Jonathan Farrington in conversation with Dan McDade. I recently interviewed Dan about his concerns so far in 2014 and found his responses to be both enlightening and entertaining. Not only will readers benefit from his expertise, but they will enjoy the discussion as well. Jonathan Farrington (JF): Dan, apparently at the top of your pet… Read More
Three Tips for Setting A Leadership Cadence for The Remote Sales Team
Managing a sales team is one of the hardest jobs in any organization. You’re required to bring in the revenue for the organization…but often, due to workflow issues, strategic decisions, or maybe even factors that are beyond your control, you don’t see the salespeople as much as you’d like to. Here, then, are three tips… Read More
Three Ways to Develop Your Emerging Sales Leaders
Here are three simple steps you can take to hold on to, and grow, the next generation of your company’s emerging leaders. The first is to Talk One-on-One About the Next Opportunity on This Person’s Horizon. Too many managers fail to discuss the career path that will take a given sales rep (we’ll call her… Read More
To Increase Sales, Unleash Your Customers’ Dreams
You know key customers and accounts could be purchasing more of your product, solution or service, but they are not. As you start a new year, I challenge you to apply some new thinking to unleash your full potential as a sales professional. Dream like you mean it One of your most important challenges is… Read More
Top Sales Experts FIFTH ANNIVERSARY – Interview with Jonathan Farrington
Jonathan Farrington created Top Sales – Top Sales World, Top Sales Management, and Top Sales Awards – five years ago with a bold agenda. His idea was to “give back” by delivering and sustaining a huge sales performance resource, where sales leaders and salespeople could come to access the top brains in the sales space… Read More
Translating Strategy into Sales Behaviors That Win
Linda Richardson interviews Frank Cespedes, Senior Lecturer of Business Administration at Harvard Business School I don’t know anyone better suited to help us close the chasm that exists between actual selling behaviors and strategy than Frank Cespedes. Frank brings the rarest of combinations: 15 years as a professor, 12 years leading a business where he… Read More
Using Metrics to Build Your Inside Sales Team
“How do I know how to build my Inside Sales team?” I get this question all the time, and I’m glad, because it’s one of the most important (but easily overlooked) questions a sales manager can ask. Too many sales managers use a standard inside sales structure (often the one they inherit) and try to… Read More
Using Psychology to increase your Sales
There are two ways in which you can use psychology to increase your sales. The first is to gain knowledge of the psychological aspects of sales and buyer / seller interaction. The second is to leave behind the persona of sales, of being salesy and to learn and adopt the working ethics of psychologists and… Read More
Waiting for the Right Time Could Sabotage a Sales Career
Call Reluctance is a career-threatening condition which limits what salespeople achieve by emotionally restricting the number of sales calls they make. Studies show that as many as 80% of all salespeople who fail within their first year do so because of insufficient prospecting activity. Even in the veteran sales group, research shows that during their… Read More
We’ve Got to Stop Meeting Like This
Picture yourself in a meeting with your buyer. If you are meeting in person, you’re on one side of the table or desk and your buyer is on the opposite side. If you are meeting by phone, there’s an equivalent divide with each of you on opposite ends of the line. It’s time you stop… Read More
What % of Sales Experts Genuinely Have the Expertise to Coach Others
Jonathan Farrington in conversation with Dave Kurlan, CEO of Objective Management Group Dave Kurlan, CEO of Objective Management Group and best selling author and Jonathan discuss the fact that so many self-styled sales experts are really not qualified to coach others and much more … https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/interviews/2019/march/JF-Interviews-Dave-Kurlan.mp3
What Ever Happened To Social Selling?
With a webinar subject line like “Social Selling or Social Intrusion?” you can understand how I might be concerned. After all, I am the CEO for a company that makes a social media content distribution software platform. But when I was graciously asked to be a panelist on this Top Sales Roundtable earlier this year,… Read More
What Happens Before a Perfect Sales Call?
Imagine a sales call where you and the buyer are in complete agreement on what will be happening during the conversation, without surprise or mystery about why the meeting is occurring. The buyer is confident that their meeting expectations will be met, and so are you. Both parties are on the same page about the… Read More
What is BQ?
BQ, the behavioral quotient of behavioral intelligence, is the conscious decision to show up and perform every day at your highest ability. BQ is fueled by your thoughts, which turn into feelings, which dictate your actions and result in your performance. According to Matthew Jones “Your talent means nothing without consistent effort and practice”. As… Read More
What Is Sales Enablement, And Why Should We Care?
The term sales enablement has been a hot topic for the past couple of years: reports from Forrester and SiriusDecisions talk about its importance, conferences are held in its honor and no sales executive wants to be caught not enabling their sales team. But what is everyone really talking about? What is sales enablement, and… Read More
What the Time Machine Reveals about the Future of Selling
We don’t have to travel very far back in time to learn how marketers exaggerate conditions to enhance the selling environment for their own products. You only have to travel back as far as 2009 to learn that cold calling was dead. Yet, in 2018, I read a dozen or so articles reinforcing the falsehood… Read More
What Would You Do With A Million Marketing Dollars?
Last week, a Gartner article made its way around our office. It was titled “If I Had A Million Dollars,” so it obviously drew the attention of our sales reps. One took it to heart though, and questioned whether these marketing investments would be worth it if they weren’t executed properly. The author suggests a… Read More
What’s driving today’s insight selling?
Jonathan Farrington interviews Ramon Nunez, Founder & CEO of LiveHive JF: What makes LiveHive unique? RN: Unlike other point products, LiveHive has been designed from the ground up to deliver the most complete customer engagement profile. With LiveHive, sales reps get answers to the most critical questions that they have about their prospects. Sales reps… Read More
What’s in the C.A.R.D.S.?: 5 Post-Pandemic Sales Strategies: 5 Proven Strategies to Connect With Clients for Sales Success
As the economy continues to recover from the pandemic, modern consumers expect more out of their salespeople. Everything we knew about clients and consumer behavior in 2020 has changed, and in order to drive success in a post-pandemic economy, our approach must change as well. In 2021 and beyond, leading with empathy is the key… Read More
What’s Next! With Tiffani Bova
Jonathan Farrington in Conversation with Tiffani Bova Jonathan Farrington is in conversation with his good chum, Tiffani Bova, Sales Strategist And Innovation Evangelist, Salesforce. They are discussing Tiffani’s new podcast, “What’s Next!” which has now launched.Tiffani also shares, who’s next, revealing an amazing list of future guests. https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/interviews/2017/august/JFinterviewsTiffaniBova+August.mp3
What’s the Difference between World Class Organizations and Everyone Else?
Jonathan Farrington interviews Joe Galvin, Chief Research Officer and Executive Vice President of MHI Research Institute JF: In June the MHI Research Sales Best Practices Study was made available to the public. It is very interesting reading and very apropos to our audience. What really is the difference between world class organizations and all the… Read More
What’s Holding You Back From Coaching Your People?
Coaching is now widely viewed as an important tool for developing sales excellence. It’s also frequently cited as a key lever for driving growth. In fact, sales coaching often ranks as the single most important manager activity impacting both performance and retention. Our research of over 200 sales leaders, conducted earlier this year with The… Read More
What’s The Toughest Job in Sales?
70%+ of ALL products across all 26 verticals are sold through partners today, and in technology 90% of products are predicted by Gartner and Forrester to be sold via partners by 2026. If you don’t have a good understanding of the channel and a strong channel strategy, chances are, you may soon be irrelevant or… Read More
Where are the Women in Sales?
Hiding in plain sight, it would seem. It is 2018 and women in sales are still largely underrepresented. We do not see enough women in sales roles represented as speakers on conference stages, being interviewed on video or podcast programs, not enough women show up on leader lists and certainly, women are still in the… Read More