Like it or not, your technology often makes your first impression on your prospects. It sends a clear message about you and your company. Great sales managers understand that selling is all about communicating. But how well are you communicating with your team? And how well are you empowering your team to communicate effectively with… Read More
Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success: Connect with Customers and Get Results
Even skilled salespeople buckle in tough selling situations–getting defensive with prospects who challenge them on price or too quickly caving to discount pressure. Those are examples of the fight-or-flight response–something salespeople learn to avoid when they build their emotional intelligence. Studies have shown that emotional intelligence (EI) is a strong indicator of success. In “Emotional… Read More
Enabling Sales Effectiveness in a Global Organization – An Interview with David Yesford
In the past, the expression “Global Traveller” may have conjured up an image of a person leading a somewhat nomadic existence, crossing borders at will, and never really establishing roots, but not this global traveller: Meet David Yesford, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Support for Wilson Learning Worldwide. David has a solid 27 years… Read More
Enterprise Selling – The Inside Scoop
Jonathan Farrington in Conversation with Brian Sullivan In this latest JF Interview, “Enterprise Selling – The Inside Scoop” Jonathan’s guest is Brian Sullivan, VP, Sandler Enterprise Selling. They are discussing how one defines an enterprise account – what’s different about them versus SMB’s, what sales teams can do to maximize the chances of growth, how can enterprise sales teams ensure… Read More
Evolve or Die Part 2: Teamwork and Collaboration Across Departments
In a previous article, I explained how today’s prospects are more educated and savvy than ever before. Which means sales professionals have to be better prepared to have more meaningful conversations that will help lead to a sale. Today, I’d like to share how teamwork and collaboration can also help sales reps survive and thrive… Read More
Evolve or Die Part 3: From “Always Be Closing” to “Always Be Consulting”
Throughout this article series, I mentioned how sales reps must become even more knowledgeable about their prospects and improve collaboration across departments. In addition to these changes, sales reps must also begin to change the way they sell. The same old selling techniques are not going to work on today’s prospects. Always Be Closing “Always Be… Read More
Evolve or Die Part 4: New Type of Sales Rep
When you think of the prototype sales person, you think of someone who is friendly, outgoing and has a big personality. The type of person who can effortlessly work a room and return to the office with pockets stuffed with hot leads. If you’re looking to hire a sales rep, you probably wouldn’t hire someone… Read More
Evolve or Die Part 5: Swap Older Tools for Online Meeting Tools
Companies are spending big money to find quality prospects. The costs of advertising, content marketing, trade shows, list buying and email programs can add up quickly. It’s also up to the sales reps to schedule a meeting with prospects and create a strong enough connection so they can close the deal. In the perfect world,… Read More
Evolve or Die: How to Survive and Thrive in the Changing Sales Landscape
Overall, the role of a sales professional is dramatically changing. The “good old days” of dialing for dollars are over. Today, only 2 percent of cold calls result in an appointment. So, if you’re hoping your “dial days” will result in some big deals, you’re going to be very disappointed. Today’s sales people have to… Read More
Fingerprints to Success
I’m often asked how I define enterprise selling versus selling into small and medium-sized accounts. At Sandler, we believe strongly in the power of pain. Our founder, David Sandler famously said, “No pain, no sale”. So, not surprisingly, we define enterprise selling in terms of the unique pains and challenges that organizations face in selling… Read More
Five questions to get you in front of the CEO
Let’s play a game. Imagine you sell high value items to large organisations. A new customer is worth $1,000,000+. You’ve put in lots of work to profile your ideal customer, you’ve identified a public company in an industry where you have credibility and you know they need help. The key people who own the issue… Read More
Game Changers Make Sales
I have talked about the importance of a Sales Process for several years now and a good Sales Process is essential. You can improve its effectiveness significantly by designing your Sales Process around customer expectations of professional salespeople. But that’s not enough. A good Sales Process alone won’t win you the sale. Really significant improvements… Read More
Getting in the Head of Your Customer – A Conversation with Forrester’s Brian Lambert
If you want to know what your customers are thinking, Brian Lambert is a great person to ask. Brian is the Senior Analyst for Sales Enablement at Forrester and works with product, marketing, and sales groups to align content, behaviors, and tools to the value that customers define. Over the past year he and his… Read More
Getting People Connected
Jonathan Farrington interviews Deb Calvert. I hear you use the word “connect” quite a bit. Why is that? When I say “connect,” I mean it like Super Glue and not like a Post-It Note. The word itself means to join, unite or tie together. In our hurry-up world, we sometimes get superficially associated instead of… Read More
Give, Match, Take – A Conversation with Adam Grant
Adam Grant is the author of the acclaimed new book Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success. He not only is one of the most respected social scientists of our time but he is the youngest tenured professor at the Wharton School. Before you ask yourself what does he know about selling understand that… Read More
Good Blogging Is Good Selling: Five Myth Breaking Rules for Blogging
Geoffrey James has interviewed me many times over the years and it was my pleasure to turn the tables by interviewing of him. Geoffrey is a journalist in love with the field of sales. From my experience that is rare. He has focused on sales issues for a decade and currently writes a column for… Read More
Goodbye to the Weakest Link
Organizations have paid the price long enough for the weak processes between marketing and sales. According to Aberdeen Group, the biggest gap between sales performers and under-achievers lies in integrating sales intelligence with sales and marketing systems. And Sirius Decisions says only a miniscule 8% of B2B companies report good alignment between marketing and sales… Read More
Great Coaching Is Akin to Sales Itself, Its Part Art and Part Science
Why being a “Dashboard Junky” is not sustainable! The Sales leaders of today, as well as overall business leaders and business owners want to win net new business, get more business from existing clients, increase sales productivity, and produce more predictable sales forecasts. To execute on this, they need to increase the sales force’s win… Read More
Have You Earned The Right to Ask The Question?
What’s the meaning of life, Mitch asks Curly? After a chuckle and a brief pause, Curly replies, It’s the “one thing”. Perplexed, Mitch asks, what’s the one thing? With a sly smile, Curly says, ah, that’s what you must find out for yourself. If you recognize this exchange, congratulations. It is a pivotal moment in… Read More
Hiding behind the Technology Curtain
Joanne Black’s mantra is “never cold call, not by phone or email”. Never is a big word but Joanne is convincing. She has been coaching sales leaders and salespeople on referral selling for two decades. We all know technology has given us incredible access to information about clients, their backgrounds, even their interests before we… Read More
How Can the Wisdom of the Ancients Toltecs Help You to Sell in the Turmoil?
Hundreds of years ago in the streets of Teotihuacan … the biggest city in the world in the IVth century of our era … more than 200 000 people are living there in the shadows of the Pyramids of the Sun and of the Moon … the Toltecs lived in this area and were known as… Read More
How Do You Prepare for Client Meetings?
As sales professionals, the way we prepare for a client engagement greatly determines the outcome of the meeting. How much preparation do you invest for important client engagements? I recently researched the current landscape of “expert” advice to see what they suggested when preparing for an important client engagement. I was not too surprised to… Read More
How does KnowledgeTree help sales teams?
Jonathan Farrington interviews Daniel Chalef, CEO and Founder of KnowledgeTree JF: How does KnowledgeTree help sales teams? DC: Effective sales people engage prospects. They provide valuable, often challenging messages that move prospects toward a sale. That’s where we come in. KnowledgeTree helps sales teams have winning conversations with prospects. Our software predicts which content and sales… Read More
How Front Row Solutions are Changing the Face of CRM
Jonathan Farrington interviews Etien D’Hollander Question One Jonathan: Tell me about Front Row solutions. Why did you create it? What was your goal? Etien: For thirty years I worked for a number of companies and had a lot of opportunities to work with different CRM systems: as a sales rep, as a sales manager and as… Read More