Jonathan Farrington in Conversation with George Brontén Jonathan Farrington is in conversation with George Brontén, Founder & CEO of Membrain. They are discussing George’s new white paper, “How to Build an Effective Coaching System” which is due to be published on Tuesday, July 11th. https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/interviews/2017/july/JFInterviewsGeorgeBrotenJuly4.mp3
How to get Sales People to see the need for personal change
Have you seen a PC with an out of date operating system, something like the old Microsoft MS-DOS? It works – sort of. But compared with a PC running on the latest version of Windows it sadly underperforms. We regularly see Sales People who haven’t updated their own “Operating System” and as a consequence are… Read More
How To Influence Using Emotion
Jonathan Farrington is in conversation with Calum Kilgour Jonathan’s guest this week is Calum Kilgour, CEO of Slingshot Edge. Calum makes the point that sales messages that are full of abstract information and the agenda of the seller simply don’t connect with the buyer’s emotional level. https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/interviews/2017/april/JF-Interview-Calum-Kilgour-2.mp3
How to Motivate a Sales Team to Improve Each Rep’s Performance
Implement all the bright-shiny strategies you can think of to get sales reps excited about their success… And more than likely, they’ll still fall short of reaching their goals. What’s the missing link? According to behavioral intelligence (BQ), it’s about how you motivate your team. BQ has found that motivation is a trigger for thoughts… which cause feelings… which… Read More
How to Prospect On-The-Road (and Stay Sane)
Two months ago, amidst the pandemic, I decided to move from Miami to Seattle. I was still running a full-time employee stress-relief and wellness training business. Consumed by the packing and wrapping up things in Florida, there was little to no time to think about future sales efforts. “I will do it while on the… Read More
How to Use Video to Crush Your Sales Quotas
“You need a playbook,” demanded Lauren Bailey, CEO, Factor 8. “You need a playbook.” I knew she was right for multiple reasons. I’ve been in sales for more than 20 years and “playbooks” give sales people comfort. Playbooks help sales people to streamline and simplify the sales process based on what other people in our… Read More
I am a Professional Sales Woman. No Apology Needed
Shinjini Das, author, entrepreneur and TV personality, may have said it best, “I’m totally unapologetic about being an ambitious woman, and you should be, too.” My entrance into sales was by default. Working for a technology start up, sales were not rolling in, so I decided to give sales a try. I bought a suit,… Read More
I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again & Again
How do you build a business that thrives during good times and bad? Is there a strategy that can set up your company up for success, no matter what curveballs the world may throw your way? There is: Turn customers into repeat customers, and turn repeat customers into loyal customers. Renowned customer service and experience… Read More
Identifying Buyers in Your Pipeline
Your sales reps don’t have infinite time. If they did, you could have them lavish enormous amounts of energy on every open opportunity in their pipeline. But in the real world, you must make sure your reps spend enough time working the opportunities that really matter, which unfortunately means giving the short shrift to others…. Read More
If We Can’t Solve World Peace Can We Agree on How to Market and Sell?
Jonathan Farrington interviews friend and colleague, Dave Kurlan JF: What prompted that question, Dave? DK: There are literally thousands of sales and marketing experts, most of whom are regularly voicing their opinions on the best way, the right way, the perfect way, and the only way to sell. In my opinion, most of the experts… Read More
Improved Sales Through Listening
70% of buyers say that agents who listen to their needs create the most positive sales experiences. So why are we stepping over this missed opportunity by not listening in sales? Knowing your pitch is incredibly important. However, it falls on deaf ears when the buyer senses you did not listen long enough to understand… Read More
In Enterprise Selling, Pain Cuts Both Ways
I often get the question from inquiring minds, “What is Sandler Enterprise Selling?”. But before the question can be addressed, a broader one must be considered. “What exactly is enterprise selling itself?”. Interesting. At Sandler, we believe strongly in the concept of pain. One of our most iconic quotes is, “No pain, no sale”. How… Read More
In sales, should courtesy be tossed out the window?
Recently, I have been following a LinkedIn discussion where the following question was posed? When calling, should you ask a prospect whether it’s a good time to speak? Living in a consultative sales world, and teaching the principles of a consultative sales process, to me the answer was simple. Yes. Being mindful is one of… Read More
In the Dark of the Night, Every Cat’s a Leopard
This old Indian saying provides great insight into enterprise selling, because it reminds us how important it is to identify and understand the information that matters most about our key competitors. We must not only know them and understand them, but we must truly account for them as well. This means having the organizational capability… Read More
Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently
What do winners of major sales do differently than the sellers who almost win, but who ultimately come in second place? Mike Schultz and John Doerr, bestselling authors and world-renowned sales experts, set out to find the answer. They studied more than 700 business-to-business purchases made by buyers who represented $3.1 billion in annual purchasing… Read More
Interview with Neil Rackham — Taking an Equal Place at the Table by
Neil Rackham, industry leader and breakthrough thinker, continues to illuminate all of us in sales. Fresh back from a month’s retreat and brimming with ideas, Neil discussed the transformation that has taken place in sales over the past few years and how today’s customers have access to twenty times as much information and twice as… Read More
Is the Perfect Sales Meeting a Myth?
I have spent the last 20 years of my career in B2B technology sales. Almost everything has changed during that time: the Internet, cloud technology, mobile devices, tablets, the consumerization of business applications, and even the way that buyers buy. But one stubbornly annoying thing hasn’t changed: the all-important first on-site sales meeting never goes… Read More
It’s Time to Overhaul Your Prospecting Experience
I recently wrote a blog post called Stop Practicing Random Acts of Lead Generation. As I did with that post, this article also calls attention to a horrendous practice in sales that has reached a fevered pitch. The barrage of spammy email, phone or LinkedIn pitches sent by salespeople that are ill conceived, poorly communicated,… Read More
Journey Sales Lead Us Into Smart Rooms
Jonathan Farrington interviews Bill Butler CEO & Co-Founder of Journey Sales Bill Butler eloquently describes the reasons why his company created Smart Rooms: “The primary design goals of the Smart Room, and the reason we started Journey Sales, is to build a tool for the Sales Rep to help them sell. But to improve selling,… Read More
Just Exactly What is Enterprise Selling?
Jonathan Farrington interviews Brian Sullivan, co-author of the recently published “Sandler Enterprise Selling: Winning, Growing, and Retaining Major Accounts” Find out just exactly what enterprise selling is and how is it different from any other type of selling: https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/sales-library/2016/brian-sullivan-interview.15.mp3
Kristin Agnelli, Senior Director Lead Development for PGi
Jonathan Farrington interviews Kristin Agnelli, Senior Director Lead Development for PGi, Locating and qualifying new opportunities remains a critical and essential task for any company, so how do the best go about it? Jonathan Farrington interviews Kristin Agnelli, Senior Director Lead Development for PGi, who shares some of the ideas that have ensured that her… Read More
Leading Remotely ….
Jonathan Farrington interviews Kevin Eikenberry, globally acclaimed leadership guru, best selling author and Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. What are the biggest concerns and complaints you hear about leading remote sales teams? You know, leading a team is complex enough as it is; when you are remote, the job gets even harder…. Read More
Learn and Lead or Get Out of the Way
Reaching, engaging, influencing and demonstrating clear business value to today’s modern B2B buyer is more challenging and complex than ever before. And the challenge becomes tougher if your company, product or service is not perceived as a “must have” to solve the business problems that executives grapple with daily. Perhaps that accounts for the focus… Read More
Learn to Love Opportunity Reviews
B2B sales cycles are getting longer and more complex, so the cost of pitching is rising – our research suggests the effort you have to make has doubled in the last 10 years. A recent sales opportunity we were involved in, to outsource the network operations of a European Telecoms giant, took 2 years. The… Read More