LinkedIn is a massively underutilized prospecting resource. The strategy we’re about to share with you involves face-to-face contact with people you already know. It’s a best practice we use and have coached others to use as a means of generating substantially larger numbers of referrals via LinkedIn. When you schedule a meeting with one… Read More
Look Me In the Eye: Using Video to Build Relationships with Customers, Partners and Teams
Many relationships never progress past “you’re on mute.” Why? Essential qualities you may easily convey in person, like trust, empathy, and authenticity, get lost on video. Actor and virtual communications expert Julie Hansen shares eye-opening—and often counter-intuitive—techniques to adapt to the camera’s constraints and communicate with greater influence, credibility, and engagement. Whether you’re a salesperson, a business… Read More
Loosen the Reigns and Harness Sales Force Creativity
Dr. Douglas Hughes brings to his students the broad sales perspective he gained from his 20+ years in industry. His background includes marketing and sales leadership positions in two Fortune 500 companies as well as experience as a CEO of a business services firm. Here are just a few of the important position he holds:… Read More
Losing Deals? Blame Your Buying Personas
Ever-increasing sophistication: Sales forces have been on a long, steady march to increase our sophistication. In the old days (you know… the 20th century), sales forces first transitioned from a landscape with little organizational rigor to an era of sales process. It became common knowledge that there was a ‘best’ way to sell to customers,… Read More
Making it a Priority to Get More Women in Sales
When I started out as a sales representative selling computer software and hardware solutions, I noticed that I was often one of just a few women on the team. At first, I didn’t think much about the gender imbalance. I was hired for my first tech sales job by a VP of Sales who was… Read More
Mindfulness in Enterprise Selling
Jon Kabat-Zinn is professor of medicine at The University of Massachusetts and a world-renowned expert on the topic of mindfulness. He explains the concept in rather simple terms by stating that “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally”. Interesting. Of course, we’ve all heard about mindfulness… Read More
More Sales, Less Time
Jonathan’s guest this week is Jill Konrath, an in-demand keynote speaker, author of 3 bestselling sales books already, a sales strategist and an award winning sales blogger. Now Jill has a brand new book out, “More Sales, Less Time” and in the latest episode of the JF Interview series, she shares some enlightening facts behind the… Read More
More Women in Sales is Good Business
When I began selling technology solutions 20+ years ago, the ratio of women to men was pretty off kilter. By now, you would expect that the ratio of women to men in sales organizations would have become a little more equal, especially in the leadership ranks. Unfortunately, statistics from multiple research studies tell a different… Read More
Move Beyond What You Don’t Want
When faced with danger, different animals react to anxiety in different ways. Lions, for instance, will fight. Gazelles will flee. Turtles will freeze. A fourth “animal” is fully evolved human beings. Humans have many other choices. This analysis leads to all kinds of interesting areas. You as a human being are not an animal, so… Read More
New data for Sales VPs supports pivotal role of marketing to grow revenue
It’s that time of the year when Sales VPs are looking into 2013 and trying to figure out how to grow revenue, again. Whether you’ve had a down year, a flat year or a great year, I bet none of you Sales VPs are signing up for less revenue in 2013 than you delivered in… Read More
New Sales Management Coaching Program
Jonathan Farrington in conversation with Steven Rosen, CEO and Executive Coach at STAR RESULTS Steven Rosen is the CEO and Executive Coach at STAR RESULTS. In this interview we discuss Steven’s new coaching program for sales managers, why only 6% of sales managers, globally, are believed to be properly equipped to coach effectively (Source: Objective… Read More
NonStop Sales Boom: Powerful Strategies to drive Consistent Results All year long!
Jonathan Farrington interviews Colleen Francis, Founder and President, Engage Selling Why did you decide to write Nonstop Sales Boom now? Over the last few years, I’ve seen an increasing trend that is impacting most businesses I work with. Time and time again, prospects and clients will say to me, “We don’t need you or any… Read More
On Top of the Revenue Marketing World – Interview with Debbie Qaqish
Jonathan Farrington interviews Debbie Qaqish, Principal Partner and Chief Strategy Officer for The Pedowitz Group, a Revenue Marketing™ agency, and author of the 2013 Top Sales Book of the Year, “Rise of the Revenue Marketer” JF: Why did you feel the need to write a book on Revenue Marketing? DQ: It was all about the “missing dialog.” As… Read More
Only a Real Risk Tests the Reality of a Belief
It’s a very powerful quote from C.S. Lewis, which he expanded on in his book, Grief Observed, written after his wife’s death. He shared that it’s easy to say you believe in the power of a rope when you’re using it to tie up a box but that hanging from a cliff holding on to… Read More
Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal?
Why did you write Pick Up the Damn Phone!: How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal? I was alarmed by salespeople’s dependence on technology. Salespeople believe that technology can do their jobs, that they no longer have to talk to anyone, that they can hide behind emails, cold calls, and social media. It’s like digital… Read More
Pick Up the Damn Phone!™ How People, Not Technology, Seal the Deal
You’ve heard it: Television will kill radio. Video killed the radio star. And social media and the Internet will eliminate the time-consuming, face-to-face aspect of sales. Um, no. Marketing automation, CRM, social media, and other technology tools empower us to sell more efficiently and cost-effectively. But if you think back over your most successful business… Read More
Race to Amazing Your Fast Track to Sales Leadership
Jonathan Farrington in Conversation with Krista Moore, President/CEO, K.Coaching, Inc They are discussing Krista’s recently published new book “RACE to AMAZING YOUR FAST TRACK to SALES LEADERSHIP.” Krista shares her own personal stories, setbacks, and successes, with many real-life sales leadership situations, which she has coached her clients through. In essence, Krista introduces a powerful process… Read More
Re-Building Marketing to Support Sales
Sales groups and marketing groups are famously at loggerheads. The sales group claims the marketing group provides bad leads while marketing claims sales doesn’t follow-up on leads marketing gives them. Dig deeper and you sometimes discover disagreement about basic issues, such as the intended market and target customer. Top executives find these disagreements profoundly frustrating…. Read More
Real-Time
In the first sentence of his LinkedIn bio, David Meerman Scott boasts of being sacked in 2002 in one of the worse job markets in history. The same radical thinking that got him fired has made him one of today’s most respected sales and marketing strategists and thought leaders. Drawing from his experience as a… Read More
Relationship Selling: The Eight Competencies of Top Sales Producers
The worldwide bestseller Relationship Selling was first published in the mid-1980s by author Jim Cathcart. This edition was written using the first edition plus almost 20 years of actual field experience in applying these techniques. The basic premise of Relationship Selling is: The purpose of Business is to make life better for people. And the… Read More
Revealing the Seller’s Dilemma
Jonathan Farrington interviews Tiffani Bova, VP, Distinguished Analyst at Gartner JF: You first introduced the concept of the ‘sellers’ dilemma’ back in 2013 – what does that actually mean? TB: While my research here at Gartner has focused on the B2B side of technology sales, I believe that it is applicable across all industries. The… Read More
Sales and Marketing Must Change the Way They Engage and Deliver Customer Value, Right Now
COVID-19 has forced many organizations to shift rapidly to virtual meetings, virtual events and fully digital programs and techniques. Field driven sales and marketing activities as we’ve known them have stopped for some organizations, and for others, they have been severely constrained. Getting access to the full suite of decision makers and decision influencers on… Read More
Sales Call Reluctance® Organizational ”Signatures
Sales Call Reluctance is a phenomenon that sinks companies that have the right products services. In spite of that many leaders do not take action against it. Could it be so that they do not see it as they may have the same problem themselves? If the whole culture suffers from it, it becomes beliefs… Read More
Sales Coaching: This Strategy Will Ensure Your Success
In my last column, The Business Case for Better Sales Coaching, I wrote about how high-performing managers get 30% more of their salespeople to quota than other managers. In this column, we’ll look at how these managers use coaching to achieve their goals. In a study we conducted with the Sales Management Association covering 213… Read More