This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. One of the reasons that it is difficult to become a level 4 value creator, your … [Read more...]

Making your number means working against the clock. One of the primary factors in making quota is the great and unrelenting constraint of time. Time can be an ally in your pursuit of quota if you invest it wisely. But time can also be the enemy if you choose to spend it where … [Read more...]

For some time I have been toying with the idea of leading a mastermind group of business people, salespeople, sales managers, and entrepreneurs. I thought about making this mastermind group a paid membership site with unlimited members. But I am a member of a number of sites … [Read more...]

If you want results, you have to do the lonely work. Boxers get up early in the morning to run. Writers get up early to write. Farmers get up early to take care of their chores. They do their work alone. They do the lonely work. The lonely work is the work that only you can do. … [Read more...]

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. You don’t need to wait for your dream clients to work through their buying … [Read more...]

The NFL Draft is my favorite part of football season. The NFL actually behaves like we in business only pretend to behave. The NFL places the highest premium on talent. Really. And they make scouting for talent a high form of art. The team with the very worst record of the prior … [Read more...]

Your dream client’s company is a complicated web of human relationships. It’s a complex social group, and it’s an organism with a life of it’s own. It’s a tribe, and that tribe has a culture and rules of its own. If you want your client’s business, if you want to be … [Read more...]

The Sales Blog mailbag always brings interesting questions. One from someone in management and leadership reads: “Do you think I could turn an old, pure farmer into a new-era hunter?” One of the fastest ways to eliminate much of the frustration and disappointment in your … [Read more...]

My old man has a friend who, as a young man, worked very hard to position himself for a job with a large investment-banking firm. He interviewed with his dream firm, and during the process they asked him if he had any questions about the potential position. He did. This young … [Read more...]

Self-discipline is the master key to effectiveness in sales—or in anything else. It’s the ability to keep the commitments that you make to yourself, the ability to delay gratification. It’s also the foundation of character. Whenever I speak about the attributes that all … [Read more...]