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Why Salespeople Should Write and Present Individual Business Plans

It is surprising how few sales organizations ask their people to draft annual sales (business) plans. For fifteen years I I’ve witnessed the power of having every member of the sales team write, and when possible, present, business plans to sales management, senior execs, or even better, to the members of sales team. Why Individual …

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30 Things I Wish Salespeople Would STOP…

I am tired of seeing salespeople flailing, failing and whining, quoting morons and false teachers, executing horrendous sales process, acting like amateurs, and shooting their own sales effort in the foot. The list below stemmed from a twitter rant several years ago where I reeled off consecutive tweets proclaiming what I wish salespeople would STOP doing …

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8 Ugly Reasons Sales Calls Derail

Salespeople are often sloppy, particularly when it comes to structuring and conducting initial/discovery sales calls. What’s perplexing is how many sellers simply take for these hard-earned customer/prospect meetings for granted. Today, it takes so much effort and energy to secure a meeting with a key prospect, yet salespeople don’t prep or plan anywhere near as much …

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Are You or Your Sales Team Just Chasing Opportunities Instead of Targeting Strategic Accounts?

I love a warm lead as much as the next guy. And we can all certainly understand why most salespeople start at the bottom of their sales funnels and work their way up. That is the default mode of most sellers, right? They start their sales day by obsessing over the hottest deals in the pipeline …

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If Cold Calling is Dead I Guess My Client Didn’t Really Secure This Dream Prospect Meeting

I had an experience with one of my client’s top salespeople that prompted me to break out a favorite Princess Bride quote. Like many of you, I’m tired of hearing from today’s nouveau sales experts that prospecting is Dead; that it’s foolish and stupid to even think about picking up the phone to proactively call a prospect …

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Maybe It’s Your Sales Approach Getting You Treated Like Just a Vendor and Commoditized?

I get it. The “system” seems to be set up to commoditize sellers. There are procurement people with letters after their names that specialize in a special form of torture. Dreaded RFPs. Invitations to come do your Dog and Pony Show or present a capabilities overview. Buyers who seem disinterested in why and how you, your company, and your …

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Life is Too Short and the Stakes are Too High Not to Tell the Truth

How much time and trouble would we save each other if we all committed to being 100 percent truthful 100 percent of the time? It’s a crazy thought, but when you really think about it, it is amazing how often we don’t tell people the truth. Sometimes we are scared. Sometimes just too nice. Or …

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If Sales Managers Are Not Coaching Their Salespeople Then Who Is?

The title of this post isn’t meant to be rhetorical. I’m serious. If sales managers can’t coach, won’t coach, or don’t know how to coach their people, then who is? Back in the day (I have enough gray hair now to use that expression), sales managers were the ones responsible for developing their people. Many …

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Bad Things Happen When You Turn Discovery Sales Calls into Presentations

Readers, be warned. I am angry and frustrated from seeing way too many initial/discovery sales calls/meetings that are supposed to be dialogues turned into presentations. Point to all the insight selling data you want. Quote the (great book) The Challenger Sale all day long. Yes, we need to bring value to sales calls and be prepared …

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7 Real Sales Issues I’m Tackling with Real Companies Right Now

Since returning from vacation, it’s been a whirlwind… kicking off a handful of new consulting clients, wrapping up a longer-term engagement, and leading New Sales. Simplified. workshops in several cities across North America. In my last post I promised to share the real-world sales issues I’m seeing and tackling in various companies. While these clients …

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