One of the hardest employee positions to fill right now is that of Sales Professional. My LinkedIn inbox and email are hit 4 or 5 times a week with business owners and recruiters asking for referrals of qualified and experienced Sales Professionals. I also see on LinkedIn many sales people boomerang in sales positions. Through...Read More

Last week, I had to have an unexpected surgery on my sinuses. At the doctor’s office one day and scheduling an urgent surgery for the following day! Wow – talk about a sudden disruption to your “status quo”. One of the first things I had to do was to create an account and login to...Read More

In our business and professional life, sometimes the hardest things for us to grasp is that working harder isn’t always the answer to becoming better. We all get busy “Making the donuts”, servicing customers or accounts and making sure we produce what we’ve promised. However, tomorrow’s orders are never certain, but competition and new obstacles...Read More

We are hard wired to protect the status quo. Find your new mantra for change here: This past week, I was preparing relevant stories and “sticky” examples to deliver the sales module at a conference for entrepreneurs; I was struck with admiration for the people who had signed up for this event. These people are...Read More

For years, to become better at Sales and Selling, sales people and business owners have focused on closing techniques or perfecting their pitch and offers. With the big flip in control of the sales process transferring to the buyer, in order to become better at selling now, we must study what factors influence how and...Read More

What is “Audience Development” and how do you know if you need to turn your focus and resources there? Audiences are people whom you’ve captivated or engaged for some span of time with some interesting thing, offer or thoughts. When you focus on providing value and being useful in your customers’ worlds, you are being...Read More

Is it hot in here? Or maybe that’s the heat of competition you’re feeling. You’re sweating at the cheaper, faster, bigger or slicker new kids on the block, trying to eat away at your market share and customers, clients or donors. All Selling Agency clients bring up “The Competition” in the first few minutes of...Read More

Buckle up, Cowboys and Cowgirls. If you’re still selling like it’s 1979 or even 1999, you’re in for a rough ride. There is a new Sheriff in town. Her name is “The Buyer” and she’s got bigger guns and is quicker on the draw, dropping sellers with old tired sales techniques faster than you can...Read More

Sellers have traditionally focused on buyers’ price and budget as their biggest obstacles. Guess what, your first {and sometimes biggest} hurdle is Time. On any given day, the average person makes thousand of decisions – both consciously and in “auto-pilot” mode. We make over 200 decisions every day just about FOOD! {Pancakes, French Toast, or...Read More

With several Sales Kick Off meetings on the books for this first quarter, we have a lot of “Selling” talk going on in our office as we develop content, slides and breakout sessions. The one thing we’re NOT talking about in our Sales Kick Off meetings: Sales Techniques. Selling has never been about Technique ....Read More