How to Handle a Spike in Sales
As the economy improves, company owners face a new challenge: How to handle a spike in sales. Read story
Susan Greco
How to Reduce Your Cost of Sales
There are some smart ways to trim your cost of sales short of taking the dangerous step of slashing your sales force compensation. Read story
How to Set Up a Sales Tracking Process
By building win-loss analysis into your sales tracking process, you can learn important lessons about your sales force, your value proposition, and your key ... Read story
What's a Fair Sales Quota in 2010?
What's a reasonable sales quota in 2010? SurePayroll president Michael Alter talks about how to make sales compensation fair and motivational even in a weak ... Read story
Personality Testing for Sales Recruits
He can close, but how's his interpersonal sensitivity? A guide to screening sales candidates. Read story
Fighting the Sales Force Blues
How to keep reps motivated when they miss their numbers Read story
Let's Start With an Icebreaker
Summer sales meetings have become common at many private companies, but they are not all fun and games. Read story
Tips on Finding Speakers for Your Next Sales Meeting
How should you select a guest speaker? Some tips. Read story
A World Without Bestsellers
Creating a "long tail" product mix. Read story
The Need for Speed
How to rev up your sales cycle. Read story
When Is It Safe to Hire?
How one group of CEOs got past their fear of hiring salespeople. Read story
Marketing: 1+1+1 = The New Mass Market
The container of Silk Soymilk speaks volumes to individual consumers. All 8 million of them. Read story
A Sales Force of One
Scott Rosen fired his entire sales staff, figuring he could do better all by himself. Read story
A Little Goes a Long Way
What difference does a hundred thou in seed capital make? The answer may surprise you. Read story
Finance: The Lazarus Play
With his pie company teetering on the edge of extinction, Gordon Weinberger marshaled a mix of moxie and marketing to snatch it back from bankruptcy. Read story
United We Stand
A checklist of effective collaboration criteria for solo practitioners. Read story
Finding the Perfect Pitch
Watch three rookies gear up for the investor presentation of a lifetime. Read story
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Presenters
Entrepreneurs learn pretty quickly that making a verbal pitch to investors is very different from submitting a written business plan. Here are seven good pra... Read story
Elements of a Winning Pitch
A presentation to potential investors in your business -- to family, friends, or angels -- should include most of these elements. Read story
Sales: What Works Now
Perplexing as the current sales environment may seem, there are strategies for coping with it. Inc surveys the changing entrepreneurial landscape to... Read story
Special Report: Sales-What Works Now, Part II
Experts take on questions relating to recruiting salespeople, the value of independent reps, geographic sales territories, and sales compensation. Read story
Strap on Your Helmets
How is hard-charging Pat Cavanaugh managing hesitant customers, national uncertainty, and longer sales cycles? He's forecasting 40% growth for next year. Read story
Little Big Company
The fastest growing business in America resides in a Green Acres setting and is run by a couple of non-college-educated brothers whose biggest dream is to ke... Read story
The Inc 500 Almanac
What do we really know about this year's Inc 500? The lowdown on the class of 2001. Read story
The Declaration of Independents
Just when economic bullying by big corporations threatened the whole idea of independent small business, company builders nationwide did the last thing anyon... Read story
The Messenger Is the Medium
A custom-bag maker goes online to find new life -- and ends up curing the one-product-wonder blues. Read story
The Messenger Is the Medium
A custom-bag maker goes online to find new life -- and ends up curing the one-product-wonder blues. Read story
Saints Alive!
Quirky customs and homespun promotional strategies help this minor-league baseball team build a winning brand in its community. Read story
Hot Tip: Partner with Your Banker
Turn your relationship with your bank into a win-win partnership. Read story
The Best Little Grocery Store In America
Green Hills Farms, a small family grocery in upstate New York, has big companies around the country clamoring to know the secrets behind its powerful custome... Read story
As the Talent Turns
The inside story of how one company survived extreme turnover. Read story
Fanatics!
During these soft economic times, small businesses are uniquely positioned to offer something that many lumbering giants can't: peerless customer service. He... Read story
Someone to Watch Over Me
The "RegFair" law acts as a helpline for small businesses dealing with the federal government. Read story
Are You Ready for the Major Leagues?
Is your small company ready to do business with the big boys? One researcher has concluded that many are ill equipped to perform in the big leagues. Take thi... Read story
Hot Tip: Trademark That Idea
"I'd recommend to anyone that you automatically get a national trademark on anything you do. You don't have anything to lose." That poignant advice comes ... Read story
The Soloist: Balancing Act
"The Foot Nurse" of Silicon Valley has a growing one-woman business and time for a home life to boot. Read story
In Praise of the Six-Hour Day
Author John Izzo believes that employees will continue to push for more flexible hours. Read story
Forgo the Trade Shows?
Some entrepreneurs who sell their products to big retailers have decided to forgo more generic trade shows. Read story
The End of Stealth Mode for Patents
It will become harder for companies with new inventions to remain in "stealth mode," thanks to a major change in patent law that was scheduled to take eff... Read story
Snapshots: Hall of Fame Overview
Here's a survey of 30 of the 48 companies in the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame -- an elite group of companies that have appeared on the list at least five t... Read story
