely UK based employee owned business. You must be with one of the big global players hey...
Anyway, back to the subject, any thoughts on intros at all? What works in Italy?
Joe
intro letters
Posted 10:36 AM on 05/18/09 -
Reply to this postThanks Trickyd for your reply. Back to your question: I use to cold call as you do because I think it is more direct and persuasive (furthermore you can understand which kind of person you talk to...). A lot of emails are not even read... In order to get an appointment I ask questions like "would you be interested in saving money with your packagings?" or "would you like to see better solutions for your packagings?". These questions lead to a (very probably) "yes answer" so then you can go on and ask for an appointment.
Brad Gerrard
Prospecting
Posted 1:39 PM on 05/07/09 -
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What are the best questions to ask to flesh out the "real" problems and challenges your customers are currently facing? You can simply come out and ask, but are there any other ideas? We are an Energy Consulting firm and can support companies on numerous levels. I primarily deal with the manufactures supporting the industry, the Engineering, Procurement, Constructors, and all the sub tier contractors. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Mike
prospecting
Posted 10:41 AM on 05/08/09 -
Reply to this postAsk him,
"Where does it hurt?" What would you like to improve on?
Marilyn Romoser
Getting the Checking
Posted 8:09 AM on 05/05/09 -
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I work at a Bank & the focus is "checking" accounts. We offer no monthly maintenance fees and no minimum balance requirements on checking accounts. I call businesses, speak to customers at the desk, call no checking customers & noncustomers, and speak to customers at the drive thru. I don't feel I'm doing a bad job, but I could definitely use some advice as to how I get more people to say "yes" I want that checking account where I don't have to pay fees. I do ask existing customers for referrals & do generate a sale sometimes with that.
Laura Minck
Getting the checking
Posted 9:51 AM on 05/12/09 -
Reply to this postHi Marilyn,
Could you do a seminar for graduating high school seniors on how to open and maintain a checking account? As a mother of 4 and having 3 of them 18 or older, I think the schools don't prepare our future adults in the art of managing money, especially when they leave for college. Even though my husband and I did this with our children, I think a one day or half day course taught with the permission of the school would give you and your bank a chance to provide information to these families and then you could give them the applications to open accounts.
Marilyn
Getting the checking
Posted 7:08 AM on 05/14/09 -
Reply to this postInterestingly enough, I am attending a local high school to do just that. We are doing a powerpoint on checking accounts and credit cards. I currently do this with my young customers when they come in to open new checking accounts. I take the time to show them how they would use their checkbook register. I explain to them how overdrawing their accounts hurt them, etc. I'm amazed at how many parents don't teach their children money management, and I enjoy teaching them just this. Have 4 children myself, I'm teaching my own savings, checkings, credit cards, etc.
Brent Williamz
Sales response via email
Posted 10:10 PM on 05/04/09 -
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I received this email yesterday from someone wanting to buy one of our place-name domains. "I am interested in your 'PLACE-NAME.com.au' domain. Is it for sale? What is your asking price?"
On other occasions, I've tried various approaches with no result. It's a very specific product; in the right market it's worth a fortune, in the wrong market it's just letters on paper. This process stumps me every time. Folks, what will help get the sale here? Cheers, Brent
timnwhitehead@gmail.com
New Product Launch
Posted 10:40 PM on 05/02/09 -
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Competitor is launching a new product range, they are marketing heavily and the cold callers are out there in force! All you sales guns and gurus your advice is needed, when a competitor launches a new product range is it best to cold call businesses offering a comparison to the new product?
