Nearly every organization evaluates the effectiveness of its sales incentive compensation system at the end of the year. Leaders question whether the system generated the right outcomes, whether it was fair and whether practices supported the company’s strategy. But rarely do they address these kinds of questions in a systematic way. Most compensation evaluations are… Read More
12 Things To Make Your Sales Transformation
We consider ourselves very fortunate to work with the quality of clients we do. Over the last few years we’ve worked on over 30 sales transformation projects and helped to significantly increase the number of salespeople who achieve quota and helped organisations build a long-term sustainable business with a pipeline of qualified opportunities. But we… Read More
3 Common Pitfalls to the Buying Centre
I am sure you already know about the Buying Centre, maybe you call it the Buying Group or Decision Making Unit and you may use different terminology to identify the people in it, but the principle remains the same. In a B2B sale there are several people, or groups of people, involved in making a… Read More
3 Internal Conversations That Will Stop Your Sales Efforts
With the holiday season upon us, it’s time to strategize for 2016. How will you get more clients? Where do you find the best prospects? While goal setting is a good thing, another area worth examining is your approach to sales situations. Sometimes you tell yourself things—have internal conversations—that can stop new sales endeavors. Here’s… Read More
3 Internal Conversations That Will Stop Your Sales Efforts
With the new year upon us, you need to have a plan for how you’re going to grow your business. How will you get more clients? Where do you find the best prospects? While goal setting is a good thing, another area worth examining is your approach to sales situations. Sometimes you tell yourself things—have… Read More
3 Strategies to Improve Sales Forecast Accuracy
The single most important issue in any sales organization is managing the funnel to achieve an accurate sales forecast. Let’s look at two ways this core issue is typically handled. Company A’s funnel process uses one of the most common approaches to forecasting, orienting its sales funnel to the steps of its sales process: qualifying,… Read More
A Christmas Day Coffee Fail, and What it Says About Sales Performance
When my three-day new Keurig coffee machine – the epitome of the latest and greatest home-brew technology – went down on Christmas morning, I knew I had to act fast. So I dug out my 20-year-old Mr. Coffee maker, dusted it off, plugged it in, and found that it worked like a charm. Christmas saved…. Read More
A Digital Compass to Get to Your Sales Destination
With clearly defined quarterly and annual quotas, most sales teams understand where they need to go. But does everyone on the team understand the best way to get there? Sales acceleration tools can help by serving as a digital compass for sales organizations, so everyone on the team gets to the same destination. For sales… Read More
A Fool With a Tool is Still a Fool
Sales people are not fools. But this well-known saying brings home a problem that I often see; many Sales People appear to use Sales Tools but don’t really understand their purpose or master the underlying selling skills. Let me give you an example. I was sitting in an Opportunity Review with the MD of a… Read More
A Hierarchy of Insights? Why All Insights are Not Created Equal
In the arena of provocative selling, insights have emerged as the consensus weapon of choice. That’s really no surprise. The term itself seems provocative. It implies knowledge, influence and an eagle-eyed vision toward the future. Research conducted by my company, Corporate Visions, confirmed just how widespread the use of insights has become. A survey of… Read More
A Millennial’s Sharing Economy
Older generations are constantly trying to understand the “millennial.” What makes us tick? How do we operate in the workforce? Why are we always on our cellphones? How can we possibly have 1,000 friends on Facebook?! The answer is simple: millennials live in a sharing economy. The research on millennials overwhelmingly confirms this one characteristic…. Read More
A Win for the Whiteboard
Not all visual presentations are created equal; here’s the research to prove it. Intuitively, you probably know that when it comes to telling a story that prospects remember, one told with words alone won’t measure up to one that includes visuals. In the academic world, this is known as the Picture Superiority Effect, a principle… Read More
Are Your Results by Design or Default? The Omni-Channel Customer Reality
It seems like everybody’s talking about this term “omni-channel” these days: the omni-channel customer experience, omni-channel selling, and on and on. It’s clear that different organizations have different definitions of what exactly “omni” means. For some, it means having both indirect and direct routes to market. For others, it implies they are everywhere, kind of… Read More
Big Data-Driven Sales Training
EVERY COMPANY WANTS TO GROW SALES. Using sales training as a mechanism to achieve that goal is certainly plausible. Unfortunately, whether the programs are developed internally or purchased from a supplier, most sales training initiatives fail to produce truly worthwhile results, such as increased revenue, higher margins, or expanding market share. Thought leaders in the… Read More
Create a ‘No Excuses’ Sales Environment
In order to help our sales people be successful reaching goals, we must hold them to the necessary activity by building strong tracking and accountability processes. We call “Accountability” a 14-letter dirty word because in most organizations the process of inputting, collecting, and inspecting sales activity is not well-liked– by sales people or sales management…. Read More
Customer Experience Starts with Buyer Experience
Do your customers enjoy working with you? Will they promote you to their peers? Or are they so dissatisfied that they’re counting the days to the end of the contract – when they can get a better experience via one of your competitors. When you think about your customers’ experience with your company it’s tempting… Read More
Do You Need a Chief Sales Officer to Accelerate Sales Growth? Consider This First
The pace of change in your marketplace is accelerating. The ability to embrace and respond to complex markets is a competitive advantage. It used to be that a good VP of Sales had the competency to grow sales in most situations. But, this isn’t always the case. Chief Sales Officers are the latest addition to… Read More
Do your customers trust you?
Of course your customers trust you. Don’t they? Trust is the single most important part of the relationship between a Sales Person and the customer. Take this test and see if you still think they really trust you. Do you get a lot of leads from customer referrals? Do the people you encounter in the… Read More
Do Your Salespeople Know What Training They Need?
It’s not uncommon for companies to plan their sales training programs based on what salespeople say their biggest needs are. But at a time when so much rides on your reps’ ability to articulate value throughout the sales cycle, you have to wonder: How reliable is that approach? Not very, according to a Corporate Visions… Read More
Don’t talk about your values. Demonstrate them.
Your Sales Process is a preview of what it is going to be like working with you. If you demonstrate your values you will not only make the Sales Process a true reflection of what the customer can expect, but you can use the values to differentiate yourself from the competition. Let me give you… Read More
Elevating Your Value to the C-Suite
Or…How to Avoid Getting Delegated Down to Whom You Sound Like For a long time, you have been hearing… “You have to sell higher.” But, just telling someone, “sell higher” doesn’t mean salespeople know what they need to say when they actually get in front of an executive. Or have the guts to go there…. Read More
Fasting and business: The modern mindset
I do a bit of semi-regular fasting when it comes to my diet. I actually enjoy the process, and it makes be feel better physically. Funny thing is, our bodies are actually designed for it. Early man who painted on cave walls and fled T-Rex’s pursuits didn’t actually sit down to eat three squares per… Read More
Four Things Prospects Say That Should Make You Squirm
Sales is a fascinating line of work. I’ve been involved in buying and selling in some form for nearly twenty years, and not a day goes by that I don’t learn something new. And a lot of it comes from paying very, very close attention to what happens in daily sales conversations. Observing minute triggers,… Read More
Get Your Hands Off the Forecast
Forecasts in most organizations are inaccurate. (Like I needed to tell you that!) Establishing a common set of customer-management strategies is an essential step toward improving forecast accuracy. This standardizes the way the sales team assesses opportunities. Less Forecasting, More Selling Of course, if you ask a sales professional to compile a forecast manually, you… Read More