Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

What are the Top 5 Sales Blogs?

What are the Top 5 Sales Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills? Here’s the list according to Construction Management along with their overview comments:

1. Heavy Hitter Sales Blog - If you’re sick of your sales strategy bunting when it should be hitting home runs, this blog will supercharge your sales game, all while offering practical sales advice for these tough economic times.
2. Garth’s World - Utilizing more humor than most sites, Garth’s world nests all of its advice in blog form, with funny narratives that culminate in practical suggestions.
3. Anthony Cole’s Sales Java Blog - Nearly overflowing with advice, this site offers a number of sales methods broken up by sales type and sales chronology, and also offers tips on how being unique is the best thing you can do in sales.
4. Jonathan Farrington’s Blog - While many sites emphasize the importance of Twitter to sales, few have in-depth articles on how to more influentially tweet, as well as other quirky tips, such as pitching your idea to a bigwig…in the elevator.
5. Alen Majer’s Blog - This site offers tips for presentations, selling your personality, and even the history of American sales culture.

Click here to see their entire top 100 sales blog list.

Should You Get An MBA? Advice for Salespeople!

Next month I am going back to school. Not as a student, but to teach sales strategy once again for the Haas Business School  MBA program at the University of California, Berkeley (and for the first time at University of Southern California’s Marshall Business School MBA program).  

 

Should you go back and get your MBA? That can be a difficult question to answer. Since there are over 400 different universities that offer MBA programs across the US, let’s first take a look at the three basic programs you have to choose from.

 

Full-Time MBA Program: You drop everything you’re doing to head back to school full time and live on or near-by campus.  Admission to most full-time MBA programs require several years of work experience and they’re not cheap. Plan on spending a minimum of $100,000 (plus living expenses) to complete a two year program at a top 25 school.  For example, UC Berkeley’s Full-Time MBA program  (ranked 6^th overall in 2008 and 1^st for e-business by Financial Times) costs $48,000 per year for tuition, fees, and books alone.

 

Part Time MBA Program: Classes for these programs are conducted on weekday evenings and weekends over a two year period. The good news about these programs is that you’ll be able to continue to work (if you don’t travel too much). The bad news is you will be swamped with assignments, readings, and studying for tests. Your schedule will be fully booked and you will have very little free time for family or yourself during the school year.  The costs of these programs is about the same as a full time MBA. USC’s Marshall School of Business  and UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School part time programs (ranked 5^th and 6^th in the nation for 2009 by US News and Report) both cost about $100,000 to complete.

 

Executive MBA: These two year programs are specifically designed for  “senior” managers who work full time.  For instance, there are 136 Executive MBA students in USC’s program (ranked  #1 in 2008 by the Wall Street Journal) with an average of 13.5 years work experience. The curriculum of these programs is more real-world project/problem/case study based (as opposed to standard classroom lectures). It costs about $100,000 to complete USC’s program.

Have you been thinking about getting your MBA? Here’s my “general” rules of thought.  Be forewarned, these are only my generalizations based upon career stage and I can guarantee that your personal situation is unique.

 

Salesperson late 20s-early 30s: This is the best time during your career to get an MBA . I strongly recommend you pursue a part-time MBA if you can honestly answer yes to the following question,  “Do you have the wherewithal to preserve through two hard years of studies?” Maybe you have been in sales for a few years and don’t feel a sales career is right for you. Why not go back to school full time?  Trust me on this… this is one of the few times when you will have the opportunity to re-chart your life’s direction.

 

Salesperson Mid 30’s-early 40’s: If your family obligations aren’t too considerable and your work schedule is manageable, I would recommend pursuing  a part time MBA.

 

Salesperson late 40’s and up: Focus solely on your job and maximizing your income. Sock as much money away as possible and spend as much time as you can with your family.

 

Sales Management Recommendation: Regardless of your career stage and whether you are a new or seasoned sales manager, get an Executive MBA!!! You’re going to learn tons of new stuff from some incredible faculty and work on projects with talented (and well-connected) classmates . Equally important, it may make the difference between getting that big promotion and landing your next job.

 

One last thought, just because you decide to apply to grad school doesn’t mean you are going to get in. UC Berkeley had 3,779 applications to their 2010 full time program and only accepted 240. That’ only 6%!!! Be forewarned, the application process at top schools like CAL and USC is grueling. But rest assured, the long term benefits are worth it!

 

Other Articles That Might Interest You:

 

Why Universities Don't Teach Sales

Sales Intuition, Memory, and Chester

Why Are You In Sales? The Surprising Truth

When people in other careers ask salespeople why they are in sales, the most frequent answer is “money.” This is the pat answer salespeople give to outsiders who have never experienced the rush of closing a deal or the satisfaction of building a trusted friendship with a customer.

 

Providing the answer “money” is similar to the way mountain climbers answer “because it’s there” when asked why they climb mountains. The questioners can’t comprehend why someone would intentionally endure such physical and mental exhaustion and take such huge risks. They themselves don’t possess the inward drive to reach the pinnacle or the self-confidence to attempt the impossible.

 

The real answer to the question of why salespeople are in sales is deeper and far more complex. It was best explained by French aristocrat and historian Alexis de Tocqueville when he wrote about the American colonies’ desire to be free from England. “The revolution of the United States was the result of a mature reflecting preference for freedom, not a vague or ill-defined craving for independence,” he concluded. The colonials weren’t as interested in the independence of the colonies as they were in the freedom of the individual. The writers of the Declaration of Independence considered freedom a natural law of nature. Every July 4^th here in the United States we pause to celebrate the most magnificent experiment of freedom in the history of mankind.

 

TIP: The reality is that you are not in sales solely for money. You work in sales not because you have to, but because you have to be free. And this fundamental drive is at the core of the human spirit.

 

Other Articles That Might Interest You:

 

How Ronald Reagan Would Change Your Corporate Presentation

What if General George Patton Was Your VP of Sales?

Handling Tough Questions with Congressman Calvert

Neurolinguistics Sales Lesson: Auditor Obama versus Kinesthetic McCain