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Geoffrey James wrote an interesting article at BNET, Sales Goals vs. Sales Process: Which Is Most Important? Frankly, the question confuses me, it assumes that sales goals and sales process are mutually exclusive. Geoffrey seems conflicted, as well. Later, using the example of an Olympic athlete, he states, “For the Olympic athlete, the process leads naturally and progressively towards the goal. Read More

The other day, I wrote a piece, What Are The 3 Characteristics That Set Great Sales People Apart? It stimulated quite a reaction as people started suggesting their ideas. I was surprised by the focus of a number of people on the “right techniques.” These comments started to make me wonder about my own belief system and biases Read More

Last Friday, I had the privilege of being interviewed by an executive on critical issues in buying and selling. It was a great conversation, but one of his questions stuck in my mind. He asked me, “What are the 3 characteristics that set great sales people apart from others? Read More

It seems to be human nature to take shortcuts. We want results immediately, we don’t want to invest the effort normally required to achieve a goal. We somehow think that we are the exceptions to the rule–while others have to make an effort, somehow we are different and can avoid all the work and effort to achieve the result. In truth, sometimes shortcuts work. They probably work often enough, that we continue to pursue them Read More

I guess as a blogger, twitter user, and sometime pundit, it’s natural to get into a lot of conversations about the impact of Social Media, and the Internet for that matter, on buying and selling. In the past several days, I’ve had a number of conversations with people all over the world. “How do we leverage social media to sell?” “What should we be doing with social media?” “What is social selling?”I have to admit that I feel a little awkward in these discussions, I don’t by any means consider myself a social media expert—it seems, I’ve just learned how to spell www… Read More

Words are important in sales! We’re always looking for the right word–the one that best conveys what we mean, the one that will immediately resonate with the customer, the one that cuts through everything else creating great clarity Read More

I meet with executives everyday. They have great knowledge about their businesses–they can cite everything about their strategies, priorities, goals, key metrics. They study their competitors incessantly, understanding their strategies and positioning. They study their markets, and the best study their customers. They have deep insight about everything in their industry Read More

The other day, I wrote an article, Appointments With Sales People Fall Short Of Executive Expectations. In it I cited data from a Forrester Research report on executive perspectives of sales people’s ability to understand their business needs, priorities, and issues. I wanted to extend the discussion, focusing on a topic I’ve found a little nebulous, business acumen Read More

Last Week I wrote about “We Have To Call At The Top,” suggesting the concept of right level selling. There are many times when calling at the “C” level is critical for our sales efforts, yet we struggle to get appointments with these executives. I was interested to read a Forrester Research report on this topic, presenting the executive perspective. Only 15% of the “C” level executives surveyed felt their meetings with sales people were valuable and lived up to their expectations. They went further, based on the outcome of the initial meeting, only 7% would accept follow-on meetings. No wonder they don’t want to see us, we waste their time Read More

I always appreciate Tibor Shanto’s blog posts on cleaning out the pipeline, focusing on real business. He always seems to find the right time to remind us to do this, In January, he encouraged us to Clear Out The Clutter, can’t start the New Year with garbage in our funnel. In March, he reminded us of Spring Cleaning. I’ve been anxiously waiting his third quarter post and reminder Read More