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Joanne Black

It’s Never About Closing

5 June 2013 by Joanne Black

Have you ever heard this one? “My salespeople can’t close.” I cringe when sales executives ask for a training program about closing the sale. Save your money. It’s never about closing. Never. That’s just the symptom. The problem almost always stems from the activities salespeople neglect or overlook during earlier parts of the sales process…. Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Closing, Sales Process

It’s Exciting to Manage a Multi-Generational Workforce

7 January 2021 by Joanne Black

Why entitlement may actually be a good thing Remember when your parents told you to turn down that loud, obnoxious music? Actually, they yelled, because otherwise you wouldn’t have heard them. They griped about “kids today” and wondered what this next generation was coming to. Many of us have turned into our parents, and now… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Team Working

Love Them or They’ll Leave

29 August 2014 by Joanne Black

Absence doesn’t make your customers’ hearts grow fonder. Your clients want to hear from you … really. They don’t want a pitch or even to hear about your services. They want to know what you know. Many of your clients don’t get out of the office very often. They keep their heads buried in their work, occasionally emerging… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Customer Experience

Maximizing Referrals: Strategies for Turning Your Network Into a Powerful Revenue Generator

28 April 2023 by Joanne Black

Learn more about the science (and art) of referral selling in my new webinar with Finlistics. It’s interesting how you meet people, and when you sell by referral, you meet a lot of interesting people. In the summer of 2015, I got an urgent call from Barry, a colleague who was working with Dr. Stephen… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling

Message to Management: Are You Losing Your Top Talent?

20 August 2014 by Joanne Black

If your sales reps are overwhelmed, they might decide the job’s not worth the stress. The job of sales reps is to sell—to maintain strong sales pipelines and spend their time talking to clients. When you force them to spend hours entering data, coaching new hires, and attending long, boring meetings, they’ll leave. More than 60 percent… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Recruitment & Retention, Sales Management

NEWSFLASH: Buyer-Centric Sales Is NOT New

1 December 2022 by Joanne Black

I was ready to scream! When I read about how sales has evolved to be buyer-centric and relationship-driven, I was ready to scream. Good salespeople have always approached sales this way. Buyer-centric sales is NOT a new strategy. But it has become an increasingly rare one. “The balance of power in a sales relationship has… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Customer Experience

Pick Up the Damn Phone

30 September 2013 by Joanne Black

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

Filed Under: Referral Selling, Video

Pick Up the Phone, Bring In the Money

5 August 2013 by Joanne Black

Our smartest, tried-and-true tool for business development, lead generation, and deal closing has always been ourselves. And that’s not going to change anytime soon—if ever. The digital world—as great as it is—threatens personal connections. Humans need face-to-face contact with others. Even with whisper-light computing power and immediate, 140-character Twitter posts, we are a face-to-face species…. Read More

Filed Under: Article, Lead Generation, Referral Selling

PowerPoint Is Killing Your Sales Presentations

11 September 2014 by Joanne Black

Strip away the tech to increase sales effectiveness. I used to add long columns of numbers once, and I was always correct. I never had to add backwards or have someone else check my math. To this day, I can still look at numbers and ascertain whether they have the correct number of zeros at… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Presentations

Quit Bugging Me with Your Stupid Sales Pitches on Social Media

3 October 2014 by Joanne Black

I’m not connected with thousands of people on LinkedIn. I don’t invite people to connect with me unless I know them or would like to get to know them. And I don’t accept every invitation I receive to connect. The reason is simple: LinkedIn is not a numbers game. The goal of social media is… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Trends, Social Selling

Refer Your Way to the C-Suite

8 September 2014 by Joanne Black

Referral selling. You’ve heard the business case: Decision-makers always will meet with you when you’ve been referred by someone they trust. https://s3.amazonaws.com/TopSales/sales-library/2014/june-5/Refer+Your+Way+to+the+C-Suite.mp4

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Referral Selling, Video

Referred: Rediscovering the Power of the Original Social Network

27 June 2014 by Joanne Black

Much about the business world has changed in recent years—from the Great Recession that rocked our economy, to the emergence of social media, to the technological developments that have fundamentally shifted the way we work. But when it comes to sales, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed and won’t anytime soon—if ever. People still do… Read More

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Referral Selling, White Paper

Sales Leadership Is Missing It Big (and Here’s the Proof)

13 August 2020 by Joanne Black

Research shows cold calling scripts and tricks don’t work, but referrals do. When will sales leadership wake up? They still measure the number of dials and emails sent in a day, when the return on these sales activities is dismal. The last I heard, it took eight to 12 touches to reach a prospect—and that… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling, Relationship Selling

Sales Reps Not Closing Sales? Try This

6 August 2021 by Joanne Black

This broken link is to blame for sales teams’ biggest closing mistakes. “My salespeople can’t close.” This is the frustrated lament I hear regularly from sales leaders. But not closing sales is never the real problem. It’s just a symptom. The problem is that sales reps neglect important activities during earlier stages of the sales process…. Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling

Small Business Owners Don’t Want to Learn How to Sell

19 June 2019 by Joanne Black

Hiding behind technology doesn’t drive sales—THIS WILL. October is National Women’s Small Business Month in the U.S.! I know it seems like there’s a month for everything, but this is certainly one worth celebrating. Closing the gender gap, here and abroad, has been slow, but it’s also been steady. Just consider that in the 1960s, women… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling

Social Deja Vu: We’ve Been Here Before

20 October 2014 by Joanne Black

Even when there’s nothing on, we’ll always have reruns. You’ve heard it: Television will kill radio. Video killed the radio star. And technology will eliminate the time-consuming, face-to-face aspect of communication. Um, no. Because the more things change, the more they stay the same—in sales and in life. Old but Not Irrelevant People have always… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Networking, Sales Process, Sales Prospecting

STOP Cold Calling!

11 August 2014 by Joanne Black

Why is it when the economy tanks, article after article, webinar after webinar, sales strategy after sales strategy promote cold calling as the tried and true prospecting method? STOP cold calling. It’s a total waste of time. Your time. The prospect’s time. And wasting time is stupid. So stop, already. Welcome to my blog. I… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Cold Calling

Stop Spamming People

27 June 2014 by Joanne Black

Get over it. They don’t want to talk to you. How many unsolicited emails do you get each day? Today I received 25 … before 10:00 a.m. Guess how many I opened? Not a single one. I’m not interested in student loan assistance, Russian beauties, light therapy for depression, surveys, blood pressure solutions, cat food… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Lead Generation

Stop Typing, Start Talking: 3 Ways to Succeed in Sales 2.0

6 December 2013 by Joanne Black

Technology helps salespeople do many things more efficiently, but to seal the deal, we must put away our toys and have a grown-up conversation. The digital world opens up many new opportunities for salespeople, but it also threatens personal connections. Even with whisper-light computing power and immediate, 140-character Twitter posts, people still buy from people… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling, Sales Prospecting

The #1 Sales Program to Guarantee Qualified Leads

12 February 2024 by Joanne Black

Relationships drive sales—always have, always will. Most sales teams miss quota year after year. Yet, quotas continue to increase. Doesn’t make much sense, does it? Sales leaders bemoan that they don’t have enough qualified leads in the pipe, that their people aren’t getting meetings with decision-makers, that they can’t seem to differentiate themselves from competitors…. Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling

The Irrefutable Referral Business Case

7 July 2024 by Joanne Black

How asking for referrals will drive your revenue in 2024 How many people should you ask for referrals to get five new clients? No more than 20. In my experience, at least half the people you ask for referrals will introduce you to your ideal prospect. Referred prospects convert to clients a minimum 50 percent… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Referral Selling

The Real Reason Your Sales Reps Can’t Close: How Are They Prospecting?

17 April 2016 by Joanne Black

“My salespeople can’t close.” This is the frustrated lament I hear regularly from sales management. But failing to close is never the real problem. It’s just the symptom. The problem is that sales reps neglect important activities during earlier stages of the sales process. Unless you address the broken links in your prospecting system, your… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Closing

The Ultimate Sales App—No Smartphone Required

25 March 2020 by Joanne Black

Think your smartphone is the most powerful sales tool at your disposal? Think again. Yes, think again. We love our sales apps. Social media, CRM, sales enablement platforms—each of these promises killer features that will streamline the sales process and make us all rich. As if! The ultimate sales app doesn’t require a smartphone, a… Read More

Filed Under: Account Management, Article

There is No Such Thing as a Warm Call

23 June 2014 by Joanne Black

A warm call fanstasy? You’ve done the research on social media, sent inviting emails in which you make a great case for your prospects to talk with you. That’s not cold calling is it? Wrong, says referral expert Joanne Black. “There’s no such thing as a warm email or a warm phone call. If you… Read More

Filed Under: Lead Generation, Referral Selling, Video

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