I surveyed a sales team recently – prior to a Skills Building session on Pushback, Objections, and Negotiation – and asked them some of the most common obstacles they face in business development. Their answers didn’t surprise me, but one of the things about their answers that I pointed out really made them think –...Read More

We spend a huge amount of energy working with our clients on the early stages of their pipeline. Right now, at this time in history, the demand for our customers’ attention is in intense. We are fighting to be able to get in front of buyers for those first precious impressions and to be able...Read More

Over these past few weeks, I’ve had strong reinforcements of my core beliefs about sales training: Most of it needs to be, “Undone.” I see proof every day that Sales Onboarding is upside down or backwards. I see sales training that is hype, technique and manipulation-based vs skills focused. Much of the current “well-known” sales...Read More

Here is another one of those blogs where the Universe has conspired to bring a topic to light. I’ve been on a campaign to move sellers from their Intuitive behaviors to intentional actions. We do so many things naturally, in the course of selling, like building relationships, asking questions, responding . . . but often,...Read More

How do you feel about negotiation? For most of us, if we had to describe “negotiation” we imagine the back and forth pull and tension we’ve felt when buying a car or a house. And most sellers don’t love negotiation either … the fine line between giving away your margin or having to walk away...Read More

A common sales problem came to light for me a week or so ago when a vendor reached out to me to suggest as the year-end was near, they might be able to consider lowering their price to close another deal before ending their year. Now, I am truly in the “consideration” or “evaluation” phase...Read More

I love stacking up my summer reading list. Whether it’s an audiobook I listen to while driving or a good old paperback page-turner that gets covered with sea salt and sand, I’m planning my list as Memorial Day and Summer is right around the corner. What’s on this year’s list? A mix of business, skill...Read More

Back in 1988, Stephen Covey wrote his best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People which was a global phenomenon in the self-help genre selling over 25 million copies. Covey’s introspective advice struck a nerve with people who wanted to master success in their personal and business lives. The lessons he laid out were...Read More