There is no shortage of advice on business – building it, running it, growing it {ah, ahem hence, our blog}. Much of the wisdom we hear doesn’t resonate with us right away – perhaps not until we’re in circumstances that give it context. But most everyone has those one or two pieces of life changing...Read More

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

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

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

“Next Year” is just a few weeks away. Right about now, you’re decking the halls and putting on party pants to spend special time with friends and family but don’t throw away the rest of this year yet! Now is a great time to lay out your strategy so you can hit the ground running...Read More

Today’s blog tackles the last of the 4 Tenets of Modern Consumers: Collaboration. It didn’t take much to find a relevant example of why we demand this in our partnerships – this story is from this just past week: Alright, STOP. Collaborate and Listen . . . {If you chuckled here, I know you either...Read More