Salesforce Canada

Salesforce knows how important small businesses are as a powerful engine for growth and in driving Canada’s innovation and employment, which is why we’re helping them with our Small Business Contest. The Small Business, Big Impact Contest aims to shine a spotlight on the amazing successes of entrepreneurs, celebrate their big contributions and to inspire other businesses.

The title of his book may sound a little scary, but Anthony ‘Sales Assassin’ Caliendo is here to help you, not hurt you. In The Sales Assassin: Master Your Black Belt In Sales, Caliendo takes readers through a multi-stage program to help salespeople improve their ability to connect with customers, close deals and grow revenue for their organization.

As Canadians, we can sometimes be our own worst critics. Yes, we’re smaller in population than other countries and we are right next door to the world’s largest superpower, but recent data suggests those launching a startup here may have made a great choice.

Even on those days when Canadian small and medium-sized business owners feel they aren’t quite getting as much done as they’d like, they should take heart in the fact that, according to the Business Development Bank of Canada, they’re still having a major impact on our national economy.

Entrepreneurs and other business people have come to use the word “traction” a little differently than its literal definition of how a tire grips the road. For startups, traction is when you’ve not only developed a great business idea or product but are gaining momentum in terms of sales, hires and other growth markers. With that in mind, the recent Traction conference, which made its debut in Vancouver last week was aptly named.

It may not always be easy to define, but most managers know what strong employee engagement looks like when they see it.

What works for some doesn't work for others. This infographic has a tip or two for everyone—from cleaning up your CRM to scheduling meetings for the afternoon.

True innovators — the kind of people who launch the most successful startups —are not always very satisfied people. In fact, they tend to be restless with things that take too long, or that are more complicated or cumbersome than they should be.

By the time you finish reading this sentence, there’s a good chance someone in Canada will have dumped one of the companies they do business with, or at least be thinking about it.

When times are tough – whether it’s poor sales, customer complaints or staffing issues – businesses may find little comfort in knowing they’re not alone. But that’s often because they’re still struggling with problems in isolation, rather than learning from their peers in non-competitive firms.