There’s hardly anything I can think of that’s more cringeworthy to a seller than hearing, “I’ll think it over” come out of a prospect’s mouth after you’ve proposed a solution or put a contract in front of him or her. For me, it was worse than hearing a flat out,

No one and I mean NO ONE loves it when I’ve ever asked them to role-play a sales scenario. It’s hard to explain how many times I’ve gotten eye rolls when I brought up role-playing through a scenario. Why do we hate it so much? Well, it’s awkward. Everyone’s staring

Over these past few weeks, I’ve had strong reinforcements of my core beliefs about sales training: Most of it needs to be undone. I see proof every day that sales onboarding is upside down or backwards. I see sales training that is hype, technique and manipulation-based vs skills focused. Much

Potatoes, Eggs, Bacon, Croissant, Orange Juice, Dolphins. See what I did there? Your brain started looking for a pattern: Food, Breakfast Foods…then, BAM. Disruption. Want to Get Someone’s Attention? Disrupt Patterns and Expectations Our brains are—say it with me now—FUTURE PREDICTION MACHINES and we’re constantly surveying and assessing for what

My agile, fit, 71-year-old mother came over this week after cleaning her gutters. They were pulling away from the house so she climbed on a ladder and in the 90 degree Memphis summer heat, cleaned the debris and gunk out of her gutters. The rub came later when she was

I helped a friend out a few weeks ago. She has built a team of salespeople underneath her in a business that sells global products made by artisans paid fair wages. The organization commits the profits heavily to humanitarian efforts around the world as well. Her team members are NOT

Let’s talk about your sales and profit margins. How effective do you think your sales and/or marketing messages are? Are they compelling and converting leads in to opportunities and opportunities into customers with strong and healthy margins? At what rate? And at what cost to acquire a new customer? (If

One phrase that I hear often from sellers and businesses when they describe their offers really makes me cringe. I hear it a lot from sellers trying to paint a broad picture to capture as much potential business as possible. Yeah, I get crunchy when I hear, “We’re a One-Stop-Shop

We’re very close to Thanksgiving and all those holiday traditions that signal the slowdown of business and preparation for the next year. I know you’re thinking cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes but hold up—there’s still some really important work to do! This time of year, I’m usually writing about year-end

Have you ever done the “Sales Walk of Shame” back to your car in the parking lot after realizing you just lost a sale and thought, “What in the world happened?” You didn’t see that coming. You thought things were looking good for you. Your buyer said things were going