Boosting sales is top of mind for most business owners these days. this issue of What Works is here to help, with how-to guides on easy sales-boosting techniques, developing excellence in sales efforts, key steps for closing more online sales and selling some of your own goods on one of the most successful sales sites ever -- Amazon.com.

In this week's Q&A I cover a dozen quick-take, "10-Second Solutions" on all kinds of great time and money-saving sites and software for small business and startups. Be sure to visit our What Works for Business blog for other timely ideas and news on the latest solutions for small business. Sign up for the RSS feed to receive automatic updates.





10-Second Solutions for Your Business

Q. Dear Dan: We’re a young startup and we love reading your fast-take solutions of different websites and tools to help us work better and faster. Can you run another list like that? – Sure

A. Dear Sure: I'm constantly on the lookout for the most helpful products, services and solutions for business. Here are a dozen of my latest "10-Second Solution" favorites:




Do Something!
Easy Sales-Boosting Techniques
By Carol Smalley
The phones aren't ringing. Your Web site receives just a handful of daily hits. Your sales numbers are in a slump. Employee morale (including your own) is in a downward spiral. Stop pouting and do something about it.

Improving Your Sales Effort
Guide to Sales Excellence
By George F Franks III
You can have the best innovation, technology, product, marketing, operations and customer services, but if you do not have an excellent sales force, all the rest quickly becomes overhead. Here are the key elements that make a good sales force a great one:

Close the Deal
Closing the Online Sale
By Greg Brown
There's a lot of reasons your e-commerce site isn't exactly bringing in the bacon. Some of them have to do with your product and presentation, but some of it is because your site itself works against closing the sale. Take some tips from the e-selling giants:

Get on Amazon
Selling on Amazon.com
By Amy Gesenhues
Amazon.com has created a customer-centric e-commerce site that allows users to find and purchase new and used products. With a minimal amount of time and effort, you can sell your products to people around the world by following these simple steps:

Startup
Technology
Management
Money and Finance