Shawn Karol Sandy

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

For years, to become better at sales and selling, sales people and business owners have focused on closing techniques or perfecting their pitch and offers. With the big flip in control of the sales process transferring to the buyer, in order to become better at selling now, we must study

In my experience working with businesses in all different industries at different stages—from small businesses, to mid sized business and even enterprise organizations, I’ve found one particular place where most businesses and sales professionals are lacking: a real, actionable Sales Strategy to grow their business. Business Development is usually the

Does this title feel ALL too familiar to you? I had an encounter with a business prospect last week. “Tom” had met me and heard me speak at a conference about “Meeting the Modern Consumer” and sent me an email to discuss what that really meant for his business. Here's

If you’re an innovator, builder, game changer, entrepreneur, promotion seeker or department of one, it can be lonely trying to forge new paths. No one can share your burdens directly—even with empathy and support in your work, it can be a hard and isolating journey filled with doubt, sacrifice and

There are a LOT of articles swirling around us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook about the traits of successful people—what they eat for breakfast, how much they exercise, what kind of vacations they take . . . but what do successful people do to become more successful? This list is

We write a lot here about Selling. Selling Best Practices, Selling Value, Sales Strategy—but we’re not just speaking to the Sales Reps. If you’ve got a business, you are in sales—and that goes for nonprofits too. When we’re asked to come in to a business it’s usually because of one

This week, I met with my client, “Jane” who is launching a great new product. We talked about her initial efforts and responses to her first few prospect pitches. She was surprised that her first prospects balked at her value proposition and didn’t jump up and take her offer on

Have you ever tried to buy something and abandoned ship (or cart) because the seller was just making things too difficult to complete the sale? Whether you’re selling something online or in person, there are several things you could be doing that are putting barriers up between you and closing

Are you bumping up against the same competitors for business? Is there someone new popping up in your industry every month? Are you losing business to your competition? (As opposed to losing business to apathy— that’s for another blog.) Whether my product was flowers, print on paper, business cards, office