Have you ever been at a meeting when someone is talking about his or her vision for the organisation and somebody interrupts to announce that there are no loo rolls in the gents? Have you ever been bored at a presentation -- when all you wanted was an over view and instead you got War and Peace?

Martin Limbeck describes how sales professionals can get back in the fast lane--even in tough times with budget cuts, well informed clients, and comparable products. He shows that the ability to sell is within all of us. What it takes to be successful is the right attitude and tenacity.

After years of The Sales Consultancy getting called into improve companies' sales, experience suggests there's a good chance your team could be off the standard required. That's why I list below my 10 Reasons Why Sales Managers Lose Their Jobs. Check you and your team against these common mistakes in sales. Nobody does it on purpose, everybody's busy. Of course. But if you're losing sales, you're losing revenue, you're losing profits. And you need to do something about it. Check yourself and/or your team against these common mistakes...

How resilient are you? Reading a recent newspaper article by Adrian Furnham, professor of psychology at University College London, reminded me of just how importance resilience is when it comes to achieving success. In fact I would go as far as to say that you would struggle to succeed in anything without resilience.

In my role I get exposed to lots of presentations and pitches -- so I thought I'd offer you some pointers for when you next present. Some of these tips seem obvious (but sadly not practiced enough) and others less so. So, whether it's a one minute presentation at a networking event, or a 1 hour pitch for a life-changing contract, pick out the ones that will help you personally.

Brilliant sales results do not happen by accident. Of course there'll be an occasional fluke - but on the whole, sustained sales success certainly does not happen by chance. To be relaxed, confident and in control -- and ultimately successful in sales -- takes some level of preparation...

Despite the onslaught of social media and on line networking, 'real life' networking is still a crucial element of many companies' sales and marketing strategies. Quite right too - there are massive benefits to be had from attending networking events.

We as sales professionals have to be absolutely on top of our game. As Steven Covey puts it in his 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People' we have to 'Sharpen Our Saw'! So lets sharpen our email marketing skills. Let's make sure we get it right in our email campaigns to give us the best chance of sales success.

Has Sepp Blatter failed at FIFA -- or just received some timely feedback? I'd love to ask him! There's no such thing as Failure... Just results! Some results you'll like. Some results you don't like. The key thing is to learn from each of your experiences.

Do you know customers that have been in the same job since time began? Or that have the same lunch every day? Or lived in the same house for decades? In sales psychology terms we call them 'sameness' people. They simply don't like change, certainly not in the contexts mentioned. Then again you may know customers who revel in change -- at work, possibly at home, again it can depend on the context. We call these 'difference' people. There is no right or wrong -- but if you can identify these particular characteristics in your customers, increasing sales is easy! How about you?