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“Life is a long lesson in humility.” James M. Barrie

At 20, I wasn’t humble. At 30, I thought about being humble. At 40, I realized I had a lot to humble about. At 50, I wondered how a guy like me had gotten this far. At 60, ?? Read More

Manufacturing executives said it didn’t apply to them. (They were dead wrong.) Software development executives said it didn’t apply to them. (They were dead wrong.) Business & technology services executives said it didn’t apply to them. (They were dead wrong.) Sales executives, managers and professionals KNOW FOR SURE it doesn’t apply to them. And of course they are right. Right Read More

When developing a plan for operating a sales territory or chasing down a specific opportunity, both the Solution Selling and Consultative Selling frameworks have proven their value. I am far from alone in being a huge fan of the underlying concepts and best practices. These approaches and combinations thereof have supported the transformation of legions of “wannabes” into legitimate sales professionals Read More

Ever make a sales call that went really, really well? That covered more topics than you had planned? All of which advanced your quest to deliver still more value to your client? (And increase your revenue?) But left a major new opportunity virtually un-discussed Read More

The term “Consultative Selling” and it’s underlying concepts were first introduced in the book by the same name published in 1973 and authored by Mack Hanan, James Cribbin and Herman Heiser. Although amended and modified countless times since then and in countless industries and by countless sales organizations, the basics remain true to this day. Perhaps they are even more relevant today and are an underlying foundation for Lead Dog Selling Read More

“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” — Sir Isaac Newton

Be humble and find a giant to stand on Read More

Back in January, I realized I was wrong about proposals. I don’t do them anymore. I admonish clients and colleagues when they talk about writing one. A Recommendation Summary, while extremely similar, is profoundly different. And it’s much more than semantics. As an outsider, I humbly submit my proposal for possible consideration by the all-powerful decision maker to whom I must defer. As an insider, I offload the tough task of preparing a set of recommendations to address a pressing issue from the harried, overworked customer executive and am appreciated as a high-value team member Read More

WARNING: If you hold one of more of the following opinions, reading this post will be a waste of your time:

1) I can’t keep up with all my e-mail as it is, so I am NOT going to set up an RSS Reader that will only flood me with more stuff I don’t have time to read

2)Blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media tools are not useful B2B sales tools

3) I’d start a blog, but I can’t think of anything to write about Read More

Someone or something always comes out on top. And as you might guess, it’s true for the financial analysis and justification a sales rep can prepare and present. Internal Rate of Return (or IRR) enables a rep to use a single number to demonstrate the compelling wisdom of investing in his or her recommendations. IRR is one big, bad differentiator Read More

Think about your important contacts. Think about how much time and attention you’d really like to be able to devote to each one. The pragmatic fact of the matter is you’re forced to ignore every one of them most of the time. Ouch!! Read More