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 just wrapped up an online meeting coaching a sales team on the keys to creating more sales opportunities and we went deep on prospecting. One of the topics that most resonated with these sales hunters was the importance of our mindset and attitude.In this one-minute video, I share that it’s absolutely critical how we
I recorded this video (before the Cardinals 9th inning collapse and painful loss Sunday afternoon) in response to comments on a LinkedIn post referencing a suggestion from my book Sales Truth.This respected sales leader’s post quoted one of my favorite (and most effective) comebacks when a prospect declines your request to meet: “Visit with me
Often, real life and real sales situations provide the best fodder for blog posts. This is definitely one of those cases. Shake your head with me as I recount this true story and conclude with a coaching lesson.A high-performing senior vice president at a large company was looking to engage me to lead a Sales Truth-based
A long, long time ago, a good friend/client and I declared the critical eleven weeks between the U.S. Labor Day and Thanksgiving holidays the Fall Selling Season. For several years I published an annual post asking Are You Ready for the Selling Season Sprint?So, I’ll ask you now: are you (or your sales team) ready?Have you…Cleared your
My wife and I were out for dinner with old friends on Saturday evening at a great spot in downtown St. Louis. My phone started to buzz and I checked to see the lock screen filled with messages from the “Boys.” My son who lives in Indiana heard it first and quickly texted his older
Earlier this week three people from a large client came to visit my business partner and me in St. Louis. We’d never met with these particular individuals before, although we did have some email dialogue and a preliminary phone call before this meeting was scheduled.As my team and I were preparing for the client’s visit
The topic of sales rep turnover has come up several times during recent workshops I’ve led for sales executives and managers. Each company’s situation was a bit different, but there was a similar and dangerous undercurrent I heard from sales leaders that compelled me to share this with you. Managers were expressing their fear of holding
One of the most common (and most deadly) sales leadership sins is when the sales manager plays the role of sales team “hero” instead of “hero-maker.” Whether it be due to pressure, inexperience, insecurity, or a possibly an inflated ego or lack of confidence in team members, bad things happen when managers “do” instead of
Sharpening what I call our “Sales Story” pays more dividends than you can imagine. When your sales story is spot on selling becomes a completely new ballgame. A compelling, customer issue and customer outcome-focused, differentiating message changes everything, and I mean everything! 1. It gives you confidence – confidence to prospect and confidence to meet
“…there are no underemployed true sales hunters. People who have mastered creating and closing sales opportunities are in high demand and command top dollar. There are lots of sellers who can fulfill demand but far fewer who can create it.” -Mike Weinberg in Chapter 6 of Sales Truth My July 4th post boldly declared that sellers
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
