Top Sales Library - a resource of all things sales

Colleen Stanley

Are You Confusing Being Busy With Being Productive?

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You’ve all seen this salesperson.  He looks busy, complains there isn’t enough time to get everything done and has no sales results to show for his efforts.  What’s not working? This salesperson is confusing being busy with being productive.  As a result, he is on an endless sales-gerbil wheel leading to no sales. Here are… Read More

Are You Confusing Being Busy With Being Productive?

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You’ve all seen this salesperson. He looks busy, complains there isn’t enough time to get everything done and has no sales results to show for his efforts. What’s not working? This salesperson is confusing being busy with being productive. As a result, he is on an endless sales gerbil wheel leading to no sales. Here are a couple… Read More

Are You Thinking Like A Salesperson Or A CEO?

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Salespeople often fail to connect with and sell to the executive buyer because they don’t think like a CEO.  Leaders buy from leaders and if you aren’t exhibiting the CEO behaviors and leadership thinking, the C-suite buyer will quickly dismiss you.  Why would an executive want to engage with a salesperson that doesn’t understand the… Read More

Building Trust Is Your Best Sales Strategy

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We live in an information age and bad news is everywhere. There are stories about wealth managers embezzling clients’ money, corporate America not looking out for shareholders, and the government overstepping boundaries. Is there more scandal today? Not really; it just seems that way, because access to bad news is so much easier than ever… Read More

Do You Really Believe That?

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The self help guru’s are the best at teaching, “You are what you believe.  Your thoughts determine your outcomes and actions.  And what you think about most will manifest in your life.” These guru’s are right and many salespeople and sale managers still subscribing to old beliefs and ways of selling do not serve them… Read More

Don’t Re-live Groundhog Day by Repeating Your Mistakes

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Groundhog Day is a popular movie about Phil, a grumpy weather forecaster. He finds himself trapped in a time loop while covering a story around the ritual of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The movie centers around Phil’s need to change his behaviors or events will keep repeating themselves. This is a good time of… Read More

FOCUS – The competitive advantage for sales organizations

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Sales managers work hard to transfer the success skills that made them a top producer.  They deliver training and coaching on key account management, running consultative sales meetings and overcoming objections. All of the above require another selling skill that is becoming obsolete in our multi-tasking society:  focus.  Learning and mastering new skills can only be… Read More

How Emotional Intelligence Helps You Become a Better Sales Manager and Coach

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Good sales managers invest a lot of time training and coaching their sales team. And sometimes, regardless of effort, they see little or no improvement. Why? Because most sales managers haven’t been taught formal training and coaching skills that incorporate both hard skills and soft skills training.  As a result, they often work on the… Read More

Is Poor Emotional Intelligence Preventing You From Gaining More Business?

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You’ve preached the importance of consistent prospecting and business development to your sales team. All heads nod up and down in agreement. You’ve dedicated a portion of each sales meeting to teaching your team new skills and strategies for opening up opportunities. Key performance metrics have been determined and are being tracked. So with all… Read More

Is Your Team Equipped to Handle Sales Stress?

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The sales profession carries plenty of stress. Your sales results are out there for the world to see. You either achieved your sales quota or you didn’t, and it’s on a visible company dashboard. Stress grows as the number of competitors increases each day. The internet allows small companies to look big. It’s harder to… Read More

Objection Handling With Emotional Intelligence

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Are objections questions? Should you address them? Do you find yourself trying to overcome objections that really may just be simple statements? In this interview with Lynn Hidy, Colleen Stanley, author of the book “Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success,”  explains that people often don’t know what they are supposed to do when faced with what… Read More

Sales EQ and Sales IQ of Effective Sales Management Coaching

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I enjoy teaching and coaching salespeople about the hard skills of running an effective sales call, what I refer to as the “Sales IQ.” It’s challenging — and fun — to analyze and figure out the best strategies to unseat a strong incumbent, attract the attention of an overloaded prospect or eliminate price objections. But… Read More

Sales Pipeline or Pipe Dream

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Monday mornings start off with sales meetings and the infamous sales pipeline review. The sales manager interrogates, the salesperson fabricates and the CFO wonders how she can run a company when the sales department isn’t able to accurately forecast sales. So what’s the answer?  There are several reasons for inaccurate sales forecasting, however, the two… Read More

Sales Thought Leader or Thought Repeater

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I had the good fortune to hear Neen James, leadership expert, present at the National Speakers Association. She asked the audience a great question. “Are you a thought leader or thought repeater?” (You might be thinking I am a thought repeater at this point….stick with me.) Salespeople are told be thought leaders, trusted advisors, insightful… Read More

The Emotionally Intelligent Sales Manager

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Integrating emotional intelligence skills into the sales profession is a fairly new concept for most sales organizations.  Progressive sales organizations such as American Express and Motorola are adopting the knowledge and skills as they know it is an edge in a competitive market. So what is emotional intelligence and how can it help sales leaders… Read More