Sales is a tough profession; it is not intended for the faint of heart. I compare it to the “glass ceiling” that challenges very talented and accomplished women to succeed in today’s business environment. It’s the sales stigma that works against most salespeople trying to advance an opportunity with a new sales prospect. “Slick”, “sleazy”, “pushy”, “insensitive” ... Read Post

Have you ever been in a situation where everything about your product and sales process seemed so right; product quality, pricing, sales presentation, buying audience, and suitability of the product to soothe buyer’s pain points and yet deals are not closed? If you have been selling for a while, either as B2B or B2C, this ... Read Post

Many salespeople complain about having to make cold calls, especially because they are increasingly ineffective. Social selling evangelists, myself included, suggest that social selling can help diminish the need to make cold calls and potentially avoid them altogether. Connections are made with prospects in social channels rather than over the phone. If you have to ... Read Post

In Part 1, we began diving into some very specific pain points for a sales manager—those encountered when a sales manager is newly hired into a company. Here we tell the rest of the story. It starts like many old jokes–“A sales manager walks into a company…” But it certainly isn’t one–just ask anyone who ... Read Post

People buy for all sorts of reasons. They either need something or want something. When you’re the buyer, you typically have some idea based on your needs, wants, past experiences, budget, etc. But do you really know why people buy from you? And do you truly understand the buyer and their specific journey throughout the ... Read Post

Earlier in this series, we talked about the way a salesperson is often perceived: They’re juggling opportunities at different stages of the sales lifecycle while torrents of emails flood their inbox, and calls and text messages melt their smartphones. They always appear to be playing “catch-up” while never quite catching up. This is such a ... Read Post

Every business owner knows from a financial perspective that it is much less expensive in retaining your current customers than acquiring new ones. The process of acquiring new customers, demands lots of marketing, selling and an increase in other costs in production and etcetera. If a business has a strong relationship with its customers then ... Read Post

In our continuing series on the pain points of being a sales manager, we have explored the categories of sales manager pain points, the primary pain point of being a sales manager, the technology a sales manager really needs and the vital subject of management. Now we’re going to dive into some very specific pain points ... Read Post