In business, the quality of your decisions will ultimately determine the levels of success you achieve.  So how can you improve your decision-making ability?  The good news is that there are now decades of scientific research that have revealed how the brain forms judgements.  When you apply these findings you will find that your capacity ... Read Post

A very interesting report called the State of Sales Productivity Report has just been released by Docurated. Compiled from anonymized data from the Docurated sales productivity solution and a survey of 127 sales and marketing executives, the report examines the state of sales productivity from both the sales rep and sales management perspectives. It’s no ... Read Post

Back in 2010 when I was CEO of Huthwaite I wrote a post for the company blog about what I termed the shortcut culture that I felt was becoming pervasive. The opening lines went like this: I have just returned from a short vacation in Los Angeles, and while I was there it struck me ... Read Post

I’ve read numerous blog posts, articles, and books on how to succeed in sales and telemarketing. Countless opinions are offered on the subject. Most of these opinions are, however, repetitive and are rarely challenged. For example, we’ve all heard axioms such as these: The customer is always right. Don’t talk. Just listen. Focus on the ... Read Post

In the previous chapter, we covered the vital necessity of patience in social selling. We pointed out that social selling steps may appear passive, when in fact they’re anything but that. Salespeople need to learn this patience well if they are to succeed at social selling—and sales managers must allow them the time and space ... Read Post

One of the people I coach was recently in a meeting with their reseller and the room was filled with all the stakeholders and decision-makers for a huge enterprise opportunity they had been working with a large government department for 15 months. Toward the end of the meeting, the CIO (who owns the budget and ... Read Post

Few startups make it; half don’t survive 5 years.  At launch, the right sales development strategy is critical to gain a successful trajectory. Employ these 20 sales actions to increase your odds of beating the grim reaper. Concentrate much of your sales development work BEFORE you launch, to help ramp sales up quickly and attract investor ... Read Post

Sales is both an art and a science. There is real innate talent involved, just as there are facts and figures rooted in decades of practice. Above all, the key to effective sales is establishing a connection. And you do that by building rapport and trust with your prospective leads. You do that by influencing ... Read Post