Part of understanding the negative feelings out there about sellers is reconciling the fact that much of the sales advice out there preaches manipulative and controlling sales practices that leave customers skittish, untrusting, and gun-shy about sellers’ intentions. Which is why buyers don’t return our calls, shrug off our emails,

I surveyed a sales team recently prior to a Skills Building session on Pushback, Objections, and Negotiation, and asked them some of the most common obstacles they face in business development. Their answers didn’t surprise me, but one of the things about their answers that I pointed out really made

There’s all this free sales advice out there. So, why aren’t your sales team members killing it? Why aren’t they soaking it up? Why aren’t they studying YouTube, signing up for all the webinars, and buying all the freaking books? Seriously, WHY? Don’t they WANT to kill it? Don’t they

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

Many times when a new client reaches out or “sends up the bat-signal” it comes after one or more significant sales losses—especially if the loss is an existing account and it came as a shock. This has happened to me when I was an account executive and I see this

Why do we love toddlers and small humans in weddings? It’s not because ring bearers and flower girls perfectly execute their duties with the style and panache of professionals. It’s because, in spite of rehearsals, practices and coaching, we know that they are a wild card and are capable of

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

Our clients are usually classified as “Small Business”—though I absolutely DESPISE that term. The US economy is POWERED by small business! In fact, as of the 2010 census, small businesses make up to 99.7% of employer firms in this country (a “small business” is defined as having less than 500

Resolutions. People either love them or hate them. January 1st is just another day to many people, much like a Monday. Regardless of how you feel about fresh starts on the first day of the year, revisiting your business goals annually (semi-annually and quarterly as well) is vital to business