The question I ask sellers and business owners most often is, “What’s the biggest obstacle to where you are now and achieving your sales goals?” What does your gut tell you is the most popular response? What would YOU say? Here they are in descending order: 3rd most common response – “Better pricing/lower costs would...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

As we are wishing for the cool weather of Pumpkin Spice Season (formerly called “fall” and “fourth quarter”), many of you are pushing hard to close out the year’s sales and have one eye on planning for next year too. For Sales Directors and Business Owners, this is that time when you start thinking of...Read More

“Disparaging what one cannot obtain, as in The losers’ scorn for the award is pure Sour Grapes.” This expression alludes to the Greek writer Aesop’s famous fable about a fox that cannot reach some grapes on a high vine and announces that they are sour. By nature, sellers are competitive. The best salespeople are naturally...Read More

A while back, I gave away a bunch of copies of Jill Konrath’s new book, MORE SALES. LESS TIME. I tied those giveaways to an offer of a free consulting conversation about the struggles business owners and sellers face to be productive in this stressful and ever distracting “shiny object” environment. My purpose was two-fold:...Read More

Everyone’s making big promises, resolutions, and vowing to make changes right now just as the ball drops on this New Year. I’ve never had much use for making grand proclamations of my intent or magically thinking I’ll turn into someone who LOVES running, eating steamed broccoli, or clearing my pantry of every carb and sugar....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

If you’re in my salespeople posse, around this time of year, we start talking about getting through the Holiday season as productively and profitably as possible. Inevitably, the talk comes up about To Gift, or Not to Gift customers at this time of year. I have strong opinions about this and it goes like this...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

What do YOU think would be the response when asked, “What are the top challenges sellers and sales pros face today?” Up until 5 to 10 years ago, you might have heard a resounding, “Lack of leads!” coming from salespeople. Nowadays, in this lightning-fast digital world of social platforms and instant communication, that’s not so...Read More