Reflecting on the Top Sales Tips from 2013

For some VARs (hopefully, the majority of you), 2013 was a banner year. You exceeded your revenue targets, blew past your quota every month, and are rocketing into 2014 with momentum on your side. For some others (hopefully, very few of you), 2013 may have been a year you’d rather forget.

However the last 12 months went, though, I think there’s one thing every VAR should do as we close the books on 2013: Pause for a moment and think about what you can learn from the past year. What could you have done better? Which missteps do you need to avoid in the future? What did you do that worked well—and are those things repeatable? Answering those questions can reveal a lot about what caused you to have a great (or not so great) year, and help you plan ahead for 2014.

To help you do that, here are nine VARGuy articles from the last year that I think will continue to be relevant to the VAR world as we head into next year:

When Your Customers Won’t Move to the Cloud: Your customers may be apprehensive about entering the cloud, but we know this technology is here to stay. This post shows you how to put your customers’ minds at ease and adapt their businesses to the change.

The Value Curve that Wins More Sales: When you’re focused on issues that are at the top of your prospects’ value curve, you’ll better understand what their priorities are and why they care about those things. What is the “value curve”? Read this post to find out.

You’ve Got 3 Seconds to Convince Prospects to Read Your E-Mail. Are You Succeeding?: In today’s hectic world, most of us have become incredibly adept at determining if we need to read an e-mail based solely on that message’s first line. Are you capturing your prospects’ attention?

Sales Managers: Are You Really Teaching Reps to Sell Services?: If your sales reps don’t seem to “get” your services, you may need to a different approach to get them on track and drive more services sales faster.

Why the ‘Book of Business’ Theory is a Bogus Hunter Hiring Strategy: Hiring a sales reps with a “book of business” theory is a pipe dream in IT sales. Most times, the contacts those hunter sales reps claim to have aren’t any more valuable than the contacts you already have.

Why Having No Sales Manager at the Helm is Risky Business: Leadership is just as important in your sales organization as it is in any other part of your business. So, why do so many sales teams operate without a manager in place to call the shots?

When ‘Cleaning a Database’ is Destructive, Not Helpful: All too often, database administrators, marketers and even business owners are quick to purge “old” or “outdated” customer information in the interest of database cleansing. In this post, I explain why that’s not always a good thing.

Are You Building Truly Meaningful Relationships with Social Media?: With the propulsion of social media as a sales tool, salespeople often mistakenly believe that creating connections via social networks qualifies as genuine relationship-building. This post illustrates why that’s not true.

How to Fill Your Pipeline with High-Quality Prospects: While cold-calling has its place when your pipeline is dry, you’ll find you’ll get higher-quality leads if you’ve nurtured prospects before reaching out. This article highlights three highly effective strategies for doing just that.

So, there you have it, a quick review of the top sales and lead generation themes from 2013, and some insight into what to focus on in 2014.

And, speaking of 2014, make sure to come back to this site next week because my next post will help you shift your focus away from 2013 and look ahead to the things you should be doing to hit the ground running next year.

Until then, here’s to a very happy—and safe—New Year!

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert, author of the newly released book, “The Sales Magnet,” and the award winning book, “Selling Against the Goal,” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment.