It would be difficult to imagine a business-related headline more crushing than this one: “Santa Failed.” But that’s exactly what the media was saying about Toys R Us in 2000, when the now defunct retailer failed to deliver on its promise of pre-Christmas delivery to thousands of online customers. The resulting press was devastating and ... Read Post

“Building Trust and Rapport” was the headline in an invitation I received in the mail for a full day sales seminar being held at a local hotel. The small print listed trust and rapport as a “necessary sales skill,” but it caused me to ponder: is building trust and rapport a learned skill or an ... Read Post

Empathy is an emotional intelligence skill. Put simply, empathy is the ability to “walk a mile” in someone else’s shoes. It requires paying sharp attention to know what another person thinks or feels. An enormous influence skill, empathy is not often covered in sales books or sales training courses. Why? Because the word just sounds ... Read Post

Great news, it’s a sales win!  The contract is signed and implementation plans are in place. Is it time to move on to the next sale? Not so fast. The best next step, often overlooked, is a retrospective or lessons learned meeting with your new customer.  A retrospective is an opportunity to look back and ... Read Post

In Sandler Enterprise Selling, the sales cycle is represented by a continuous process consisting of six stages. And continuity is the key as selling to and serving large enterprise accounts through streams of transactions over time in long-term relationships really has no end. That’s the enterprise world. The sixth and last stage in the enterprise ... Read Post

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 Post

My eyes glaze over when I read articles on sales ethics. There is a huge volume of content out there on the topic, and there are almost a limitless number of prescriptions on how salespeople can adopt a better moral code — every writer has their own take on the subject. I find that the ... Read Post

I learned a great deal working for Xerox. They certainly taught me how to sell, but the two greatest programs I was involved in had little to do with selling. These two programs taught me the answer to a question that has puzzled many. The question is, can sales ethics be taught, and you’ll find ... Read Post