On opposite ends of the office, the Marketing Department and the Sales Department each believe they alone are responsible for bringing in new customers and keeping old ones, and to make it even more polarized, the company’s ad agency on Madison Avenue holds the same belief. And at the same time, everybody takes the IT ... Read Post

We are coming to end of 2017. Yet the subject of Sales & Marketing alignment still seems as pertinent today as it has ever been. In many organizations the frustrations seem to endure with every passing year – the age-old blame games are played out (especially at this time of the calendar when the stresses ... Read Post

The power of ride-alongs with salespeople has been long understood by sales managers. It helps build relationships with reps, and firsthand observation of a sales call provides immediate demonstration of what worked and what didn’t in the prospect meeting. “Riding along” doesn’t just happen in cars, despite the name. Reps can also be accompanied on ... Read Post

Many experts point out that that the most powerful single source of new business for sales is referrals–from networking contacts, existing clients or strategic partners. Endless studies have shown that people are far more inclined to buy a product or service that has been referred to them. Referred clients tend to be stickier than other ... Read Post

Continuing our series on artificial intelligence and sales, let’s take a look now specifically at AI as it relates to CRM and sales prediction. As I said before, we could go off in a million different directions in discussing AI, but I’m going to stick with what I know well, which is CRM. Two very ... Read Post

(One of my personal #SalesFails) I cannot count the times I’ve watched a salesperson spend hours laboring over a presentation–packing in the details, pictures, statistics, graphics…and hope. Yes, a great amount of hope that in the end the presentation will be so stellar, and cover every possible objection or variable, that the prospect will fall ... Read Post

In every organization there is a degree of conflict between marketing and sales. Marketing complains that sales don’t move product effectively; sales claims they don’t get the support from marketing they need to do the job. Marketing says that certain sales activity is off strategy; sales responds by criticizing that marketing doesn’t provide clear enough ... Read Post

In sales, we all have targets or objects we’re aiming for or trying to exceed. Here I’ll share the very biggest target challenge I ever faced up to–and met–in my 20 years as a sales trainer and 50-plus years in sales. In Dubai several years ago, I met with the CEO of a major land ... Read Post