Sales Management For Dummies
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As a sales manager, you'll have to communicate in writing. Aside from verbal communication, your ability to communicate in writing says a lot about you as a person, a professional, and a manager. Whether you're constructing a sales letter, a memo, or writing an article for the company newsletter, nothing looks worse than misusing you're and your or there, their, and they're.

Like it or not, people judge you on your ability to write properly. You don't have to be William Shakespeare or Stephen King, but you should be able to put together a few paragraphs without looking like a high school dropout.

People are continually surprised at the number of seemingly professional people who misspell words or simply cannot construct a logical sentence. You may see it a lot. Note: There is no such word as alot. Stop using it. Now.

Again, if business writing is an area you feel uncomfortable with, then by all means seek help. There are far too many avenues to get better to sit there and wallow in your lack of skills. Do something about it.

You're a manager now, you need to not only act and sound like one, you need to write like one. If you're several years removed from an English course and aren't sure how to properly format a good business letter, look it up. Although many of the rules can be learned from a class you took class many (many) years ago, try to keep up with current styles and acceptable forms.

One of the main things to focus on when writing is to ask yourself, "Who is my reader?" Then simply write to that person. Don't try to write below his level or above it — just write to him.

Finally, it's great to use spell-check and all the handy, dandy little tools built into your word processor, but nothing beats reading what you've written aloud. When writing a letter, print it out and read it out loud. Slowly. Read it slow enough that you read what the letter says, not what you intended to write — sometimes those two are entirely different things.

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About the book author:

Butch Bellah is an expert salesperson, trainer, author, motivational speaker, and one-time stand-up comedian. For more than 30 years, he has honed his sales skills and trained others in the fine art of gaining more appointments, winning more business, and retaining more customers.

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