You booked an appointment with your dream client, you opened strong, and you are ready to uncover the dissatisfaction that you need to find to create and win an opportunity. You dig in with questions as to how their present partner, your competitor, is performing, ready to pounce … [Read more...]

Sometimes you call on a contact that you strongly believe is the decision-maker only to hit a roadblock. Running into the same roadblock time and time again isn’t a great strategy. You can try to nurture the relationship and create enough value to gain entry over time. You can … [Read more...]

Some of the leads you have been given are the biggest and best users of your goods, services, or solutions in your territory. But these companies are hard to penetrate. Sometimes we believe that what we need to succeed is new leads, better leads, leads that would be easier to … [Read more...]

This is another question from The Sales Blog mailbag. I don’t know how many times I have heard the statement, “I am great when I am in front of a prospective customers, but I just can’t get in.” I struggle to accept this premise for a couple of reasons. First, being … [Read more...]

It’s easy to do all of the sales-related tasks that you enjoy. It’s difficult to find salespeople that don’t love face-to-face sales meetings. It’s even more difficult to find a salesperson that doesn’t enjoy entertaining clients at dinners, ball games, etc. It’s not … [Read more...]

Goals are important. They mark off milestones, your progress on your journey. But disciplines and rituals are more powerful than goals. Your rituals are the behaviors that you commit to and take that have no end. It is their consistency and their endlessness that make your … [Read more...]

Do you have trouble getting started prospecting first thing in the morning? Are there always five or six distractions that take your attention away from the most important task you need to perform as a salesperson? Do these seemingly important tasks give you cover and make you … [Read more...]

My good friend and all-around wonderful gentleman, Steve Woodruff, wrote an excellent piece over at Connection Agent. I commented there, but I couldn’t resist writing a little something here for non-salespeople. I personally know many people who are very, very competent in … [Read more...]

There are lots of attributes that successful people tend to have in common. Successful salespeople tend to have a set of attributes and skills, too. Some of the terms that we use to describe effective salespeople aren’t always flattering, and non-compliant is one of those … [Read more...]

“Call me next quarter.” The words are misleading. It sounds positive, doesn’t it? You might even believe that your dream client has actually asked you to call them back next quarter. They haven't. This is not a positive response to your prospecting efforts. It has a very … [Read more...]