About Christian Maurer

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So far Christian Maurer has created 8 blog entries.

Are your Salespeople asking the right questions…….

to add value to the conversation with an informed, self-driven prospect? Reading Paul McCord’s contribution to an interesting discussion on sales force ineffectiveness, initially started by Dave Brock over at The Customer Collective, led me to this question. I think this is a real challenge we have to become aware of and need to have answers to if we want salespeople to continue to bring value to their interactions with such prospects. Bringing this value is key for the salesperson to build credibility and establish a relationship that generates sustainable revenue streams. Most buying processes today start READ MORE ›

By |Skills|
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Are you suffering from “Top of Funnel Myopia”?

Bob Apollo recently launched a poll on LinkedIn asking: “Which one of the following initiatives has the greatest potential to boost your organisation's sales performance ?” a) Finding more qualified opportunities b) Shortening our average sales cycle c) Increasing average sales win rates d) Qualifying bad deals out earlier e) Improving sales & marketing co-operation Finding more qualified opportunities as well as improving sales & marketing co-operation are “top of funnel” initiatives. Three quarters of the respondents to Bob's poll consider that this is the key to boosting sales performance. For those respondents, Bob has since written READ MORE ›

By |Strategy, Velocity|
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Ask ‘why’ five times

This is the method Taiichi Ohno, pioneer of Toyota production systems, recommended to get to the root cause of a problem. My thought was that this principle could serve well in sales. In specific, it can be used to find out whether an opportunity exists and if it is real and worth your while to win. I am aware that good sales people know the power of questioning buyers over providing them with a laundry list of features and benefits. The ability to ask pertinent questions comes from preparation. Preparation is more than amassing information. I suggest READ MORE ›

By |Sales|
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Sales Quota: Whose Performance is Measured?

Christian Maurer, a Paris-based Consultant, Trainer and Coach, writes... When companies approach the end of their fiscal year, their sales leaders start thinking about the next year. One of the key parameters to figure out is the sales quota to be assigned to salespeople. The percentage of salespeople who reach or overachieve their set quota can be considered established measures of sales effectiveness. Likewise, it is common knowledge that the percentage of salespeople who do not reach their set quota indicates room for improvement, which brings the above question into mind - when it comes to READ MORE ›

By |Sales, Velocity|
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Measuring your sales-effectiveness initiative success?

Christian Maurer, a Paris-based Consultant, Trainer and Coach, writes... Donal Daily’s Sales 2.0 Network blog says to include 'non-revenue objectives' when judging the success of sales-effectiveness initiatives. One example they use is, ‘better qualification or common sales language across the organisation’. They reason that revenue is a lagging indicator. This is especially the case for long sales-cycles. By the time you notice a deviation from the revenue objective, it is often too late to change the short term effects. You have a better chance of affecting short-term outcomes if you track the behaviour of sales people using READ MORE ›

By |Sales|
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What’s the role of social media in B2B selling?

Christian Maurer, a Paris-based Consultant, Trainer and Coach, writes... From my own experience, I know that using social media can eat up considerable time, especially in the discovery phase. It is thus legitimate for a sales leader to be concerned about whether the time salespeople spend with social media is time well spent to interact with prospects and customers in a way that generates the revenue streams expected from them. Leaving sales people to their own devices in terms of how to integrate social media into their work practice is the least effective approach and will negatively READ MORE ›

By |Sales, Tactics|
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How the C-Level makes or breaks sales performance

Christian Maurer, a Paris-based Consultant, Trainer and Coach, writes... Sales performance is at its lowest in years. When thinking about remedies, the first thought usually goes towards initiatives, mostly in the form of training, focused on helping sales people to increase their performance in light of the 'new normal.' What is the 'new normal'? Undoubtedly, sales people need to adapt their skills to the 'new normal.' One of the key characteristics of this new era is that people are much more concerned about spending their money wisely. With respect to traditional sales performance improvement initiatives, this poses a major problem. Many of READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog|
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No Marketing Effectiveness without Sales Effectiveness

Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers expect their Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) to be accountable for business outcomes. Justifying one's achievements by citing how the response rate from campaigns could be increased with an even smaller budget than last year, does not fulfill such expectations. CMOs are thus faced with the harsh reality Chief Sales Officers (CSO) are used to living in. Their performance has always measured by the amount of sales they create for the company. In this article, I'll explore if CMOs can learn how to step up to the new requirements of their READ MORE ›

By |B2B marketing blog|
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