Marketing, Promotion & Sales Consulting for Business

IMB Enterprises, Inc., Huntington, NY 11746 +1 (631) 673-2929, imblonder@imbenterprises.com

Management

Exploitation and Exploration – a Modern Spin on Hunters and Farmers

In their book Lead and Disrupt: How to Solve the Innovator's Dilemma, Charles A. O'Reilly (Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business) and Michael Tushman present a number of case studies of "ambidextrous" managers running organizations built on "exploitation and...

Ira Michael Blonder
4 months ago

Plan on Six Months Before New Sales People Produce Meaningful Revenue

ISVs should plan on at least six months preparation time before new sales people start producing. Better not to hire new sales people than to bring them in under an unreasonable expectation of how quickly they will start selling. New sales people must be trained before they start working with pro...

Ira Michael Blonder
6 years ago

An Important Additional Feature of Successful Enterprise IT Software Sales Personnel in 2012 is Comfort with Cold Calls

As recently as no more than 5 years ago, cold calling was looked upon with disdain by most firms in the IT software market. Cold calls were considered the type of tactic employed by the lower tier of companies in this market. After all, a cold call is an effort to directly reach out to engage wit...

Ira Michael Blonder
7 years ago

Establishing Sales Quotas can be an Effective Motivational Tool for Sales Staff

CEOs at innovative tech businesses usually think about implementing a quota system as a method of building revenue. We think that the real value captured by implementing a sales quota system, regardless of whether or not revenue targets are ultimately attained, or not, is staff motivation to meet...

Ira Michael Blonder
7 years ago

Rank sales leads by value while tracking position in your lead maturity cycle to obtain a realistic picture of opportunities

We use a lead ranking system built on: Lead Value and Lead Maturity, meaning the position of a lead in a specific lead maturity cycle We implement our lead ranking system to provide clients with a realistic picture of sales opportunities over time. Let's look at the second of these factors first,...

Ira Michael Blonder
7 years ago

Sell Broadly through Partners, Channel Resellers, White Box Manufacturers, and Direct — or Die

Strong words but true. Consider how the big boys do it. Here's an excerpt from Cisco's Annual Report filed with the US SEC, dated September 14, 2011: "A substantial portion of our products and services is sold through our channel partners, and the remainder is sold through direct sales. Our chann...

Ira Michael Blonder
8 years ago

Funnel Management is an Essential Component of Successful Enterprise Sales Strategy

Too few sales opportunities leads to failure for most enterprise sales strategies. Where telemarketing is a key tool in sales strategy, two metrics must be kept at eye level and thoroughly managed to deliver success: Keep your eye on the daily number of: Conversations by telemarketer and Meetings...

Ira Michael Blonder
8 years ago

Score Leads based upon Maturity to Deliver the Most Sales

Different leads require different types of activities to push sales opportunities forward. In my opinion leads can't be managed unless some type of scoring system is used to determine where in a sales cycle a lead happens to fall. Without a scoring system equal time would be spent on all leads. O...

Ira Michael Blonder
8 years ago

Selling Products & Services for Enterprise Business Through Partners

A method can be used to mitigate some of the difficulties related to the complex sale for enterprise business. Specifically, enlist the assistance of an intermediary who is already entrenched within the prospect business. Opting for a channel sales strategy should be a natural decision where some...

Ira Michael Blonder
8 years ago

Top sales people fill large funnels with prospects and constantly manage volume to the upside

Top sales people feed off of pools of prospects. These sales achievers successfully maintain these pools of prospects at a constant, optimized level. This feeding process is referred to, in common parlance, as a funnel. The premise is that the right feeding interval (the phenomenon of gravity pul...

Ira Michael Blonder
8 years ago