This post evolved from a conversation with a colleague, Gina Trimarco, of Pivot10 Results, a leadership, sales, and service trainer, a studier of people, and a fantastic business sage. Gina uses analogies and metaphors in much of her training and coaching so I challenged her to take part in our

What is your conversion rate and why is this little number such an important indicator of your company’s performance and health? In the big picture, understanding your conversion rate helps you know exactly how much it costs you to gain a new customer. This can help you plan your budgets

If you’ve had young children, you’ll feel my lament over those awful cartoons with the characters and theme songs that take root in your adult head like uninvited weeds in your brain garden. From the mouse to the purple dinosaur to the little girl who yells everything and carries a

Earlier this year, my friend and super sales trainer, Alice Kemper asked me my thoughts about the term Sales Playbook. I had shared with Alice that we build these often and help our clients execute these plans and she’s heard the term frequently lately and wanted to know if it

Are your eyes on the competition or customers? What you should be obsessed with in your business. How do you handle the competition? Meaning, do your competitors factor into your offers, your customers, your sales and marketing strategy? How much weight should you give to their consideration? And, what exactly

We’ve had great response (and a lot of strong suggestions) when we started asking sales leaders across the country to share their insights about what sales pros should stop doing to earn more sales. I had particularly emphatic response from my colleagues of Women Sales Pros, whom all seem to

A while back, we participated in a great business expo hosted by the local chamber. At our booth, we asked people to “Give us their best pitch” about their business. And we offered to record it for them and email them the sound bites. There was a specific point to

When one of our clients asks us to work with their sales team on revenue growth, we first conduct some interviews of the sales people and ask, “What do you need to do your job better?” they usually answer with one of these two responses: “More aggressive pricing” and “More

You might be surprised to know where I find inspiration for these blog posts. Or, maybe not, considering you’re here. I bring a lot of everyday life into training and coaching conversations in sales. I find that general business jargon and “sales speak” make people want to take a nap

Watching the sales activity of several sales teams lately, I have come to the conclusion that these teams are truly confused about the differences between marketing and selling. I work with many small businesses where the business owner and/or the small sales teams sell and there isn't a marketing department