You can have a great Idea. You can have a great Product. You can Be the Best at what you do . . . but if you can’t effectively translate your Value to another person or business and Sell it to them . . . That’s a tough pill to swallow. Selling is all at once the most Complex,...Read More

I try very hard to take the esoteric jargon out of my blogs and posts and discussions with business owners because so much of it is rather nonsensical vocabulary created by sales directors and vp’s to turn into catchy training material. Harsh, perhaps. Accurate, definitely. So when putting on the finishing touches of a course I developed...Read More

In an interview by Paul Watts for his show Sales Reinvented Podcast he asked me “What’s one thing you wish you knew earlier in your sales career?” My answer: “I wish I would have known to be more hardcore at pre-qualifying.” Yup. Pre-qualifying prospects is critical and when I think of all the thousands of...Read More

There is a great commercial out now that reminds about what the true meaning of “Selling” should be. It’s a Capital One pitch for their new “Capital One Cafes” – where they point out that all banks look and feel the same. Their novel idea is to provide a relaxed, easy environment, “A welcoming environment...Read More

When was the last time you were blown away by someone trying to sell you something? That long ago, huh? Maybe never? With the ever-increasing ability to serve ourselves in the pursuit of purchases, as buyers, we’ve been putting a lot of distance between us and sellers until we’re really sure we need someone to...Read More

Why does the sales profession get a bad rap? What’s the number one reason many people don’t want to be approached by a seller? Is it that we think they’re too pushy? Is it that we don’t want to be confronted with a choice or have to reject someone? Is it because we think they’re...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

What would you expect from Ivy League MBA students when it comes to selling? A while back, I had a really cool privilege to offer a sales coaching session to Harvard MBA students! Harvard’s School of Business created an extensive buyer/seller scenario for their students which culminated in a role play where students each took...Read More

How often do you face a stalled sale or wilted opportunity after you propose a solution? This is a GIANT bummer because we know how hard it is to get a prospect’s attention. We hustle and grit it out to make the calls, emails, and connections payoff with conversations and meetings. It’s frustrating when prospects...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