In a previous BrightTalk webinar, I surveyed the audience of sellers and asked, “What is your biggest challenge in prospecting?” I thought the results were extremely interesting – and they validated what I’m hearing from many businesses and sales pros about their challenges in new business development. Of the 120 live viewers, those that responded...Read More

Being an account manager, or a business owner, for that matter, is like being a master juggler – up in the air on any given day are dozens of details on a to-do list that spans customer calls, billing, paperwork, dozens of emails, and meetings, meetings, meetings. It’s hard to fit business development into those...Read More

I hear sellers and business owners tell me they “Don’t want to be too pushy” at least 5 times a week. Trust me, if you have to say that, you’ve never been “too pushy”. Many of us have had negative experiences with salespeople that have a bulldozer mentality. They’re not afraid to run over you...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

Sometimes hard problems CAN have easy answers. Well, “simple” perhaps, because it requires effort and work. Sometimes, as an Account Executive or Business Development Rep, the grind of prospecting and pipelining new opportunities made me feel like Fred Baker from those old Dunkin’ Donuts commercials where he zombies about saying, “Time to make the donuts.”...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

Having a conversation with a Sales Director the other day about his sales team and he remarked that only one seller made their quota last year. Several of the team members were new (6 months in), and the others . . . well, they’re struggling. The one Account Executive that made quota has been there...Read More

Road tripping this to a volleyball tournament a while back, I had 3 hours to spend in the car with my 12-year-old daughter. We listened to hundreds of songs on my iPod. Rolling through several decades of old and new ones. At one point, she marveled at how many songs she knew – as in...Read More

Sales is exhilarating. Selling is grueling. Sales is non-stop activity. Selling is exhausting. Sales is juggling competing priorities. Selling is chasing a constantly moving target. How do you keep filling your new business pipeline, juggling activities, reports, administrative stuff, client relationships, and AVOIDING burnout? Considering the recent (various) reports that suggest nearly 7 out of...Read More