Not sure why it took working full-time for 35 years before pulling the trigger to make this happen, but I am so thankful that I finally listened to advisors, mentors, friends, and peers telling me to do it. I recently completed my first-ever sabbatical. 30 days off… The entire experience was wonderful, instructive, life-giving, convicting,
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I recently shared why it’s so important to Plan Your Sales Calls. Today I’ll highlight one of the most powerful techniques to properly position yourself with a buyer and help set you apart from the crowd. Benefits of Sharing Your Agenda: No one wants to be taken on a ride. I don’t know about you,
In many businesses, it’s not easy to secure an appointment with a target prospect. The initial sales call is a big deal. Because we worked so hard to get there, it’s critical that we bring our A-game. For coaching and content-building purposes, I’ve gone along on a few calls lately as the extra man. I probably
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another…” Hebrews 10:25 I’ve been working with several mid-size sales teams that brought the above verse to mind (albeit out of context). For a variety of reasons, none of these companies were holding any type
Yesterday I was on the final leg of what had become a 20-hour journey home from Toronto. I was worn out from working hard with a new client and exhausted from too much travel. The airports were a mess from the daily pounding of severe storms and my flight home was cancelled at the last
I’m from New York, although I’ve been in St. Louis for 19 years and have lost most of the accent and some of the harsh edges. But I still like to make extreme statements – the kind that would fit as a headline for the New York Post. And I’ve learned from many consulting engagements,
When you hear “sales call,” what mental image pops into your mind? I love going along on sales calls with my clients. I always learn a ton, it’s fun being the extra person in room and I get some great fodder for future coaching content. It is amazing how the salesperson’s mental picture of how
Playing catch-up is not usually fun. And being perpetually “late to the party” is a common reason salespeople fail at winning new pieces of business. I’m a fan of having a strategically selected, focused, finite list of Target Prospects. Proactive is one of my favorite sales words, and I am all for doing whatever necessary
A few clients have recently asked me to interview candidates for new business development sales positions. I love interviewing people. It’s a fascinating experience and a challenge. I have found that many executives have a hard time identifying successful sales hunters. They approach the interview with certain biases and seem to fall easily for the
My mentor and former sales manager used to declare that sales is as much a matter of the heart as it is about the head. I had planned to post some fresh sales content last night, but watching the situation in Japan messed up both my mind and my heart. Seeing your house collapse or
It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything to cause it. The waters were poisoned way before you got here. Other morons messed it up for us and we get to live with the consequences. Prospects (buyers) have an automatic, almost instinctive reflex reaction to salespeople. And it’s not a positive one. You know exactly
Sometimes the solution to our sales problem is so simple that we can’t see it. I am pretty sure that this is one of those cases. What We Want We (sellers and sales leaders) ALL crave a full, healthy (fat), balanced, moving pipeline of sales opportunities. What We Typically Do Unfortunately, most of us in
Sales Friends, I get it. We want to be liked. We want to be seen as responsive. We want to show customers that we care and that we listen and that we can follow instructions… All of those things are wonderful. But there’s just one little problem: very often defaulting to our prospect’s (or their
This is Trevor. He’s the senior executive of a company he founded in the UK. He’s also an amazing human being. I think it is fair to say that after the few days we just spent together at our Supercharge Your Sales Leadership event in Atlanta, our relationship crossed from client-coach to friends. The way
