If there’s one thing we all have in common, it is time. How we choose to spend it determines both how we feel and what results we will achieve. A big problem with time management is our inability to prioritize effectively. Too often we do not separate the important from the urgent or differentiate between… Read More
About George Brontén
Better Content Is Not the Solution to Your Sales Problems
If you listen to many of the social media voices in sales enablement today, it’s easy to believe that the solution to your sales effectiveness problems lies in better content systems. Deliver up the right content at the right time to your sales people, and you’ll enable them to perform effectively. Unfortunately, the reality is… Read More
Calculate Time Realistically to Improve Sales Results
Have you ever driven past a construction site, and noticed workers standing around, leaning on shovels and up against half-built walls instead of, well, working? Wondered where their foreman was or why they were being paid to stand around? This is a known problem in the construction industry. Current data indicates that most construction workers… Read More
Content marketing is dead. What’s next?
When content marketing first rose to prominence around 2012-2013, it was touted as the next big thing for marketing and sales departments. It promised to deliver a steady stream of highly qualified leads directly into sales departments at a lower cost per lead than had ever been achieved before. Marketers tumbled over themselves to jump… Read More
Ever Wonder If Procrastination is Killing Your Sales?
It is said that the number of people procrastinating has tripled since the 70s. This is a serious problem for sales teams, leading to stalled sales and poor pipeline performance. To make matters worse, the problem is often difficult to identify clearly and even harder to remedy. The addition of mobile devices, social media, and… Read More
Finish the year strong – call the right play
It is that time of the year again. The annual Q4 dash. Sales organizations are under enormous pressure to deliver and finish the year on a high note. With so much to do in so little time, sales people tend to select the quickest route to close. In order to get something – anything –… Read More
How to Prepare Your Sales Team for Bounce-Back After the Crisis
Most of Europe and the United States has been in a state of response to the novel Coronavirus pandemic for a few weeks now, and most of us are settling into a new sense of “normal.” For sales teams, the new “normal” probably includes a lot more working from home, a good deal less travel,… Read More
How Your Brain Lies to You About Your Decisions (And Why It Matters in Sales
Question: How logical was the last major decision you made? Answer: Not as logical as you think. In a stunning set of discoveries several years ago, UCLA neuroscientist Antonio Damasio found that humans are quite literally not capable of making decisions when operating purely from their rational mind; that, in fact, all final decisions are… Read More
How Your Sales Technology Is Like A Sparkler
When my children were small, they loved to celebrate New Year’s Eve with the grown-ups. Staying up late, eating delicious snacks, and watching fireworks explode–what could be better? Sparklers, which we in Sweden call “tomtebloss”, were always a highlight of the evening. I remember fondly the glow of a child’s face in the light of… Read More
Is Your Sales Process A Strait Jacket? Or Your Best Sales Enablement Tool?
It’s no news that a well-designed and implemented sales process makes sales teams more effective. According to CSO Insights’ Sales Performance Optimization Study, sales process related challenges are #2 on the list of sales execution challenges, right after “generate more leads”. For this reason, sales process is all the rage among thought leaders and leading… Read More
Sales pipeline reviews – a time sink or the foundation for creative sales coaching?
The sales pipeline review is a crucial activity for sales management. Done correctly, it helps produce accurate forecasts, drives accountability and ensures momentum in sales projects to ensure pipeline health. However, conducting them without having the right tools, process and mindset in place can prove to be counterproductive. Sales research is clear when it comes… Read More
The expensive CRM mistake that everyone is making
When was the last time you heard a salesperson sing the praises of their CRM? Unless you’re very lucky, it’s probably only ever happened in your dreams. More likely, you spend part of every week wrangling with your salespeople to please put their data in the system so you can print reports so you can… Read More
This is How Your Sales Stack is Ruining Performance
Technology was supposed to make our lives easier, and our teams more effective. Somehow, however, most sales teams are still caught in the same old traps as ever, just with new toys. We have the ability to listen in and record sales calls, to record minute details about every contact, to send messages instantaneously and… Read More
Why does leadership accept a 41.9% failure rate in sales?
In CSO Insight’s study “Sales Performance Optimization – 2015 Key Trends Analysis,” there’s alarming data showing that sales effectiveness, despite picking up after the financial crisis of 2008, has actually fallen since 2012 The failure rate in sales is at 41.9% The fact that 91% of the surveyed companies raised yearly quotas when 41.9% of… Read More