Blogs from Art Waskey

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Cutting Dead Inventory Costs with Advanced Inventory Management

Reducing dead inventory is essential for distribution companies to stay competitive. As a senior executive, I once faced a period when our obsolete stock hit 5% of annual sales. To tackle this, I initiated weekly meetings with outside sales reps to review slow-moving...

To Retain Employees Look to your Managers

Look to your managers Managers are the link to employee retention. The management consulting firm Gallup specializes in the science of employee engagement. Also, their surveys have found that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. If you have a turnover...

Retain Employees using these Six Questions

Employee retention Employee retention is essential to a successful business.  When I reflect on my time as a sales manager, I often think of the employees who got away. I wonder why some people stayed with the company, and others left.  More specifically, I...

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Sales Strategies for the Digital Age

Develop commercial insight In their seminal 2011 work, The Challenger, Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson set the stage for the sales strategies needed in...

An Effective Calendar System

The digital calendar Today’s digital calendars offer highly effective calendar systems that greatly improve our ability to manage time. When properly used, a digital calendar serves as a planner,...

3 Tips for Business Growth

I enjoyed 47 wonderful years in a career as a sales executive and leader, seeing tremendous business growth during that time. When I reached “retirement” age, I decided to leave my job of 34 years....
5 Reasons Contracts Work

5 Reasons Contracts Work

I remember when your word was your bond and was all that was needed to form an agreement. In the last 20 years, however, verbal contracts have all...

The New Face-to-Face

The New Face-to-Face

When I retired in November of 2018, I knew I wanted to continue to chase my other passions: writing, public speaking, and consulting. When I...

3 Reasons to “Just Do It!”

3 Reasons to “Just Do It!”

Our company has a great motto: “Do what you say you are going to do, how you say you are going to do it, when you say you are going to do it, no...

Turning a Bid into Business

Turning a Bid into Business

I was traveling with one of our sales representatives when he informed me that we needed to stop at an account and pick up their annual bid request....

4 Lessons from a Mattress Salesman

4 Lessons from a Mattress Salesman

My wife had recently noted that our bed was beginning to have two distinct sags, and so on my lunch break I stopped in a mattress store.  A...

What’s Your Perspective?

What’s Your Perspective?

How important is perspective to your success in sales? Consider this. A shoe salesman finds himself on a remote island among a tribe of people who...

Getting the Call Back

Getting the Call Back

You try and try to get a potential client you know needs you to call back, or email, or whatever. Check out this story and couple tips to convert...

The New Face-to-Face Call

The New Face-to-Face Call

Is virtual sales the future? The most outgoing professionals in business, salespeople, are now required to stay home due to pandemic quarantines. As...

Knowing What your Customer Means

Knowing What your Customer Means

Understanding your customer’s goals is critical to success in sales. If you don't know what the customers goals or needs are, you may be left...

The Time for Prospecting

The Time for Prospecting

Making prospective calls is always an important part of a sales reps’ agenda, but sometimes prospecting doesn't take as high of a priority as it...

Price Versus Value

Price Versus Value

Have you found yourself frustrated by customers who seem to be shopping for the lowest price?  Does the term “bottom feeder” sometimes feel...

Time to think SMART

Time to think SMART

One of my best salespersons recently approached me in frustration, saying, “I’m spending too much effort on things that don’t really matter and not...

Look, Listen, Learn, and Ask for Help

Look, Listen, Learn, and Ask for Help

A sales rep new to our company attended an intensive training program given by one of our primary vendors. He was very excited about what he had...

Social Selling Anyone?

Social Selling Anyone?

I was recently reminded of social media’s critical importance to marketing when asked by Vicara Books, the publisher of my latest book, how many...

Why the Confusion?

Why the Confusion?

Are customers missing your message? Here are four potential reasons why. Learn these and become better equipped to make that sale!

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm

When a potential customer isn’t truly excited about the product you offer, perhaps they don’t realize their need and how your product will help them. What do you do?

When Should You Really Leave

When Should You Really Leave

Do failed meetings really mean the opportunity is dead? Check out three ideas to extend prospective sales calls and make new contacts in this weeks Art of Sales article.

Aim For Excellence

Aim For Excellence

Defining Excellence Successful Sales managers constantly search for measures of excellence for their sales professionals, keys to unlock their...