Throughout this series, we’ve plainly seen the difference between salespeople who succeed, and those who always appear frantically busy but only marginally succeed. The answer is focus and clarity. Successful salespeople know what to focus on each day. They intelligently prioritize activities based on a solid understanding of buyers, and a regular review of their ... Read Post

If you are a Lead Generation, Market Development, or Sales Development hiring manager, you know that a bad hire can cost you. Not only do you lose time, money, and potential customers — the wrong person is likely to reduce productivity and decrease morale. For a well-rounded perspective on a candidate, I suggest multiple screening ... Read Post

In our continuing series on the pain points of sales management, we have explored the categories of sales management, the primary pain point of sales management, the technology a sales manager really needs, the vital subject of management, and specific pain points of sales management at a new company (part 1 and part 2). Now let’s take up ... Read Post

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