I’ve been working in B2B technology sales for over two decades. The past 22 years of my career have been based in Silicon Valley. It can be truly exhilarating to work with twenty something year olds freshly minted with their college diplomas, chock full of enthusiasm and ready to build the next great company. At…
“Why” is the most important word and concept in sales. We have a habit of overcomplicating sales. I know that I’m certainly guilty of this at times! But if you strip away all of the selling methodologies, frameworks and strategies that are often bandied about when talking about sales best practices…you’re left with the pure essence of…
Recently I’ve been reminded of the old adage: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” That quote has been attributed to Oscar Wilde, Will Rogers and Mark Twain among others. Suffice to say that it resonates with a lot of people, particularly those of us who are lifelong sales professionals. Personally,…
My first sales mentor always emphasized that I needed to build, cultivate and manage my professional network. That was the foundation for sales and business success. Now at the ripe old age of let’s just say a whisker over 50 years old, I’m quite fortunate to have quite an expansive professional network. My network consists…
Sorry to inform you, but the vast majority of B2B enterprise sales teams out there today, are of the stooge variety. Not the sage variety. And that’s a huge problem. What do I mean by this? Quite simply that most sales teams are going through robotic, tactical sales motions and hoping for a positive outcome. Worse, they are forecasting…
My wife and I love Judge Judy. We watch her TV show religiously and apparently we’re not alone, as her TV show is the highest rated daytime TV show and syndicated TV show with an audience of over 7 million people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Judy). She also earns $47M per year due to her immense popularity, so it’s…
In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I am a self-professed sales discovery devotee. Across my 25 years of selling technology solutions to the enterprise, show me a top performing sales rep or sales team and I’ll show you a sales rep or sales team that does discovery exceptionally well. In fact,…
Nothing is more offensive than seeing an enterprise sales team grovel with their customers. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of “grovel” is: To kneel, lie, or crawl on the ground To treat someone with too much respect or fear in a way that shows weakness in order to be forgiven or to gain approval…
How well do you really know your customers? Surprisingly, I find that more and more companies are losing touch with their customers at the exact time that it’s becoming more important than ever to get closer to your customers. Everyone talks about how important customer churn rates are, particularly as we transition into a subscription-based…
If given a choice, I’d always prefer to sell the premium priced service or solution. Why? Because quality still matters to a lot of people and they are willing to pay for it. This all may sound a bit counterintuitive these days, given that most things seem to be available for free, or at a…