I just learned what I know is an important lesson. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what it is though, and what to do with it. First, some background…
My extra-business passion is trying to make Acworth, my adopted home town in Cobb County GA, the coolest community there is. I’ve chosen to help do [...]
Why are you successful? What is the root cause of your success? Do you know? Have you ever thought about it seriously?
I could be wrong, but I think business success springs from the ability to learn faster than everyone around you. The ability to learn faster springs from writing down a personal learning process, working [...]
New episode of the Think About It Podcast. Listen below. If you like it, subscribe here.
If the sales practices you use on a regular basis are the same ones you were using last year or 2, 3, 5, 10 years ago, they probably no longer deserve the “best” label. Don’t get me wrong, just because something is not a “best” practice doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not an “excellent” practice. [...]
Every sales rep, manager and executive must have, use, add to and delete from an RSS Reader. It’s a truly outstanding means to feed your brain and ensure a habit of life-long learning. In my view, it’s the 2nd best one out there.
Given their power and how long they’ve been around, I had assumed pretty [...]
There was a time when I believed that teaching and selling were virtually the same thing. In many ways they are similar, and I’ve used the approach successfully quite a few times. Fact is, the more a prospect knows about the applications of your products and services, the closer you are to closing a deal. [...]
In general, sales reps represent themselves as a pretty tough, resilient, independent bunch. I’m not so sure about that.
Virtually every time I work with a sales team to continuously improve its sales process, I run smack into a “they’re too delicate for that” problem. It’s never phrased that way. It’s always couched [...]
In getting prepared for a meeting with a client’s sales VP, I spent some time analyzing the performance numbers of their 64 reps. There it was again. The same lopsided bell curve I see over and over and over, and no sign of the 80/20 rule either.As always, most of the reps are below average; [...]
Actually, I have been saying it myself; for over ten years now – for my whole career really. “It,” in this case being this blog post. It talks about process, it talks about metrics, it talks about best practices, it talks about CRM – daily use of CRM, it talks about sales and marketing working [...]
There’s same hard scientific research out there that defines just exactly what it takes to be an “expert.” Next time some alleged expert starts spouting advice, check his or her credentials.
Maybe you should check your own credentials while you’re at it. I did. It was a humbling experience.
