Sometimes, when I’m talking with salespeople, something comes out of my mouth and I think, “Damn! I wish I’d recorded that. That was a really great sound bite!” It happens A LOT. Last week, I actually stopped to write down one of those verbal gems while discussing time and productivity with a team member. This...Read More

It’s a brand spanky New Year. As most people are, you’re probably pumped to put the last year behind you. The New Year always feels like a clean slate – full of promise and possibilities. Many of you may have plotted out budgets, planned expenses, or set goals and perhaps cemented your strategies with a...Read More

Thanksgiving signals the official rounding of the corner for wrapping up the business year. While never an excuse that I’ve subscribed to (or let my sales reps use), it can be extremely challenging to “do business” at this time of year. It’s all downhill after turkey day. Holiday parties, office potlucks, client gifts, employee parties,...Read More

Not to name drop but I have some extremely smart friends and colleagues that have written and are writing amazing sales books. I’ve reviewed a lot of them here on The Pipeline blog and usually bring a few with me when I go to train a sales team. Many of my clients are devout readers...Read More

Helping sellers build their super sales skills and moving sales teams to outperform their competition puts us squarely in a category to be “Challengers.” Our job is to challenge your status quo – to challenge your mindset, to change behaviors, and to inspire actions. This, as you can imagine, is received differently by people. Much...Read More

Are you lagging or leading? Let me share with you a bit of my diagnostic process. When I talk with sales leaders or business owners about their sales teams, I ask, “tell me about their performance?” Their response is usually something along the lines of, “Well, we missed our target last quarter,” or “We’ve had...Read More

As a salesperson, this is a tough time of year. In addition to being difficult to move business forward during summer, it’s hard not to hyperventilate or get all crunchy when it comes to YOU taking time off for vacation. What happens if that elusive buyer is FINALLY ready to roll when you’re out and...Read More

It’s presumptuous to think that your customers don’t already have a solution for the service or product you provide. Perhaps presumptuous isn’t the right word. “Naive” maybe? Of course, they already use someone else. Their need doesn’t usually fall into YOUR lap unless you’re strictly an inbound rep responding to inquiries or leads – which...Read More

“Don’t you just LOVE meetings!” . . . said probably no one ever. Sales meetings, in particular, were usually met with an eye roll so hard from me that I could examine the back of my brain. Time after time, whether they were weekly, monthly, or scheduled on a whim, sales meetings devolved into sessions...Read More

This is not a “let’s trash small business discussion.” It’s really more of a love letter to small business a plea for you to change so that you can compete with your online retail competition. Two weeks ago I started the process to try to make and buy custom t-shirts for my volleyball team. I...Read More