Our customers can be incredibly demanding, right? I mean they just want so many things from us as sales people. Let’s take an inventory of all the “asks” that customers make of us. They want product demos, pricing, proof of concepts (PoCs), technical architecture reviews, cyber security reviews, regulatory compliance validations, performance guarantees, user experience…
All too frequently I’m asked what is the single “silver bullet” for improving sales performance. They may use slightly different words, but in essence they are asking for the same thing. My answer is always the same. There is no silver bullet for improving your sales performance. It doesn’t exist. So, stop wasting your time…
Winning sales teams have a lot in common with winning sports teams. Great players, teams and coaches don’t make excuses. After the epic comeback loss in the 2017 Super Bowl against the New England Patriots, one of the Atlanta Falcons top player’s (Mohamed Sanu) used the excuse that because the Super Bowl halftime show took…
Recessions are inevitable. They are an immutable truth that we all must accept, particularly those of us in the sales profession. Our economy has been incredibly robust for a lengthy stretch of years. You can tell by the sheer number of luxury automobiles that you see every day driving to and from work. Another clear…
The best of the best companies who do sales enablement exceptionally well don’t like to talk about it. They actually consider their sales enablement mastery to be a competitive advantage. They use their sales enablement expertise as part of their recruiting process to attract and hire the most talented sales people out there. Top performing…
“I understand.” This is just one of the many classic lines of dialog in the 1979 movie called: “Being There”. There was an amazing cast in the movie starring Peter Sellers giving his most sublime performance ever. The supporting cast included Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas and Jack Warden. The movie won numerous prestigious awards including:…
BANT is the qualification framework acronym created by IBM in the 1950’s. Virtually every sales person from a brand new sales development rep (SDR) to the grizzled old enterprise sales rep who has been selling for 20+ years is familiar with it and has used it. If for some reason you’ve been under a rock…
Are you losing deals due to a competitor’s feature? I talk to VPs of Sales and sales leaders every day. I’ve been in technology sales for over 25 years and it’s my passion in life. There is nothing that drives me crazier than when I hear a Sales Leader tell me one of their sales…
Why Do We Keep Accepting Failure in B2B Technology Sales? The statistics are sobering and can actually be downright depressing. Well regarded industry analysts keep sharing their research findings on the current state of B2B technology sales…and we’re failing. Badly. According to CSO Insights 2017 World Class Sales Practices Report, only 53% of sales people…
I’m often asked how do you build an effective sales playbook. All too often, my company is brought in after the client has spent considerable time and dollars on a failed sales playbook project. Sometimes the client tries to do it themselves. Other times they engage an outside consulting firm to build a sales playbook…