What thoughts go through your head when you call someone and don’t get a callback? How do you feel when you get no response to an email you sent a prospect? Sellers tell me that the biggest frustration and source of pain in their job is feeling like they’re being ignored by potential customers. For...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

Being vocal, visible, and putting your business out there on the internet and social media invites a lot of attention from people selling things. Being that I have made my living, my profession, and my business from selling products and solutions, I am actually quite receptive to sales calls. (Beware, however, as you’ll see, if...Read More

It’s presumptuous to think that your customers don’t already have a solution for the service or product you provide. Perhaps presumptuous isn’t the right word. “Naive” maybe? Of course, they already use someone else. Their need doesn’t usually fall into YOUR lap unless you’re strictly an inbound rep responding to inquiries or leads – which...Read More

I remember a funny moment about 10 years ago when a client figuratively slammed the door on me. I had set my sights on this customer as an ideal prospect for my printing solution. I found the right contact, called, emailed, called, emailed, called, called, and one day she answered the phone and said, “Tell...Read More

Do you remember the old instructions on the back of a shampoo bottle? I think there are still a few around with those instructions. “For best results, Lather, Rinse, Repeat” This was actually one of my super successful sales mantras when I was a sales account executive in Television, Commercial Print, and Flexible Office Space....Read More

My agile, fit, 71-year-old mother came over this week after cleaning her gutters. They were pulling away from the house so she climbed on a ladder and in the 90 degree Memphis summer heat, cleaned the debris and gunk out of her gutters. The rub came later when she was in the house and tidying...Read More

Let’s talk about your sales and profit margins. How effective do you think your Sales and/or Marketing messages are? Are they compelling and converting leads in to opportunities and opportunities into customers with strong and healthy margins? At what rate? And at what cost to acquire a new customer? (If you don’t know your conversion...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

So many of our blog posts and discussions are fruits derived from working through situations with sales teams in sales meetings and training sessions. I’ve written about plenty of my own selling successes and hard lessons learned but I am always in discovery mode looking for better ways to connect with clients, more effective ways...Read More