So, how do we get sales and marketing aligned? At first glance, this might not seem like a very complicated question to answer. I mean, both departments have very similar goals, right? Now, ask me how we can align sales and legal? Ahhh, now that’s a question! Sales versus the sales prevention department – a ... Read Post

Setting sales quotas is not pure science; rather it is a healthy blend of both employing standard analytical tools and imposing the broader needs of the company. These are 5 deadly traps organizations fall into when setting sales quotas. 1. Applying a bottoms up approach; setting individual rep quotas and summing them to determine the ... Read Post

No sorry, this is not an article about strategies to get out from under mortgage debt and sell your home quickly. It is quite the opposite. It is an article about how to take the stress out of the selling process, and put the relationship and profit back into it. For anyone who knows me ... Read Post

How hard a time do women have connecting to their power? Are they more reluctant than men to brand themselves as experts? Not long ago I was conducting a “Message of You” workshop for women. As we shared our mess-to-success life journeys, I noticed we all seemed to have something in common: each of us ... Read Post

Back in my cold-calling days, a Health Food Store owner whom I solicited agreed to buy one trial bottle of the multi-vitamin I was selling. I placed a follow up call with him a month later to see how the trial went. He responded, “Yes, that was the best multiple I’ve seen. Please ship me ... Read Post

Inside sales cannot succeed on volume alone. More customer conversations will not move the needle unless those conversations yield value. Read Post

Many hold to the belief that money is one of life’s most important things. But money comes, and money goes, and comes once again. What is more important than money? That would be time. Unlike money, time just goes…and never comes back. So rather than maintaining the focus on money–return on investment, or ROI–change your ... Read Post

There’s really no way to sugarcoat it. It is the most challenging aspect of a salesperson’s job–or for that matter that of a parent or anyone who wants to persuade–to ask the more difficult questions. Such questions are sometimes referred to as “pain” questions. Two weeks in a sales training class will show you that ... Read Post