Here’s a new approach to the profession of sales. For years, we’ve seen the reputation of sellers slide into a negative, “pushy” or “obnoxious” stereotype of the “don’t-take-no-always-be-closing” pushers portrayed in movies such as The Wolf of Wallstreet, The Boiler Room, and Glengarry Glen Ross. Personally, it pisses me off that so many sellers before...Read More

Let’s do a reality check. Your Customers Know If You’re Showing Up for All the Wrong Reasons. They can smell it. Even on the phone. Self-serving sellers show up for all the wrong reasons. It’s what goes through buyers’ minds when they pick up the phone: “Is this person going to waste my time?” We...Read More

I hear sellers and business owners tell me they “Don’t want to be too pushy” at least 5 times a week. Trust me, if you have to say that, you’ve never been “too pushy”. Many of us have had negative experiences with salespeople that have a bulldozer mentality. They’re not afraid to run over you...Read More

Mother’s Day reminded me of an episode of The SellOut Show where we talked to the super seller, Josh Sutton from DiscoverOrg and in a passionate moment caught up in prospecting, he stated that he “believed he could sell DiscoverOrg to his grandma.” To his GRANDMA! Wow. That’s confidence! It made me think, could I...Read More

If you’re a salesperson and your company isn’t investing in helping you build responsive sales skills … that really stinks. Maybe we should have a talk about why that is and where you are. In the meantime, if you’re a sales leader or managing a line of business and a sales team and you’re looking...Read More

Being vocal, visible, and putting your business out there on the internet and social media invites a lot of attention from people selling things. Being that I have made my living, my profession, and my business from selling products and solutions, I am actually quite receptive to sales calls. (Beware, however, as you’ll see, if...Read More

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 you don’t know your conversion...Read More

If you asked 10 Sales Pros what their primary goal would be, you’d predictably get some variation of, “Close more deals,” or “Grow revenue,” or “Make my quota and bonus.” I like the “eye on the prize” mentality but question those answers as goals. They are outcomes. They are results. Similar to the name of...Read More

  We run across this situation quite often. You started a business. You hustled. You busted your behind. You earned trust. You demonstrated experience and credibility. You brought in the customers and your business took off. But at a certain point, you spent less time selling and more time “doing” and running the business. At...Read More

Way back when I started my first sales job, I had a pretty tough product to sell. I’m sure you’ve heard me mention this one or two dozen times, but I was selling advertising for the WORST TV station in the market. We had to really hustle and get mega creative to earn our customers...Read More