The goal in business is to outdistance the competition and make profitable sales by producing more customer-friendly products or services. To reach this goal, you need an advantage to improve your batting average-but it's getting more difficult and complicated to obtain this advantage, let alone keep it.

Selling in every industry and every size of business is changing so radically...

ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE? IT'S HERE! by Paul Bronow Consolidation within our industry is going much faster than we anticipated a few short years ago. The number of players is shrinki...

If you’re in sales, you know the feeling. It’s the middle of the night about two weeks after starting a new job. You were enthusiastic and could hardly wait to get going. Now, your head is full of doubts. You try to shove them aside, but they don’t go away. “Everything is new,” you tell yourself. “I just need to give it a little more time.” However, the doubts keep coming back.
The gap between what you were told about the job and what’s actually happening grows wider by the day. After about three weeks, you finally ask yourself, “Have I made a mistake?”

BETTER CONTINGENCIES EQUAL MORE PROFITS by Chris Burand Many insurance companies try to boost profits by reducing contingency payments - not a smart move. A go...

There are still those who believe that something will stick if you toss enough stuff against the wall. John Graham believes that we fail to ask ourselves the right question, the one that defines the marketing and sales mission.

DATABASE MARKETING - HIGH-TECH SELLING by David Beaton Looking for ways to improve sales and profits? A technique that many brokers are finding very effective is ...

DEALING WITH THE PRODUCER WHO'S LEVELED OFF by Dave Kahle If a producers performance is lagging, heres how to turn the situation around. Every manager has, or will, c...

The growth of the Internet poses a threat to the need for sales people. In this article, John Graham offers six guidelines that sales professionals can use to survive, and thrive, in a Web-based business environment.

Rarely will you get something for nothing. But how do you know if you’re getting what you should out of your marketing program? This document by John Graham provides you with the guidelines to properly evaluate your marketing efforts.
Getting something for nothing seems to be a universal human desire that extends into the business arena. For example, company owners and managers often ask, 'What should we expect to get out of our marketing program? How will our dollar investment translate into increased sales?