Well, the quarter is now over and the results are being measured.  For many, this quarter was a whisper thin success due to economic uncertainty and, as such, management wants to know why.  More often then not you will hear the old argument:
Sales: we didn’t make the quarter because the leads were weak and unqualified
Marketing: [...]

Working for a start-up, sales people have a huge challenge: they need to exploit general opportunities while under incredible pressure to show results quickly.  The sales folks need to educate potential customers about products and adjust to customers’ buying processes while also chasing down and making every possible sale in order to drive business.  That’s [...]

Best practices for a sales organization usually include having a defined product list, by sku, that includes a list price in multiple currencies (e.g. USD, CAD, Euro’s, GBP, etc.).  Discounting guidelines should be provided for the products in order to empower each sales representative so that they know how much they can discount when they [...]

Sales commissions are almost always based on the invoice amount whether it be a strict percentage of the invoice amount or the invoice amount as a percent of overall quota.  However, I am often asked what to do about sales commissions if the invoice is uncollectible (e.g. becomes bad debt expense)?  In a perfect world [...]