At a time when companies around the world are being buffeted by dire economic conditions, many of their sales organizations are ill-equipped to weather the storm due to surprisingly ineffective sales forces beset by people problems that limit their ability to perform.

Done right, online marketing fills your company’s pipeline with better clients at a fraction of what print-based marketing costs. But are you doing it right?

Jeff Bezos, who is famous for his crazy laugh and sturdy optimism, gins up strategies a little differently at Amazon.com. Here’s what he thinks about the future and his customers:

Listing your company on national and local barter networks can help save money and generate new customers!

Margaret Rudkin proved that it’s possible to bounce back from adversity to achieve success.

The word “recession,” by itself, has been known to send small business owners into a panic. But worrying is counterproductive. You can’t get anything done when you’re in panic mode.

Are your salespeople bogged down in administrative minutiae?

If you have salespeople on staff, how do your customers view them? A new study says the picture isn’t pretty. To turn the tide, focus on these five strategies to successfully manage your salespeople ...

Here's a case study of a company looking to improve customer service without taking on extra employees or investing in new technology.

More companies today understand the importance of knowing how their customers and prospects view their organizations. They also realize that customer viewpoints can change quickly. Here's how to gather customer data as objectively, accurately and quickly as possible ....

At its most basic level, leadership is measured by getting things done. That’s why leaders have to be performance-driven in everything.

Mistakes happen in every business. But they’re typically the direct result of poor planning, organizational deficiencies and weak execution—not just dumb luck.

Two business-minded brothers are confirming the idea that people do better with fewer choices, saying it’s better to think inside the box.

In these tough economic times, making sure the cash keeps flowing into your business is crucially important. To help you boost your coffers, this guide outlines 10 inexpensive and effective ways to boost your sales.

Exercising good judgment isn’t a gift bestowed from above. It’s a three-part process you can learn and perfect: preparing, making the call and executing it.

On the fan side, there’s Nikki Vinci, who a few years ago heard a song by the Damnwells, went to the band’s web site and bought a T-shirt. She not only became a customer of Musictoday, a low-key fulfillment house serving artists, she eventually went on to manage dozens of its online stores, including sites for Tiger Woods, Led Zeppelin and the Damnwells.

Renee Shepherd, a pioneer in introducing seeds from around the world to American gardeners, usually talks so fast that people struggle to catch her drift. But she’s made herself understood on one point: the quality of seeds.

If you were a Major League Baseball (MLB) team with lagging revenues, what would you do? Build a bigger stadium with more revenue-producing seats? In the business of baseball, bigger isn’t always better.

Ask customers what they don’t want when conducting a survey.

Reason: Identity fraud is rising fastest in rural areas of the Midwest and West, according to a new report by ID Analytics.

When bad news threatens to explode into a crisis, a leader’s first line of defense is having a plan in place.

Innovation is firmly back in fashion these days, in part because it’s just cyclical and in part because business thinker and author Peter Drucker, who died in 2005, expounded on it years ago.

Jim Kilts, now former CEO of Gillette, was the first CEO the company hired from the outside in more than 70 years. That was in 2001, and his first action was to boost performance through the ranks.

Continuous improvement applies to people as well as products.

It is widely known that McKinsey, the worldwide consulting firm, hires only the brightest graduates from business schools nationwide. Less well-known are the firm’s tactics for getting the most from those rising stars after they come on board.