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If you can't describe your own products without resorting to marketingspeak, you're losing sales. Here are 3 mistakes to avoid. Most product descriptions suck, especially when they’re written by marketing people who have never sold anything.

The five questions you're afraid to ask a buyer are actually the key to increasing sales and ramping up efficiency. Hey, no one ever said sales was easy.

You are. This case study proves that customer attrition has little to do with the economy or prices. Retaining existing customers is a challenge for any business.

Everyone at my company understands that the next sale begins when the customer says yes, and making that sale is part of their job.

On Black Friday, Patagonia ran a full-page ad in The New York Times telling consumers not to buy one of their jackets because it takes so much water and energy to make. This was one element of the company's Common Threads initiative, a brilliant brand-within-a-brand that offers a roadmap for companies trying to promote themselves as environmentally friendly

Yeah, you read right. Here's why most sales forecasts fail, and how to craft one that will be more accurate.

Transaction costs suck up to $50 billion a year out of the economy. But they could be on their way out. Here's why.

In short: No one cares about your story the way you're telling it. Try one of these tactics instead. Every business has a story , but most of those stories are boring.

Checking in with IBM, comScore, Mercent, and Envirosell to play Cyber Monday quarterback. Or, as IBM's John Squire calls it: "The best day ever." Cyber Monday, which was invented by the National Retail Federation in 2004, was little more than a marketing gimmick until this year

Is it possible to brand an entire country for less than $200,000? Or, for less than $2,000, can you brand a person so successfully that they create headlines worldwide? Here are three cases of successful, yet cheap marketing stunts

How do you rein in your lackluster marketing team?

Retailers cashed in on Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, but experts caution against any premature victory dances. In the aftermath of the nation's biggest shopping weekend, storeowners and retailers have plenty to be thankful for: voracious consumers blasted through modest sales projections this past weekend, spending some $52 billion from Thursday to Sunday, and about a billion more on Cyber Monday. Though the numbers certainly seem to indicate a strong holiday sales season, experts suggest that with nearly four weeks left until Christmas, it's hardly time to celebrate.

This and more important news from your Fast Company editors, with updates all day.

A sales meeting is no time to talk about the weather.

If youre going to spend thousands of dollars for a trade show booth, get your moneys worth.