CA announced an OEM partnership intended to enhance CA’s Data Center Automation offerings with the process automation technology from Opalis. The joint technology solutions are intended to help IT groups implement policy driven automation for change, configuration, and provisioning processes, as well as for automation of complex, high volume work loads. This allows customers to […]

As outsourcing gains in popularity among IT managers in the United States, software sales reps are more likely to find they are selling to firms headquartered in foreign countries. Unfortunately, not every software sales rep knows that the rules for selling are very different abroad. And some sales reps mistakenly believe that the way business […]

The current U.S. economic slowdown will lead buyers of IT services to consider increasing the percentage of their labor in offshore, lower cost locations, according to a recently published report by the market research firm Gartner.
The research indicates that with concerns that the U.S. economic slowdown could extend to other geographies, organizations are refocusing on […]

The typical sales team includes a range of performers, from the high achievers at the top who bring in the majority of the revenue, the so-called middle 60 percent who are reliable if unspectacular producers, and then the folks at the bottom of the production scale who are better left unmentioned.
In fact, these low achievers […]

Who hasn’t suffered through a sales presentation so mind-numbingly dull that even the speaker seemed ready to nod off? Why put your customers through that torture? And what did they take away from the bore-a-thon, besides a desire to step in front of a charging water buffalo? Probably not much.
Whether you’re about to make a […]

One of the main reasons “customer satisfaction” is a meaningless statistic is that it’s not predictable, let alone measurable, as relates to business growth.
Right about now all customer satisfaction people, from marketing to award companies, are writing me off as a “know-nothing” human who has no concept of business. “You MUST have satisfied customers or […]

“The effectiveness of any communication is influenced by both the message and the messenger; therefore, you need to pay attention to enhancing the effectiveness of both,” says Hilari Weinstein, president of High Impact Communication, a company that helps individuals and organizations craft and deliver powerful presentations that get results.
“Marketing research shows us that our perception […]

Know the required resources. Desire to attain a goal is a good starting point, but you’ll need money, time, education, or some other resources to achieve it. Know at the outset what you’ll need and make sure it’s available or attainable.
Work with compatible goals. When you’re working toward more than one goal, make sure your […]

Every sales manager knows the basics about his or her sales team and selling process – which reps are the A, B, and C performers; the length of the sales cycle; the dollar amount of the average deal, and so on. However, successful management requires much more in-depth awareness of what’s going on in a […]

Imagine you’re at a conference and someone invites you to join a group of reindeer farmers for dinner. In accepting the invitation, it occurs to you that your product might have an application for this group of people but you know nothing about the subject of reindeer farming. Or say you’re waiting in the lobby […]