Working effectively with purchasing, third parties and gatekeepers. Your buyers have needs, and you can meet those needs with your solution. So what is causing those annoying continuances and stalls? Why can’t we get this closed already? Maybe, just maybe, there are some needs you haven’t considered. Maybe it’s time to take a step back… Read More
Continual Learning = Continual Selling
The profession of selling is changing rapidly, and you need to up your game if you want to continue being successful in sales. Take a look back at this CONNECT2Sell Blog post if you doubt this to be true. Sellers who stagnate find themselves struggling, often after it’s too late. Don’t be one of those… Read More
Continuances Don’t Advance the Sale
Stop celebrating continuances. They aren’t as likely to result in a sale as you think they are. Think about your sales process. It has specific steps that progress from opening the sale to closing the sale. There is no step in that process where the seller sits on the sidelines. So why do sellers breathe… Read More
Conversation is Not a Competitive Sport
The past few months I’ve been engaged in an ongoing dispute over something very important. In this protracted negotiation, one of the things that bothers me most is that the other party seems to think that conversation is a competitive sport. This isn’t the only place I’ve observed behaviors that signify a misunderstanding about the… Read More
Convert More Leads into Sales
Cut out continuances, put an ending to pending and stop stalling out with CONNECT! Online Radio for Selling Professionals. In every broadcast, we tackle your toughest selling challenges and offer sales coaching to help you reach your goals. In this broadcast, sales coach Deb Calvert interviews Andy Paul, speaker, facilitator and author. He’ll offer you… Read More
Core Communication Skills for Sellers
In sales, it all comes down to the quality of the conversation. Nothing gets sold without good 2-way communication. It’s up to sales professionals to initiate and guide the conversation and to effectively tune in for all those subtle communication signals. Join CONNECT! Radio’s special guest Claire Laughlin to improve your effectiveness in sales communications…. Read More
Customer-Focused Selling Gives You 20/20 Vision
You know that nagging little feeling that something is missing in your selling? It’s probably the focus on your customer. You can’t quite see it because you’re focusing instead on products, commissions, goals, deadlines and all that internal reporting that you have to do… Somewhere in there, the customer has gotten lost. Sales trainer Margie… Read More
Did You Wake Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed?
And one of my earliest sales jobs, I worked in a small office. My manager was a bright and capable woman about 10 years older than me. I admired her career trajectory and all she had accomplished. Despite my admiration, there were certain aspects about her that I’ve vowed never to emulate. Chief among these… Read More
Do You Have I Trouble?
This article originally appeared on Deb Calvert’s blog) When it’s hard to see things clearly or you can’t quite understand what’s happening in your customer relationships, it may be because you have I trouble. You may have I trouble if you experience symptoms like these: you find it very difficult to engage prospects and get… Read More
DWYSYWD in Sales
(This article originally appeared on Deb Calvert’s blog) It takes more than charisma, more than solid products, more than competitive prices, and more than glad-handing to succeed long-term in sales. It takes credibility. Credibility. That’s a word laden with expectations. Buyers expect their sellers to be credible. They want to work with someone who is… Read More
Go Ahead – Ask!
(This article originally appeared on Deb Calvert’s blog) Are you any good? As a selling professional, do you have satisfied customers? Have you helped your buyers to reach their goals? Have you saved anyone time and money? Do you deliver on time every time? Do your customers appreciate what you do for them? Do you… Read More
Go Big or Go Home
(This article originally appeared on Deb Calvert’s blog) Last month I wrote about how “No, you cannot have just a moment of my time.” The desperation a seller conveys when he or she opens with this phrase instantly devalues whatever is pitched to me in that next moment. The same sellers, when they do get… Read More
Has Your Potential been Tapped or Capped?
In a recent LinkedIn Pulse article, “9 Ways You Can Get Boxed In at Work without Even Knowing It,” I wrote about the 9-Box Model used by companies to identify the high performers and high potentials in their organizations. The article generated some heated debate, with advocates of the 9-Box Model rationalizing that it’s a good tool when… Read More
Help Spread the Word! Getting Sellership into Our Sales Vocabulary
Sellership is a replacement word for salesmanship. For now, it’s a made-up word that you won’t find in standard dictionaries. It has, however, been accepted by Urban Dictionary, and it’s making the rounds on social media, too. Maybe you’re wondering why we need to replace the word “salesmanship.” Let me explain. Salesmanship is defined as: the technique… Read More
How Can Leaders Progress Beyond Insight?
The most effective leaders I know are the ones who have developed keen self-awareness. Developing insight into one’s own self provides opportunities for being able to understand one’s own motivations, preferences and perspectives. Self-awareness is an important component of emotional intelligence. That’s because it’s difficult to understand and empathize with others if you don’t first… Read More
How good are you at answering questions?
Life isn’t a trivia contest. We’re not in an elementary school classroom anymore, regurgitating facts back to the teacher to prove what we’ve learned. And, for sales professionals, absolutes are rare – the gray area between the black and white is vast. So why do we struggle when asked questions? Why do questions trigger a… Read More
How to Coach Sellers Who Are Exhibiting Call Reluctance
90% of salespeople exhibit call reluctance. This shocking find comes from a BSRP study of 197,076 global sellers. The study concludes that call reluctance is the #1 reason for underperformance in sales. It’s not gaps in training, lack of sales enablement, buyer empowerment, the economy, tough competition or low product value. Number one, above all… Read More
How to Overcome Your Fear of Cold Calling
Want to eliminate the fear, failure and rejection of cold calling? Then you’re in the right place! Join esteemed author and sales expert Art Sobczak to minimize your dread and maximize your effectiveness when you prospect by phone . On this episode of CONNECT! Online Radio for Selling Professionals, our host and on-air sales coach Deb… Read More
I Made the Sale… Now What?
What if you could think bigger and longer-term to maximize your opportunities with key customers? What if you’re leaving money on the table by not thinking strategically? Lisa Magnuson, sales strategist and founder of Top Line Sales, LLC, guides high potential sales people and account teams to land larger deals and accelerate sales. On CONNECT!… Read More
If you Don’t Believe you Don’t Receive
(This article originally appeared on Deb Calvert’s blog) It’s such a simple concept. Nevertheless, there are so many sales people trying to sell something they don’t believe in or don’t understand. It confuses me when someone says they are a competent salesperson but they don’t particularly care for the product that they sell. For me,… Read More
Immune to Sales Tricks and Techniques
I’ve been a salesperson all my life. I’ve managed and trained sales teams in every state in the U.S. and nearly every province in Canada. I’ve read just about every sales book there is and written one myself. So if you want to sell me something, it will take more than a canned pitch and… Read More
In Sales, Don’t Fake It ‘Til You Make It
The notion that you should “fake it ‘til you make it” will damage your credibility with buyers. Buyers know when you’re faking it, and they don’t give you bonus points for trying. Instead, because there is already a trust gap between sellers and buyers, they shut down if they sense you are inauthentic, uninformed, or… Read More
In Sales, You Need the Right Mix of Hard Skills and Soft Skills
You’ve got technical knowledge, market intel, front-line experience, and the tools you need. But there’s something else you need to succeed: the intangibles or “soft skills” matter, too. Let’s take a look at the differences. Hard skills are specialized. They include everything required by a specific job role. Engineers need to know how to design… Read More
Instant Replay on 10 Sales Calls
Wouldn’t it be great if you could get an instant replay, complete with slow motion, to diagnose what worked and what didn’t work on your sales calls? Join us for 10 sales call replays and a diagnosis of each. These are recreations from actual sales calls, and your on-air sales coach Deb Calvert will call… Read More