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Doyle Slayton

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Doyle Slayton

Call Me at 214.494.9315

Doyle Slayton is an internationally recognized Sales and Leadership Strategist, Speaker, and Blogger. He is Co-Founder of xoombi, a sales acceleration company and sales driven marketing agency that works with CXO's to develop, implement, and execute inbound marketing and inbound sales strategies. xoombi strengthens your outbound with inbound to help grow your business.

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Recent Posts

How to Resolve Sales Management Catch 22s

When it comes to sales management, it's funny to think about how many “no win” situations managers can get sucked into. These can lead to difficult conversations, and we’ve all been there.

For example, employees often complain about how their manager didn’t train them on “something.”  Yet when the manager schedules a formal training, those same employees complain about losing valuable selling time.

Another example revolves around the idea of micromanagement. The employee who at first complains about needing space, will later turn around and accuse the manager of “spending time with everyone else but me.”

How to Set Up New Employees for Success

When new employees walk in the door, do they feel like you're expecting them?

It's surprising how many companies struggle with onboarding and new employee training. New employees walk in on their first day excited and ready to go! They walk up to the receptionist, introduce themselves and get a look that says, "What's your name again? Who are you here to see?"

Your Selling Process Doesn't Have To Be a Roller Coaster Ride

Most new appointments are not set on the first call attempt. It often takes six or seven attempts to even get your foot in the door.

The key to a successful selling process comes with establishing a pattern of pipeline building and follow-up, and the best reps master the art of managing their leads through a CRM.

Many reps will tell you that they're organized and that they have "their own" system, but look at their work space and you’ll find that they have paper lists and sticky notes spread across their desk. You're laughing because you know exactly who I'm talking about.

3 Steps to Take Control of the Sale

Do you ever feel like you're losing control of the conversation during a prospecting call or sales appointment?

You quickly realize you better regain control of the sale, or you're going to lose the deal.

Some prospects engage you with a multitude of questions around product features. Can your software do this? Can it do that? At first, you think "Wow" this customer is really interested! Thirty minutes later you realize...wait a minute, we're nowhere close to getting this deal.

7 Reasons Why You Should Leave A Sales Voicemail

I spent the early part of my sales career believing that leaving sales voicemail messages was a waste of time.

Why? Because return phone calls are rare, and I preferred calling multiple times until I finally got a voice-to-voice connection with the decision maker. I felt like it kept me in control of the follow up process and was the most efficient way to crank out more calls throughout the day; I figured I’d save 45+ seconds per call by not leaving messages.

But the game has changed: Prospects are hiding behind caller ID and aren't answering their phones. No matter how often or what time of day, they just aren’t answering. When I call over and over again and never get an answer, it’s like spinning my wheels.

3 Ways Marketing Can Generate More Sales Appointments [UPDATED]

The most difficult part of a salesperson’s job is finding interested prospects and getting the appointment. 

The solution is to create prospecting alignment between marketing and sales. We need to be more strategic about our prospecting list. Stop calling everybody and start focusing on real prospects.

Executing on the strategy can appear complicated, highly variable, and overwhelming at first, but teamwork between marketing and sales determines its success.

Why You Might Want to Try This Prospecting Sales Tactic

 
Should salespeople should ask, "Is this a good time to talk?" as part of their telephone prospecting sales strategy?

This topic originally came up during a sales meeting when a salesperson suggested callers ask the prospect, "Is this a good time to talk?" He said this technique differentiates him from other sales people by positioning him as someone who is respectful of the prospect's time. It also allows him to create a warm call situation where he can follow-up in the future.

Although I've never been one to use this technique, I started thinking about ways it could be used as an effective sales tactic for those who choose to use this approach.

5 Questions For First Time Sales Appointments

Salespeople and managers get excited about developing new opportunities with first time appointments, but there are big challenges to overcome.

First of all, new appointments don't come easy. One right or wrong move early in the conversation gets you into or out of the game.

Secongly, many of your prospects know (or think they know) everything about you and your competitors and have formed strong opinions about your company and your capabilities. On the other end of the spectrum, there are prospects who know they need to do something, but they're overwhelmed with information and have no clear direction for what they want to do.

3 Ways to Ensure Accurate Sales Projections

Sales projections are among the most common challenges for sales people and their managers. Why? What causes these forecasts to be so far off the mark? There are a few reasons. Some of which include:

  • Over optimism: People think it’s about about being positive.
  • Sales people need to buy some time and keep their managers off their backs, so they tell their managers what they want to hear.
  • The team and the manager collectively lack an understanding of the business and their sales cycle.
  • The deadliest culprit of all: Carrying over prospects who push month after month and keeping them on your projections report.

Sales Demos: Where Deals Go to Die

“We have a great product; just get them to the demo, and the software sells itself!”

Wouldn’t that be nice? ...If only it were true.

Software rarely sells itself, but over and over again, I see software companies skipping critical steps in the sales process to get to the demo.

Here’s how the sales process plays out for companies who make this mistake.

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