The purpose of process is to ensure consistency. A good process is like a checklist that ensures the right things get done by the right people at the right time. Unfortunately, sales is a discipline that often lacks documented processes. Consequently, sales results are often unpredictable from one quarter to another. Many organizations are now ... Read Post

Enterprise Selling: The Difference Between Owning a Cat and Herding Cats Herding Cats Winning, growing, and keeping enterprise accounts presents complexities far beyond those offered by small and medium-sized accounts. Unique challenges, such as vast, diverse buyer networks, long sales cycles, and the significant investments that accompany enterprise pursuits create problems we don’t encounter in ... Read Post

The Most Critical Of Employee Engagement Strategies Employee engagement consistently ranks as one of the top three issues keeping leaders up at night. You would have to be living under a rock these days not to know that. While writing Own It: Redefining Responsibility – Stories of Power, Purpose & Freedom, I learned a lot about ... Read Post

Does Your Sales Team Need Closing Skills or Opening Skills? “Can you help my sales team close more business?” As a teacher of sales skills, I’ve been asked this question frequently. The answer is “yes,” with a strong qualifier: Your sales team may not have a problem with closing opportunities; the problem may be in ... Read Post

Many years ago I met a prospect. It was a printing & publishing company. The lead time in each stage of the Sales Process was very high. I understood that the prospect definitely had a requirement, had budgets & was the decision maker. Yet the sale didn’t happen. It was a private enterprise but for ... Read Post

The Three Best Ways for Salespeople to Master Marketing Sales and marketing go together like peanut butter and jelly. Despite this obvious truism, many sales professionals lack a clear understanding of the synergies that exist between the two disciplines. In general, salespeople believe that the marketing department of their organization exists to generate leads, and ... Read Post

At first, this title may seem like some kind of an oxymoron. How can a business process be enjoyable? If you go and, let us say, sit and listen to a talk on business processes, you’re probably not going to come away saying, “Wow, that was really fun and entertaining! Most people would agree that ... Read Post

SDR Career Planning: 3 Proven Ways to Have an Amazing Inside Sales Career The inside sales organization and the Sales Development Rep (SDR) in particular are increasingly becoming lynchpins in many sales organizations. Relying solely on “feet on the street,” or any other single sales channel does not represent a viable economic business model for ... Read Post