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Tibor Shanto

3 Signs Of Bad Phone Breath

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No one likes cold calling, well most don’t, so you can stop writing that e-mail telling me that you’re the exception that proves the rule. I don’t like it, I know it is god’s punishment to sales people, but it works, and I have made the connection between successful cold calls, a robust pipeline and… Read More

Add Salesformics – Stir and Sell

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One of the opportunities offered by the web 2.0 world, or as many around sales like to call it social selling, is to leverage a number of tools to improve and accelerate the quality of interactions, especially at the early part of the sales cycle. The challenge is how to leverage the various tools, integrate… Read More

All Those Empty Yeses In Your Pipeline

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Getting a Yes from a buyer is nice, feels good, but can be deceiving, and lead to disappointment.  Good sellers borrow from Ronald Reagan, “Yes, but validate” I understand the concept behind gaining “small” or “incremental” agreements from prospects through every meeting and throughout the sales cycle. However, as with many things in sales it… Read More

Are You Ready For 2020?

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During one memorable sales training session, I experienced in my corporate days, focused on understanding how different people in the buying organization interact with time differently.  In fact, different players will look at the exact same thing, and see something different based on their role in the organization and their place in the hierarchy of… Read More

Don’t Wait To Ask For Referrals

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I continue to be amazed that despite all that is written about the importance and success of referrals, how few sales people actually leverage this proven and effective method of sourcing new sales opportunities. Whenever I ask a group of sales reps “How many people here ask for referrals?” I still find that way less… Read More

Focus On The Why – The How Will Follow

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The headline seems simple enough, I bet most a nodding with familiar approval, yet when you watch many sales people in action, you see them focusing much more on the How, not the Why. This is especially fatal early in the process, when they start they prospecting, be that a call, an e-mail, or a… Read More

GAP Selling

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Almost every conversation in sales, starts or ends with the pursuit of value; at the same time there are as many different definitions and understandings of value as there are sellers and buyers. Without a clear and actionable definition of value, many conversations between buyers and sellers are less than effective, fail to create alignment… Read More

Is Sales a Numbers Game?

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Sales expert Tibor Shanto challenges the notion that sales is not a numbers game. It very much is. Those who want to deny that want to dodge the accountability that come with being measured. Tibor looks at how numbers are central to your sales goal or quota, numbers are central to understanding conversion ratios, and… Read More

KPI’s: Check list vs. Commitment to Success

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Key Performance Indicator or KPI’s, have become common in sales and sales performance management, but the question is are they effective and have they delivered on their promise. A Key Performance Indicator or Performance Indicator is a kind of Measure of Performance. Conventionally they measure things such as number of new orders, cash collection efficiency,… Read More

KPI’s – What Are They To You?

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Talk to any ‘executoide’, and KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) are bound to be part of the conversation. Nice and practical concept, good resume fodder, often misused or abused by many, especially from a sales point of view. I often get the sense that many see KPI standing for Key Political Initiatives or Key (to my) Personal Incentive. As a concept, KPI’s… Read More

Personal Deficiency Bonus

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With special thanks to S.G. and my friend B.P. Everyone, including me, writes a piece this time of year about closing the year strong. For the most part these are aimed at front line sales people, and the better ones offer choices that make sense year-round even if initially implemented in Q4. Few are aimed… Read More

Sales & Consequences

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Unlike the old game show, in sales, it is for real; every deal has a real winner and that many more losers, to be specific, if three sales reps are bidding for a deal, one will win the other two will lose. What is also real in sales is that every action – or –… Read More