I have found, while working with many sales forces through the years, that leadership, management skills, and the ability to adapt your message to the receptivity of the person you are talking to are critical components to effective selling.

The original seven habits of highly successful people are still relevant, but Covey, author of the mega- bestseller of that title, says that the new Information/Knowledge Worker Age, exemplified by the Internet, calls for an eighth habit to achieve personal and organizational excellence: "Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs." Covey sees leadership "as a choice to deal with people in a way that will communicate to them their worth and potential so clearly they will come to see it in themselves."

For a different reading, I would submit The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

Randall Cohan had this to say about this book: Sit at the foot of a native elder and listen as great wisdom of days long past is passed down. In The Four Agreements shamanic teacher and healer Don Miguel Ruiz exposes self-limiting beliefs and presents a simple yet effective code of personal conduct learned from his Toltec ancestors. Full of grace and simple truth, this handsomely designed book makes a lovely gift for anyone making an elementary change in life, and it reads in a voice that you would expect from an indigenous shaman. The four agreements are these: Be impeccable with your word. Don't take anything personally. Don't make assumptions. Always do your best. It's the how and why one should do these things that make The Four Agreements worth reading and remembering.

Either book or any book is worth reading. So spend some time reading.

Escend Technologies, a software company that helps semiconductor and electronic component manufacturers gain global visibility into their design- win pipeline by providing demand management software that enables tracking and management of opportunities and design wins in one unified, global database.

Their marketing director stated that the company secured a 3% response rate in prospecting activities after implementing KeyRoad-CCS process, a 300% improvement over previous campaigns.

Check out our newest white paper titled:

Building a Sales Pipeline - How do you get prospects who are not looking for the "things" you are offering to start to look?

Many clients have asked what their sales people can do to increase their pipeline with qualified leads. The simple answer is to spend more time on effective business development activities. Such activities necessitate at least 20% of a sales reps time and include, but are not limited to:

• Networking with existing friends, colleagues, and acquaintances.
• Attending industry/trade meetings and walking the floor
• Securing speaking engagements at local and regional associations or interest groups
• Hosting breakfast meetings for like titles
• Cold and warm telephone prospecting
• Direct mail/e-mail/fax prospecting followed up with direct telephone calls

The most effective way to build one's pipeline is to engage in a five to seven touch-point campaign combining direct mail introduction, followed by phone calls, in a very specific sequence. The thing I don't understand is that most sales reps know that sequence, but most sales reps will also stop doing it if they can find any excuse to use their time somewhere else.

So where do we start? Warren Culpepper, author of the Culpepper Report, writes that there is a 5-year cycle in IT purchasing. Therefore 20% of your total potential universe is actively looking for a way to improve its operation through the use of your technology at any given time. By the way, your competition knows that too. It also means that 80% is not actively looking at any given time. Not looking means that they do not perceive, at this specific moment, that they have a need to satisfy, a goal to achieve, or a challenge to address.

So my question is: Do you want to spend your time calling on the same universe that the rest of your competition is also calling on, or do you want to spend your resources and energies calling on the 80% that are not actively looking today, and bring to the forefront of their priority the understanding that their operation does need your offering to help them achieve a goal, solve a problem, or satisfy a need?

Imagine two companies, one that is looking and one that is not. Both have similar profiles, work in the same industry, and have a similar history. Do you think that their C level executives share similar goals? If no one has contacted them because they are not looking at that present moment, do you think you could leapfrog your competition if you were to call on them first, and get them to discover that they need your offering?

So what works, and what does not work?

Heard of the latest buzz about "loading the lips of sales people" to enable them to diagnose a prospect's situation before they prescribe a solution? Get an insight into Sales Ready Messaging® by reading this best seller: CustomerCentric Selling®, written by Michael Bosworth and John Holland.

If you want to determine if the CCS® methodology is right for your organization, experience it by participating in a CCS® Public Workshop. Click here to see the CCS® schedule of public workshops. When registering, please indicate "KeyRoad" as the referring party.

To minimize the number of emails you are receiving from us and our related affiliation, you can now access the CCS® newsletter directly from here. There is no need for you to subscribe to the CCS® newsletter. We will make sure to keep you up-to- date every month.

We welcome your feedback and comments. Please send them to info@keyroad.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Let us know if you want to discuss any of the following services that we provide:

• Cold Calling Training: How to better use the telephone for success
• Pipeline grading system development aligned with your prospect's buying cycle
• Sales tools development for each stages of the sales cycle using the Sales Ready Messaging® process to help sales people be more effective and successful
• Organizational sales training
• Sales advisory and coaching services

Good selling,

Philippe Lavie
KeyRoad Enterprises™, a CustomerCentric Selling® Affiliate