Shawn Karol Sandy

Selling to the small or mid sized business owner? That’s about as easy as pinning Jell-O to a wall, right? Business owners have 4,329 priorities in front of you, so how does a sales pro sell to the small and mid sized business? With the sheer volume of opportunities, small

In the last post, we talked about how to make your sales presentations better—improving the focus of the content and delivery. This week, using more examples from our clients, we present a more specific context of your proposals—a mistake that’s made quite often when we listen to sales pitches which

Did you ever have one of those terrible professors or teachers in school—the ones that droned on and on about chemistry or Shakespeare or whatever? The ones that sucked all the enjoyment out of the topic, put you to sleep or or left you feeling like you wasted your time?

Seems like a weird question I’d ask in a “professional” setting, right? I mean, unless you’re a 3 year old or a perhaps an inebriated frat pledge at a Toga party (do they still have those?) you’ve probably never walked out the door without your pants. But perhaps you’re doing

Have you ever wished you could read your prospects' minds? Here's an insight— Your prospects are wondering: Why should I get to know you? What do you and your business stand for? Why would I accept your meeting invitation or connection request? What value do you bring to my network?

Are you struggling with how social media can work for your business? It’s hard to exactly measure the ROI of social media, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be leveraging it to grow your business or increase your sales. If you’re not using social media to bring your customers closer

Meet the next gen sales pro. One of the hardest employee positions to fill right now is that of sales professional. My LinkedIn inbox and email are hit 4 or 5 times a week with business owners and recruiters asking for referrals of qualified and experienced sales professionals. I also

Last week, I had to have an unexpected surgery on my sinuses. At the doctor’s office one day and scheduling an urgent surgery for the following day! Wow, talk about a sudden disruption to your “status quo”. One of the first things I had to do was to create an

In our business and professional life, sometimes the hardest things for us to grasp is that working harder isn’t always the answer to becoming better. We all get busy “making the donuts”, servicing customers or accounts and making sure we produce what we’ve promised. However, tomorrow’s orders are never certain,

Find your new mantra for change here. This past week, I was preparing relevant stories and sticky examples to deliver the sales module at a conference for entrepreneurs. I was struck with admiration for the people who had signed up for this event. These people are setting out for an