Salespeople need to be good business people. Why? Because business acumen is the new sales acumen.

You don’t create value by overcoming objections but by resolving concerns. You don’t create value by pitching features and benefits unless they…

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.

There are three reports a sales manager…

Sales enablement is an important role with lofty goals. The mission extends way beyond sales operations; it includes sales management and sales leadership. But what are you enabling?

Are you enabling your team to do their very best work? Are you…

Today I was a panelist at my friend Gerhard Gschwandtner’s Sales 2.0 conference. It’s a great conference; you should attend next time. Gerhard opened the show with a keynote about the power of video in sales enablement.

But Gerhard didn’t just…

Every sales organization has a spiritual sales leader.

There is a sort of religion that develops within the sales organization, and the spiritual leader establishes and maintains that religion. The rest of the salesforce looks to the spiritual…

You were a great salesperson. You were truly special. Selling came easy to you.

You were born with the ability to create rapport. You like people and they like you. People have always trusted you, and you’ve always taken on more responsibility…

Value is the killer app in sales. Without it, you are relegated to competing on price. Here’s why your sales force is unprepared to create value and what to do about it.

No Business Acumen: Your sales force doesn’t have the business acumen, the…

From time to time I hear from entrepreneurs who want to grow their revenue without investing in a sales force. Some want to put no money at risk, but they want the results that only come from real investments. They want to be cheap for different…

Each of these four imperatives ensures that your sales force is effective at the individual level. They’re all necessary to building and sustaining a high performing sales force.

A Prospecting Plan that Opens Opportunities: It’s one thing to…

Yesterday I wrote about ten things I wish I'd have known before I started selling professionally. Here are ten things that I wish I'd have known before I started managing a sales force.

1. Balance activity and effectiveness. When I first…