by Sheri Osborn
What makes baseball a cultural phenomenon? Why do people get so fired up about their teams? Why do they sit for hours in the sun over a period of months and watch thousands of pitches and hundreds of hits when they know that only one team will win the World Series and [...]

by Paul Travis
Since this question is asked every year (or more) by a current or prospective OneAccord client, I thought others might benefit from it:

I admit that the answer — “It depends” — can be a bit frustrating until you think about the fact that Oracle has a different business (and therefore different requirements) [...]

The five areas of concentration summarized in the plan below are the essential elements of successful marketing programs for any size business. OneAccord’s intent was to put sufficient information into your hands to provide a high-level planning document. If this is of use, then please call us to help your organization gain the [...]

Regardless of the best efforts in the other four areas of concentration, someone must ask for the business, even if you have a relationship and even if you have earned the customer’s business historically.
Decisions, especially in complex cases, need a spark to break them from their natural state of stasis. To initiate action to [...]

OneAccord knows that what happens from this point forward is critical in the selling process, and remains a key element of the marketing tasking. If the offering of the client solves a problem of set of problems, then it follows the education process of how our client can help is at least partially linear [...]

Awareness:
Most companies look to generate leads as the central focus of awareness program. Supporting this activity is “some PR”. The process of a sustaining a market leading lead generation program depends on a complete understanding of the layered nature of market awareness.
Once an understanding of the variables affecting awareness is obtained, the client [...]

Logically, once an organization has a list of prospects with the right profile, it is time to take their offering to market. In real terms, many organizations get through the first step and immediately use a “divide and conquer” sales methodology.
By this, we mean they divide the list among their sales team. The [...]

Five Points of Concentration
OneAccord employs a five-point plan with our clients to gather information and understand where they are and where they perceive themselves to be, with respect to their market and customers. If a gap exists between perception and reality, our services aid in bringing the client in line with market realities. [...]

For the past 17 years, John Asher has been studying the difference between average and top salespeople.
A TEC speaker and former TEC member, he has discovered the top 10 skills of super salespeople. OneAccord supports these tips for super sellers:
1. Ask questions and listen to the customer.
2. Ask for, and follow up on, referrals.
3. Focus [...]

We invite you to join in the classic debate, and weigh in: If you want to motivate sales people, is it more effective to use “carrots” or “sticks”?
If you pick sticks, you believe that sales performance metrics are powerful motivation tools when combined with firm requirements to “make your numbers”. Of course, celebrating successes [...]