In the work I do with sales teams and sales professionals, I’ve noticed that people often begin a description of their sales role as, “I’m accountable for…” instead of, “I’m responsible for…” I’d like to suggest that there’s a difference between “responsibility” and “accountability,” and I think understanding and internalizing that difference can contribute to improving your sales performance. Merriam-Webster…
Tag: Sales
Linking and Leveraging Science and Art to the Craft of Selling
The other day someone asked me whether I thought selling is more science or art. My response was that it’s both. The science part is the process, which involves your IQ. The art part has to do with how beautiful you do something like building and maintaining relationships, which involves your EQ (emotional intelligence). Actively linking and leveraging both the…
Increase Potential and Probability by Qualifying Opportunities
In my working sessions with sales professionals, I’m often asked for some insight as to why an opportunity was lost. My response is always the same. You lose a deal for one of two reasons: You were outsold (you lost based on skill) You never should have been there in the first place (the opportunity was not fully qualified) Both…
5 Must-Knows Before Your Client Call
Champions are made in preparation. Olympic competitors train for years to prepare for their chance on the world stage. Professional athletes and competitors of all sorts train day in and day out to prepare for the next game or competition. Practice is the mother of all skill. The same goes for people who become champions in sales. They know that…
What Fly Fishing Can Teach Us About Sales
I recently spent a wonderful week with my family in the historic town of Breckenridge, Colorado. We went white water rafting, we hiked, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery together, and…my son and I made our very first attempts at fly fishing. As the fishing instructor described the techniques and optimal conditions to successfully catch a fish, I realized that fly…
Acting Against Your Best Interests in Sales
Acting against your best interests means you err because of ignorance or ineptitude. Ignorance says we err because you only know partially what to do. There are skyscrapers we do not know how to build, snowstorms we cannot predict, and heart attacks we still have not fully learned how to stop. Ineptitude is when the knowledge exists, and yet we…
Delusional Thinking in Sales
In the movie, “A Beautiful Mind,” Nobel prize winner John Nash (played by Russell Crowe) says in his acceptance speech, “my search for reason has taken me from the physical to the metaphysical to the delusional and back again.” The more I think about this statement, the more I realize that many of us – in any career – get…
Aligning Pots and Flowers for Revenue Growth
If you have ever seen small packets of seeds on display at your local nursery, you may have noticed that the front of the small packets does not have a picture of the seeds. There is a picture of the flower or desired vegetable. Why is that? I am buying the seeds and yet the picture shows me the end…
What is a Selling Philosophical Misalignment?
In the professional development work I do with sales teams and sales leadership, I often hear statements like these from sales professionals: “I’m trying to spend time with my client to strengthen and expand the relationship, but my boss wants me to spend time creating yet another version of the forecast.” “I don’t feel like I’m getting enough coaching from…
Meeting Your Client Where They Need to be Met
“Where do we need to be to win the business?” I am not sure what book this phrase comes from or its origin, and yet you still hear it very often in a sales environment. This question is so wrong on so many levels. Not only because is it 2016 and we are digging for water on Mars, but because…
