The Hello Bar is a simple web toolbar that engages users and communicates a call to action.

Free Ebook "How to Write a Sales Plan" + Free Template

Free Ebook - How to Write a Sales Plan, plus Free Plan Temple

This free ebook walks you through 13 steps that will:

  • Qualify your best prospects in crystal clear profiles
  • Guide your step-by-step prospecting
  • Keep you laser-focused on what really counts
  • Plus FREE Sales Plan Template in Microsoft Word

Enter your email below and click "Download now".


“Revenue-IQ understands what customers want."
– Jeff Clark, V.P. Sales, Weiser Security Services

Increase the Odds of Winning Sales Before the Bid Process

by Chris Arlen

Smart sellers increase their chances of winning contracts during the quiet phase of the buying cycle. That’s the phase after the first meeting with a prospect up to the moment the contract [...]

click to continue → June 16, 2011

23 Ways to Get a First Meeting with Prospects

by Chris Arlen

Getting that first meeting with prospects can feel like standing at the foot of Mt. Everest and looking up at where you have to go. It’s one of the first milestones for [...]

click to continue → June 10, 2011

Price without Value is Meaningless

by Chris Arlen

When sales reps say “buyers only look at price” they’re saying they sell a commodity. In essence they’ve given up and are rationalizing lost sales. That’s understandable. If it were true, who [...]

click to continue → June 8, 2011

Ideal Selling #1: Perpetual New Sales

by Chris Arlen

If you were to create the perfect selling machine you’d use the 10 sales attributes outlined in last week’s “Ideal Selling“. But how enlightened are we? Do sellers believe they’re perfect already [...]

click to continue → June 3, 2011

Ideal Selling: How do you rate against the Perfect 10?

by Chris Arlen

In Ideal Selling everything happens exactly as you dreamed, except better. It’s selling that is always fun, exciting and rewarding – for you and your buyers. Waking up it’s obvious Ideal Selling [...]

click to continue → May 27, 2011

The Secret Trigger to Inbound Marketing

by Chris Arlen

Get familiar with the difference between outbound and inbound marketing. You don’t need to become an expert but a little knowledge is needed with tight marketing budgets. While both outbound and inbound [...]

click to continue → May 18, 2011

Outbound & Inbound Marketing

by Chris Arlen

Facility service contractors are not known for their marketing prowess – they’re hyper-selective and cautious at best. But for those who market it may seem as if there’s a war between traditional [...]

click to continue → May 12, 2011

Unsolicited Sales Proposals: Part 2 – The Upside

by Chris Arlen

The upside for unsolicited proposals can be big – if used in the right situation.  However, don’t forget the downsides, revisit Part 1 – The Downside if necessary and remember that unsolicited [...]

click to continue → May 5, 2011

Unsolicited Sales Proposals: Part 1 – The Downside

by Chris Arlen

Desperate salespeople cling to unsolicited proposals like the last life jacket in a sinking boat. Unsolicited proposals do have their upside but their positives occur only in selected circumstances, as you’ll see [...]

click to continue → April 22, 2011

4 Myths that Inhibit Sales

by Chris Arlen

Most facility service suppliers don’t have a true marketing department. This is a fact of life in the industry and salespeople are aware of  it. Some salespeople say “no marketing department, then [...]

click to continue → April 14, 2011

Selling for the Short or Long-Term?

by Chris Arlen

Will you be selling 10 years from now? 15? 25? It’s likely you will, whether you’re  a commissioned salesperson or a senior exec, as you’ll still be responsible for bringing in new [...]

click to continue → April 6, 2011

Sales Stages to Nowhere

by Chris Arlen

Almost every sales managers, or sales consultant, uses a selling cycle with stages as part of their repertoire. Some are downright obsessive requiring salespeople to ride through Step 2C before heading onto [...]

click to continue → March 29, 2011

Your Sales Engine is Leaking

by Chris Arlen

Your sales engine is all fired up and ready to go. It’s budgeted for tradeshows, sales salaries and commissions, entertainment, ads, collateral, telemarketing, web and social media. Sales personnel and management are [...]

click to continue → March 15, 2011

We Are All Temps

by Chris Arlen

Salespeople are known to change jobs frequently. And there are millions of us with tentative tenure. In 2009 there were 16 million salespeople in the U.S. If we miss our numbers, have [...]

click to continue → March 9, 2011

Seller’s look at Procurement Strategy

by Chris Arlen

Smart sellers want to know how buyers buy. With Procurement’s increased authority in large service buys, knowledge of their best-practices is gold. Although all Procurement departments don’t work the same way, A.T. [...]

click to continue → March 3, 2011

Sellers’ Influence Zone

by Chris Arlen

I’ve heard from a number of sales executives recently about Procurement’s surprise involvement in a large contract bid. The following seems obvious but evidently in the heat of selling it’s often overlooked. [...]

click to continue → February 25, 2011

Was That Me Whining?

by Chris Arlen

When sales get stuck and buyers won’t budge, sellers’ frustration sets in. Like the smell from a milk carton months past its expiration date, sellers lamentations rise up from management meetings with: [...]

click to continue → February 15, 2011

12 Tips for Great Sales Presentations

by Chris Arlen

Sellers need great sales presentations. However, the majority don’t have them.  As a sales consultant I’ve seen too many of their atrocities. Great slideshows are rare as oxygen on the moon. Minimally [...]

click to continue → February 2, 2011

4 Prejudices Incumbents must Battle

by Chris Arlen

You’re the supplier of a large dollar service contract, successfully delivering for 3 or more years. Now it’s going out for rebid and, unfortunately as incumbent, you’re saddled with some heavy baggage. [...]

click to continue → January 27, 2011

Tyrannosaurus Procurement

by Chris Arlen

In the late Recessionary period Procurement is king when it comes to supplier selection for large contracts. In this evolutionary time, business owners (those who manage the selected supplier) have little to [...]

click to continue → January 17, 2011

The Mystique of Partnership

by Chris Arlen

Every supplier I’ve spoken with wants to be a “partner” with their customers. It’s right up there with other cliches, such as “our service is second to none” and “our people are [...]

click to continue → January 12, 2011

Playing by the Law: 1099s vs. Employees

by Chris Arlen

The beginning of 2011 finds me a little more ornery than normal. May be old age, or an unusually cold winter. Either way here’s a touchy topic and an ornery response. Suppliers [...]

click to continue → January 7, 2011

Top 10 Sales Posts in 2010

by Chris Arlen

As we slowly climb out of the Great Recession, there’s a lot to be thankful for (especially if you still have your sales job). But buyers bought, and will continue to buy; [...]

click to continue → December 16, 2010

Why the Evil Strategy Works

by Chris Arlen

OK, we’re talking about facility service contracts here, not cereal. So, the evil strategy is an intentionally low ball price, one that’s outrageously below market pricing, sometimes lower than labor costs alone. [...]

click to continue → November 29, 2010

5 Hard Knock Customer-Supplier Realities

by Chris Arlen

Try this brief exercise. Think about the most important lessons you’ve learned in life, the truly important ones. –> Now pick the most important one. Your most valuable lesson learned. Got it? [...]

click to continue → November 18, 2010

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →