After several back-to-back emails and phone calls, presentations, demonstrations and detailed proposals, a salesperson must eventually come up with a strategy for how to close a sale. We reached out to experts in multiple industries and asked them to share some of their favorite techniques for converting a prospect into a client or customer. Here…
All Sales Articles
6 Best Email Verification Services for 2018
An email verification service is a tool that checks whether an email is real and minimizes bounce rates, protecting a business’ domain from being flagged as a spam sender and blacklisted by email providers. We examined 20 of the most-used programs and narrowed them down to the top six. We compared and contrasted the price,…
13 Sales Follow-up Email Templates for Any Situation
Sales follow-up emails are email messages that engage a lead at different stages in the sales process. These messages work to build trust and understanding while reminding prospects of your company benefits and gives a reason to continue the conversation. Email templates are used to help salespeople follow-up quickly and professionally and ultimately close the…
Top 25 Sales Techniques from the Pros
Businesses expect consistent sales to grow, whether that means strengthening existing business relationships or acquiring new customers. Therefore, relying on effective sales techniques is critical for any salesperson. We reached out to professionals across several industries and asked them to share their most successful selling techniques. Here are the top 25 sales techniques from the…
Microsoft Dynamics vs Salesforce: Price, Features, & What’s Best 2018
When comparing Microsoft Dynamics vs Salesforce, we found both to be robust, but expensive, CRMs with functionality benefiting larger organizations. Microsoft costs between $65 – $135 and can manage sales as well as general operations like accounting and inventory. Salesforce costs $25 – $300 and offers an extensive AppExchange network with functionality that’s great for…
6 Best Email Tracking Software for 2018
Email tracking software tracks email open rates, link clicks and message delivery of sent email. However, they’re also used for other things like managing email campaigns or as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. We evaluated more than 25 different email trackers and narrowed them down to the six best, comparing them on ease of…
6 Best Business Phone Systems in 2018
Business phone systems allow you to set up a communications system for your business quickly. We looked at the major players and compared the overall pricing and features of each, narrowing it down to six. From there, we looked at things like subscriptions, number of lines, virtual answering, call forwarding and more, arriving at the…
6 Best Salesforce Alternatives for 2018
Salesforce is one of the best-known customer relationship management (CRM) programs out in the field today. However, it is expensive and isn’t designed for flexible sales processes. When looking for Salesforce alternatives, we compared 20 programs in terms of contact and deal management, customization, technical support and user reviews as well as their overall affordability in…
6 Best Contact Management Software for 2018
Contact management software organizes and manages contacts as well as manages sales pipelines and sends automated emails. We looked at the top software programs and narrowed it down to the six best for small businesses. We compared those six on contact searchability, activity tracking, overall accessibility, analytics, and added features to find the best overall….
3 Best Appointment Scheduling Software Systems for 2018
Appointment scheduling software lets clients schedule and pay for appointments and related services online. We researched the top-rated appointment scheduling software options and decided to review Square Appointments, Acuity Scheduling, and Bookeo Appointments. These three services deliver a full range of features at small business-friendly costs. Read on for our review and top recommendations. Best…
27 Effective Sales Strategies and Tips
According to a report from the Brevet Group, only 13 percent of customers believe that the salesperson attending to them actually understands their needs. Developing an effective sales strategy involves not only equipping your team with the tools they need to succeed but also actively engaging with your customers to better understand them. We asked…
How to Set a Sales Quota in 6 Steps [+ Examples]
![How to Set a Sales Quota in 6 Steps [+ Examples]](https://fitsmallbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/How-to-Set-a-Sales-Quota-in-6-Steps-Examples-300x200.png)
Sales quotas are sales performance targets that incentivize salespeople and work to increase company revenue and profitability or maximize a specific activity. Sales quotas are typically tied to sales volume, costs, profit, or specific business function. Effective quotas are ones in which 80 percent of your sales staff—on average—should be able to meet. One of…
