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Thoughts on when it is okay to fail and when it is not okay to fail. These meditations focus on the contests in sales, as well as the contests in life. Sometimes it is okay to fail, but never when it is a failure that could have been prevented by additional effort. Read More

The openness to ideas, especially ideas that you disagree with and that make you uncomfortable, is one of the foundations of mastery. Judge these different perspectives on their effectiveness in a single situation, knowing that there is no right and wrong. Read More

Salespeople don’t sell product or services; they sell outcomes. Successful salespeople manage these outcomes for their clients and their companies, ensuring that they achieve the results and the outcome that they sold. Read More

Great salespeople have the ability to lead. They have the ability to generate results through the efforts of others on their teams, as well as their client’s teams. Read More

Salespeople sell change. They sell a future result, a better outcome. But creating the vision of a better future outcome is only where the sale begins. Successful salespeople know that that change needs their time, their attention, and their resourcefulness as a salesperson—and as a businessperson—to be achieved. They lead and manage the change that they sell. Read More

Great salespeople have the ability to negotiate. They see every advance in the sales process as an opportunity to negotiate in good faith, creating value for their company and their client company at each and every stage. They build trust within their client’s company, negotiating changes and modifications within the buying team to ensure that value is created for all of their stakeholders. They Read More

Storytelling is the ability to create a compelling vision of the future. Great salespeople include in their stories the challenges and the obstacles that will need to be overcome in order to create that future. They write the future positive outcomes with their clients as both characters and as coauthors. Read More

The ability to sell requires a strong ability to diagnose the client’s problems and challenges. By diagnosing their problems and challenges, and by developing a full understanding of their root causes, the professional salesperson can build a solution that perfectly matches the client’s needs, improving their performance and providing them with the outcome they desire. Read More

In the past, success in sales depended very heavily on the salesperson’s sales acumen. While sales acumen is still necessary, business acumen is now equally (or in some cases, more) important than sales acumen. The business of sales is now the business of business. Salespeople need the business acumen of a great general manager. Read More

Salespeople open relationships. Opening relationships is built upon the ability to prospect. Successful salespeople are disciplined with their prospecting, and they obtain commitments to explore working with and for their prospects. They open relationships by developing trust, and by demonstrating their willingness and their ability to create value for their prospects. And they use every method a Read More