It may or may not surprise you to know that trust is practically universal in being a decision-making criterion for buyers. But what may come as a surprise is the frequency with which that factor tips the scales from one vendor to another. Not long ago my company conducted a survey of 800 people. We ... Read Post

From the beginning, a primary goal for any CRM application has been an efficient management of sales performance. It has also been a desire of individual team members to evaluate their own performance. With its original release of Performance Insights, Pipeliner CRM well surpassed this functionality which has, in traditional CRM applications, proven overly complex and ... Read Post

We learn our best lessons when it comes to errors and embarrassing situations. The moment of horror can’t be erased, yet we can quickly move past it if we embrace the lessons from what took place. It was a typical stress-filled day on my first job trying to prove my sales capability. A keen focus ... Read Post

20+ years ago I was teaching a public Solution Selling workshop in Del Mar, California. I was going around the room, asking each participant what they sell. Most attendees were selling some kind of technology based, B2B productivity improving system to a committee of risk averse buyers. I got around to ‘Richard,’ and I asked ... Read Post

It is certainly true that everything has changed since the arrival of social media. In the beginning of the Web, it was unclear how money could possibly be made through Web page content. But then came AdSense from Google, followed by a rush of competitor programs and people producing good content. These individuals paid attention ... Read Post

There is a startling statistic that should be keeping us sales professionals up at night. We should write it on post-it-notes and stick those notes in our offices, cars and on mirrors as a constant reminder of the sales we’re leaving on the table. This is the statistic: 96% of sales professionals quit following up ... Read Post

Great sales professionals always ask effective sales questions in order to influence and engage customers and prospects. Questions that are well thought out change the whole dynamic of a sales conversation, set you well apart from your competition, and result in increased business. On the management side, sales managers use provocative coaching questions to shift ... Read Post

Executive buyers report that only 22% of sellers can relate to their issues and how they might help. (Source: Forrester Research) Question: How does the 48-Hour Rule™ apply to executive engagement? Answer: Let’s start with what we mean by The 48-Hour Rule? The 48-Hour Rule stipulates that to maintain sales momentum you need to consider ... Read Post