Over the last few months I’ve been writing about what I consider to be best practices in moving through the process from identifying an opportunity to closing it. So far, we’ve covered Preparing for the Call, Opening the Call, and Qualifying the Opportunity. If you’ve been following along, we’re now at the point where you recommend an approach. As the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
