Not long ago, sales and marketing executives spoke to each other during senior team meetings, but frankly, not much more frequently than that. They executed their respective plans, and rarely counted on the other to be of much help in furthering the agenda of their department. Sales had overall responsibility for revenue, marketing took on… Read More
The 2018 Buyer/Seller Disconnect Conundrum
For over two decades we CSO Insights has focused on doing primary research to identify the challenges facing B2B sales teams, and what companies are doing to deal with those issues. Our primary target survey audience are sales professionals; CSO’s, sales managers, and salespeople. In addition, we also get input from marketing and service professionals… Read More
The 60 Second Sales Coach
Coaching is simply the language you use in every conversation. The language of your organization, of leadership and how every exemplary leader communicates. Some coaching conversations can even be facilitated using just one simple question. The fact is: If you have time to provide someone an answer, then you have time to ask them a… Read More
The Age of Agile Selling
Agile software development is one of the more recent examples of how companies are applying the principles of lean manufacturing to make significant improvements in diverse areas of the business. Sales is no exception, and the concept of “agile selling” needs to receive more attention as sales organizations seek to maximize efficiencies and become more responsive to customer… Read More
The Anthem of Our Day
One of the collateral benefits of creating the Modern Elder Academy is the people we meet along the way. Poet Mark Nepo will be on our MEA master faculty next year and he sent me this just-penned piece of prose a couple of hours before we graduated our 50th cohort so I could share this… Read More
The Big Question – Go or No-Go?
In a recent edition of Top Sales Magazine, I wrote an article called “The Black Boxes of Lost Deals”, which generated a great deal of communication from readers. It related the importance of conducting post-mortems on lost deals with major accounts to the airline industry’s best practice of capturing information from black boxes after accidents…. Read More
The Black Boxes of Lost Deals
In selling to and serving major accounts, long term relationships involve streams of transactions over time with many different types of opportunities and pursuits. And regardless of the effectiveness of your sales model, the cruel truth is that losing happens. No matter how powerful your due diligence, client commitment and processes are, you’re certain to… Read More
The Business Case for Better Sales Coaching
One of the most pressing trends impacting salesforces today is the steady decline in the numbers of salespeople making quota. According to CSO insights, the percentage of salespeople at quota has been in a steady decline, and 2017 marked the first year that this important metric dropped below 50%. This has occurred while most organizations… Read More
The Changing Craft of Selling
Selling has changed in the 21st century. For years, it was the work of an individual. Now selling more often involves people who must be trusted advisors to prospects as well as product promoters, while delivering a quality customer experience that involves coordinating efforts across multiple units at their firms and customers. Consider two recent… Read More
The Changing Face of Sales Management – or is it Really?
Jonathan Farrington in Conversation with Jason Jordan Jonathan’s guest is Jason Jordan a founding partner of Vantage Point Performance and they are discussing how the role of sales management has changed over the past few years if indeed it has. They also exchange ideas on why so many managers are failing. https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/interviews/2018/february/JFInterviewJasonJordon2018.mp3
The Connected Customer is your New Holistic Business Norm
The Internet of Things (IoT) connected customer is the new business norm catalyzing IT channel dynamics. This new norm impacts how we think about the Buyer’s Journey: today, tomorrow and in the future. This new norm impacts how we identify opportunities to do business with our customers. This new norm impacts how our own businesses… Read More
The Damaging Cost of High Salesperson Turnover
Sales Hacker’s 2016 Sales Metrics Report states the average tenure for a B2B sales person is 1.4 years. It takes a new salesperson six months to become effective which doesn’t give them long to succeed. This is a huge problem for sales leaders – so what are we doing about this? Often the wrong thing. Every… Read More
The Dirty Secret About Women in Sales
When I first contemplated what to write for Top Sales World’s women in sales edition, my mind immediately went to the unique attributes typically associated with the female gender. I began to consider our tendency to be good listeners, show empathy, and patiently guide our clients toward solutions. However, this line of thinking was largely… Read More
The End of Sales As We Know It – Interview with Howard Stevens
Howard Stevens is the Founder and Chairman of Chally Group Worldwide, a leading global sales improvement and talent management firm. His first competency assessment research project was for the Justice Department for the selection of law enforcement officers at all levels. He then switched his focus to sales. Howard loves the business of sales and… Read More
The Foundation for Sales Performance
Jonathan Farrington is in conversation with Steven Rosen, CEO & Founder of Star Results. They focus on “The foundation for sales performance” and share views on why the foundations in so many organizations are so fragile. Steven has just completed a brand new survey “The 2016 Star Sales Manager Report” and many of the findings… Read More
The Gurus are Gone: The Changing World of the Sales Performance Industry
The sales performance improvement industry has undergone a metamorphosis. It was once a system led by gurus, including Huthwaite’s own Neil Rackham, a behavioral psychologist studying success factors in human relations. Rackham undertook the largest and most comprehensive research study to isolate and identify the distinct behavior traits of successful salespeople. The study involved the meticulous… Read More
The Importance of an Ethical Sales Culture
Jonathan Farrington in conversation with Mike Esterday, CEO of Integrity Solutions. Jonathan’s guest is Mike Esterday, CEO of Integrity Solutions. Amongst the topics they discuss are, what really causes poor sales performance, how that impacts goals for the new year, the role of sales managers to coach and build their people and the importance of having… Read More
The Joshua Principle, Leadership Secrets of Selling
Joshua Peters is a salesman in crisis – after losing a key deal his boss threatens him with the sack and he has doubts concerning his choice of career. His father is a sales veteran who progressed all the way to CEO but with their relationship at an all time low he struggles to help…. Read More
The Key to the C-Suite
With budgets more stringent than ever, important purchasing decisions have moved up the ladder to the C-suite. These days, it is crucial for sales professionals to understand the financial metrics senior level executives use to make strategic buying decisions and be able to communicate the positive effect their products or services will have on a… Read More
The Key To Unlock Long-Term, Loyal Customers
Your customers are in jeopardy. Right now. Your competitors are circling. They’re baiting their hooks, hoping to lure your hard-won clients away. Whether your customers bite will be directly related to the relationship you (and your company) have developed with them. In other words, your objective is not just to land customers, but to make… Read More
The Long-Distance Team: Designing Your Team for Everyone’s Success
From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement-all from a distance. Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact… Read More
The Missing Piece in the Sales Enablement Puzzle
Sales Enablement is a topic that has blown hot and cold over the last few years. Mega corps through to smaller firms have all had to wrestle with the pros and cons of implementing a formal Sales Enablement programme. The countless debates that surround Sales Enablement continue to rumble on. In the world of Sales… Read More
The New Golden Age of Sales Has Arrived
So much of the sales role is still lived in a fog of automatic and habitual behaviour due largely to outdated leadership that has failed to recognise this new customer-led era that we now live in. Hooray! – the age of customer contempt is now over, and we have just embarked upon an exciting new customer-led… Read More
The One Rep, One Manager Challenge
Imagine this… Here’s the scenario. What if your entire business rested on just one rep and one manager? In other words, what if the life of your company rested on you picking one seller from the pool of all the average sellers in your company and pairing him/her with just one manager to oversee the… Read More