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Professionalism in sales requires two defining attributes. These attributes are intentions and outcomes. Intentions speak to the salespersons motivations. Outcomes speaks to their competency in helping their clients achieve their goals. Read More

Mutual exclusivity means that I can have either A, or I can have B, but I cannot have both A and B. The myth of mutual exclusivity in prospecting goes like this: “If I use inbound marketing methods, then I can’t use cold calling methods.” The problem with believing that any method is mutually exclusive is that it believes one choice is always the right choice. Read More

There are two groups of people who cold call: telemarketing firms and professional salespeople. For telemarketing firms, cold calling is what they do. For professional salespeople, cold calling is one tool in an arsenal of many tools (or at least it had better be). There are many reasons that salespeople don’t like cold calling, but in professional salespeople, it is rarely a fear of rejection. I Read More

Sales has changed radically over the past decades. We are less ignorant about what it takes to succeed and how to create value for our clients. Many of the mistakes we now make are mistakes of ineptitude. We don’t take actions we know are necessary. Read More

Two posts over the last two days have generated some interesting comments and feedback. The first was a post titled Quantify Yourself. This post explained that sales is not a numbers game and suggested that you quantify your own personal sales metrics as way to understanding what you might need to improve to improve your sales results. Read More

Less in not more. But more is not always more either. In sales, we too often believe that simply increasing activity is enough to generate increased sales. More often than not, it requires an increase in effectiveness. The key is treating activity problems and effectiveness problems differently. Read More

They say that sales is a numbers game. It’s not a numbers game; it is far too complex and too important to be boiled to something as simple as making more calls. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to be gained by looking at some metrics and making some judgments about where you might improve your sales efforts. It’s time to Quantify Yourself. Read More

Activity doesn’t precede sales. Effective activity precedes sales. But all activities are not created equal. Some activities offer you a way out-sized result for your efforts. Other activities have no return on the time invested at all. You have to choose carefully where, and on what, to invest your time. There is no such thing as time management. There is only “me management.” Read More

One of the biggest challenges salespeople face is reengaging stalled prospects. There are many reasons that deals stall, but they can be boiled down to two primary reasons: no planned objective for the sales call and/or not enough value created during the sales call. This post covers three ways you can reengage a stalled prospect. Read More

A short piece on the idea that you cannot make people do anything. If you are not getting what you want, you need to alter your behaviors to alter theirs. To succeed in sales, altering your behavior requires resourcefulness and creativity. Read More