In management, we prefer to evaluate performance based on factual, concrete results. Everything that can be captured and reported is, and the data provides an endless array of metrics for management to pour over, review, and assess. Most of the metrics are an autopsy; they are … [Read more...]

Much of what we do to produce sales results is difficult. We make it more difficult to get results when we fail use one of the greatest of all human attributes to find a way: our resourcefulness. Resourcefulness is one of key attributes necessary to creating and moving sales … [Read more...]

This is the seventh and final post in this series (I think it might make a pretty good eBook). The series started with The Gatekeeper, move on to the End-Users, weaved into the Ancillary Stakeholders, delved deeper into the Management Stakeholders, avoided avoiding the … [Read more...]

The person with the ultimate authority to decide whether to choose you and your solution may not be a member of executive management, but if your deal is large enough, complex enough, or strategic enough, it’s likely that someone in an executive management will have to approve … [Read more...]

This is part five in this series. It started with The Gatekeeper. The second post was The End-User Stakeholders. The third was Ancillary Stakeholders. The fourth post was Understanding and Creating Value for Management Stakeholders. Now we move on to professional … [Read more...]

This is part four in this series. The first post was entitled The Gatekeeper. The second post addressed End-User Stakeholders, and the third spoke to Ancillary Stakeholders. The management stakeholders are responsible for execution. They form an important bridge between … [Read more...]

This is part three in this series. Read part one, The Gatekeeper, and part two, The End-User Stakeholders. The end-user stakeholders are easy to identify. But there are other, sometimes more difficult to identify, stakeholders within your prospective clients that are also … [Read more...]

This is the second post in a series of posts on working through an organization’s buying committee. Read the first post here: The Gatekeeper. There is no end of sales advice about the importance of penetrating an account as high is as humanly possible. The logic is based upon … [Read more...]

This week I am writing another series of posts. This time on working through an organization’s buying committee. This is the first post of this series. The gatekeeper used to be thought of as a receptionist or an administrative assistant. They were the person that gave you … [Read more...]

Selling well isn’t easy; it never has been. It’s heavy lifting, and it isn’t getting any easier, either. Prospecting is more difficult than ever. Even though we have better research tools, more ways to touch our dream clients, and countless ways to vie for their time and … [Read more...]