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Daniel Wood

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Country Manager, Looking To Business

104 points

With a background in sales, ranging from B2C to B2B in the form of Junior Account Manager, Account Manager, Key Account Manager, Sales Coach and Office Manager, I have studied different styles of successful salesmen and have learned much about ...

With a background in sales, ranging from B2C to B2B in the form of Junior Account Manager, Account Manager, Key Account Manager, Sales Coach and Office Manager, I have studied different styles of successful salesmen and have learned much about developing quality sales personnel.

I also run a blog and consultancy business in personal development, sales and success. It has been widely appreciated gaining me a group of private students that I have been able to help speed up their careers, in both sales, management and sports.

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May 27, 2011

Daniel Wood and 38 other people answered this question

How long does it take you to write a blog post?

I take about 5-15 minutes to plan the post;
Title, subheadlines and so on.
15 minutes to write the article and last about 15 minutes to edit it.
All in all it takes about 45 minutes, give or take. more

Online Marketing

March 10, 2011

Daniel Wood and 11 other people answered this question

Should you ever put a put a prospect or client on hold to take another call from another prospect?

I would never put a customer on hold. I rather take care of the person I am talking to and try to build our relationship than put them on hold to answer a call from someone else.
First of all you have no idea if the ... more

Sales Management

March 4, 2011

Daniel Wood and 2 other people answered this question

How much time should an Inside Salesperson spend on pre-call planning?

That really depends on your industry. Many inside sales companies just call lots of customers, use the same script and then start "selling" once they get the first "no".
That type of an inside salesman needs almost no preparation before making a call, they might need ... more

Feb. 24, 2011

Daniel Wood and 5 other people answered this question

Is it the quantity of calls or the quality of the conversation?

The point that will determine your success or failure is the quality of your calls. If you make quality calls, to high quality leads you will make sales.
The value of quantity is that once you have a good level of quality, high quantity will give ... more

Inside Sales Strategy

Quality Vs Quantity

Feb. 11, 2011

Daniel Wood and 5 other people answered this question

What do you consider to be "good" telemarketing skills?

The answer to this question will of course change a lot depending on what market you are working with, product and so on.
But I think these 3 are traits that any telefon salesperson need.
1. Hunger - Without a passion for selling you will not be ... more

Telemarketing Reps

Feb. 11, 2011

Daniel Wood is now following

Feb. 3, 2011

Daniel Wood and 1 other person answered this question

What metrics should Inside Sales managers track?

We have picked 2 metrics that we follow more than any else at our company.
1. Time spent talking to customers.
2. How different call lengths effect the conversion rate, we have calculated that all calls that take over 3 minutes have a 30% close rate.
Knowing the ... more

Inside Sales Management

Feb. 3, 2011

Daniel Wood and 7 other people answered this question

Is sales art, science or a hybrid of both; if so, which is necessary and which is optional or...?

Hi Tibor,
This is of course a very interesting question.
My answer is a hybrid for 2 reasons.
1. Sales can be broken down into numbers, activity, conversions and so on.
2. The conversion rates differ from salesman too salesman in ways that makes it impossible to systemetize. Some ... more

Jan. 27, 2011

Daniel Wood and 2 other people answered this question

How long should an interview process be for inside salespeople having 1-5 years of sales experience?

When we are looking for a more experienced sales person we have a process that has worked very well.
What we feel is important to find out is:
1. That they are still "hungry" and ambitious.
2. That they have the humility to learn our companies sales process.
3. ... more

Hiring Best Practices

Jan. 27, 2011

Daniel Wood and 15 other people answered this question

Sales training "worst practices": What are some of the biggest mistakes made in sales training?

Many of the companies I have worked for and with have had the same sales training flaw.
They focus too much on one area;
For example one company I worked for spent 2 weeks on product training, calling it sales training and then sent their sales ... more

Sales Management

Worst Practices

Jan. 20, 2011

Daniel Wood and 9 other people answered this question

Can anyone recommend a good CRM other than Sales force for someone working from a home office?

In Sweden we have a CRM-system called Upsales.com take a look, I really like it. Don't know what it costs though, I am not in charge of paying that bill fortunately. more

Dec. 1, 2010

Daniel Wood and 16 other people answered this question

Sales Enablement: What are the top sales enablement trends to watch in 2011?

Because of the economical problems we have had for the past years a lot has changed and will changed in the world of business and sales.
The time of living off of new customers is over, we need to take care of and nurture the leads ... more

Sales Enablement

Nov. 29, 2010

Daniel Wood and 18 other people answered this question

Sales Enablement Best Practices: What are your 3 tips for successful sales enablement?

As many have written above Sales Enablement can mean different things in different contexts and to different companies. Since I work mainly with the sales force I will try to aswer this from a salesmans perspective.
1. Sales Training: Like any competitor we have to practice ... more

General Management

Nov. 23, 2010

Daniel Wood and 3 other people answered this question

What are the top three attributes or skill sets you look for when hiring an inside sales rep?

In a inside sales rep I do not think personal experience is very important. It is their personal attributes that we need.
1. Hunger and ambition, this is key, if they don't want it, they won't go get it.
2. A quick tongue, they need to be ... more

Nov. 23, 2010

Daniel Wood and 9 other people answered this question

Why are people against taking cold calls more often than before? Are you scared to speak?

Everyone has a lot to do and not enough time to do it.
I think in the past many felt forced to listen to cold calls, but today with the power of the internet people will look information up and contact the ones they want offers ... more

Nov. 23, 2010

Daniel Wood and 8 other people answered this question

Do you think commission is a good way to increase the sales?

Incentives is always a great way to increase sales. You could do it by giving them a cheaper offer on the services you supply or by actually giving them a cash commission.
I think it should work well. more

Referral Programs

Nov. 16, 2010

Daniel Wood and 2 other people answered this question

PPC or Cold Calling - which works best?

It depends on what type of customers you are looking for.
If you work with larger accounts (fewer individual customers and more value/customer) spending the time to cold call is worth it, but if you are working with many small/low value customers I would recommend PPC ... more

Nov. 16, 2010

Daniel Wood and 8 other people answered this question

Key Performance Indicators: Which do you consider relevant?

I would use a combination of sales volume (number of new customers brought in), size of orders and value sold to current customers.
That I have found is a good basis on which to set incentives, motivating salesmen to close as many deals as possible at ... more

Key Performance Indicators

Sales Management

Nov. 1, 2010

Daniel Wood and 4 other people answered this question

What do you think is the single toughest question thrown at a salesperson? And the best answer?

Hi Charles,
"Why should we buy from you?" is such a basic question that I think every salesman should have a prepared answer, if you do not know why your customers should buy from you, then you have no business selling to them.
I think the hardest ... more

Toughest Question

Oct. 23, 2010

Daniel Wood published a brief

5 Ways to Stay Positive

General Management

Personal Development

Oct. 20, 2010

Daniel Wood and 14 other people answered this question

What are the 10 things sales managers should be most worried about in maximizing performance?

There is a lot for us to be worried about. But my top 10 would be:
1. Finding the right people. (Recruitment is difficult).
2. Giving them the right sales training.
3. Creating the right incentives to keep them motivated.
4. A CRM-system that helps them be as efficient ... more

Oct. 19, 2010

Daniel Wood and 2 other people answered this question

What is your opinion on sales training?

Most companies I have worked for have not cared much for sales training. You get the basic 1-2-3 steps to selling, a 1-2 day course and then you are on your own.
At the company I work for now we do a bit more at least.
We ... more

General Management

Sales Representatives

Oct. 19, 2010

Daniel Wood published a brief

Becoming More Efficient Than Your Peers: 7 Time Management Techniques That Will Put You Ahead

General Management

Time Management

Oct. 18, 2010

Daniel Wood published a brief

The 5 Traits of a Start Salesman

Sales Presentations

Oct. 15, 2010

Daniel Wood and 2 other people answered this question

How do you keep your sales reps interested in their training?

Sales training is all about communication.
At our company we use a combination between short daily training and weekly workshops. During these workshops we decide on a subject to discuss and then all the salesmen can put forth their ideas.
This teaches us a lot about their ... more

General Management

Sales Management

Oct. 15, 2010

Daniel Wood and 3 other people answered this question

Should I invest my sales budget in a CRM tool?

Our company could never survive without our CRM-system.
The easy it makes tracking leads, scheduling appointments and making sure salesmen don't call the same customers, save us a lot of time and money.
I think now that you are at 4 salesmen giving them the opportunity to ... more

Information Technology

Oct. 12, 2010

Daniel Wood and 4 other people answered this question

What are some questions that you ask when doing interviews with potential sales reps?

I always ask for examples.
If you ask; how would you describe yourself with three words?
Always ask them to describe the words so that you both understand them the same way.
If they say they are disciplined, ask them to prove it.
If they are ambitious, ask how.
And ... more

Interview Questions

Sales Management

Oct. 12, 2010

Daniel Wood and 9 other people answered this question

My sales reps are in a slump, what do I do?

Hey Gary.
That depends on the reason that they are down.
Is it motivation? The market? A competitor stealing customers?
Whatever the reason you need a different approach so you should start by digging deeper and finding the real reason they are in a slump.
My advice is ask ... more

General Management

Sales Management

Sales Representatives

Oct. 11, 2010

Daniel Wood published a brief

How to Set Goals That Will Make You Rich

General Management

Oct. 9, 2010

Daniel Wood published a brief

How to Organize Your Day to be More Efficient

General Management

Time Management

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Sales Management

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