We're Wrong: Everyone is NOT in Sales
Quick aside - think of a movie, tv show, book or any type of multi-media entertainment offering in the last 100 years, where the protagonist/good guy was a "B2B salesperson"......waiting.....still waiting....Bueller? Get my point?
I would argue that every salesperson character in popular culture is portrayed as a "bad guy" or a "heavy." At the very least, salespeople are portrayed as slick, greedy, untrustworthy characters.
Read MoreI'm getting REALLY tired of scheduling sales meetings...so I'm just not gonna do it anymore.
Back in the olden days, I used to wake up at the crack of dawn, and dial a phone (that's pronounced fone for my digitial generation readers) to call a prospect to schedule a meeting. And because no one had caller id yet, they used to pick up and talk to me (really they did...it's true!)
Read MoreSocial Selling: Who are your Obamas & Oprahs?
Up to about two years ago, I was a successful "traditional" salesperson - I cold called, I warm called, I emailed, I followed up leads from marketing - the whole shebang.
But I saw things changing - the customers I met were different now, they were more savvy, more informed and pretty over exposed to to the tried and true ways in which I had learned to sell them.
Read MoreB2B Sales & Email - Does "NO REPLY" mean "NO INTEREST?"
In the olden days of B2B sales, if someone didn't pick up the phone when you called them, you knew it. Obviously. Because they didn't pick up the phone. Duh. Not exactly splitting the atom here, Mr. Oppenheimer. If you need more discussion on this point of fact, please call Nurse Ratchet and I'm sure she'll be able to up your dosage.
Read MoreThe Problem with B2B Sales
Sixteen years ago I uncovered the secret sauce to B2B selling and I didn’t even know it.
Wait. Let’s back up.
Read MoreThe End of Sales Commissions: A Christmas Story (Part 3 of 3)
Way back in October I decided to start a fire in my own kitchen – on purpose – by publishing the article It's Time to End Sales Commissions - Part 1. It was to be a three-part article.
As I expected the many of the sales community townsfolk took up torch and pitchfork to drive the monster away (SPOILER ALERT: me, I’m the monster) from their mid-month commission check.
The monster was undeterred from pushing forward.
Read MoreHouston, we have a MORE problem...
Business travelers hate waiting for bags so much, we usually do one of two things:
- Pack very lightly, thinking that the pair of underwear we have on is "fine" for a three-day trip to Cleveland
- Invest in some multi-compartment carry-on monstrosity that evokes the white-blinding rage of the 200 people in the boarding line behind us, as we try to JAM it into an overheard that’s actually 12 rows from where our seat is located.
Stop Giving Millennials "Sales Advice"
Years ago, I was lost driving in Los Angeles California. That's not that hard to do - the first time I ever landed at LAX I thought to myself "How am I ever going to find my way around this place? I see no man made or geographic markers! Where does LA end and other cities/towns begin? How will Lynda Carter ever find me?"
This was, of course, years before each of us had our own personal navigation Sherpa in our pocket, so I was left with paper maps. Yippee for the old days!
The person I was with was, let's put this nicely, was something of a backseat driver. Much like Josef Stalin was something of a control freak.
Read MoreWhat Vince Vaughn Taught Me About Sales
I'm not one to usually take business advice from Vince Vaughn movies - although I did run a meeting once wearing my Speaker City T-shirt (and yes I closed them) - but a little while ago, I got an idea about how best to train salepeople to work with today's customers.
Read MoreTime to End Sales Commissions - Part 2
So if you havent read Part 1 or my answer to the Bad Apples commentsregarding Part 1, please click the blue links a few words behind these words.
If you read the comments of both posts above, I was called a heretic (in jest), a socialist (in seriousness); I was congratulated for my sales expertise in one comment and debased as someone who probably never sold anything in the next.
Perhaps some people even called me a Space Cowboy…I don’t know.
Read MoreSales Commission Plans - Sandbagging the Truth
I'm in the middle of writing a series about The End of Sales Commissions and I'm getting a lot of feedback, in both public comment and private email - so thank you so very much for that. Whether you agree or disagree (no one, it seems is "indifferent" when it comes to sales commissions) all opinions are welcome - we don't learn by just listening to ourselves.
And to answer the question some who read Part 1 are asking: No, I am not a communist - but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!
Read MoreIt's Time to End Sales Commissions & Three Reasons You Should Be Happy With That - Part 1
It's really time to talk about the huge elephant in the room - the fact that sales commission plans are archaic, antiquated and are actually harmful to the process of our customers buying our widgets. And this isn't just something that came new with the internet or LinkedIn or social selling. This is has been the case for awhile.
Read MoreThe Phone is Dead, It's Our Fault, It's Time to Move On
Now I have to admit - even as recently as a year ago I was clinging to the belief that while I was embracing social selling and the new way of doing business, phone prospecting was a valid and valuable part of the selling process.
Yeah, and I used to believe in the Tooth Fairy too.
Read MoreYour CRM is Killing You? Four Ways to Fight Back!
A CRM administrator’s job is tough. In fact, 92% of CRM administrators who participated in a recent Cloudingo survey said that they find their jobs moderately to extremely challenging. That’s no small percentage. The only career choice that was more challenging was the guy who ran a Financial Investment booth at the Renaissance Fair. <rimshot>
Read MoreWhy your CRM is Killing You
We all know that CRM is a necessity in today's sales environment. This isn't a post telling you to go back to spreadsheets (NEVER!) or dial back to some other type of antiquated cave drawing technology to manage your sales process.
Read MoreStop Motivating People!
Inexplicitly, we sit in Sales Leadership Meetings, looking at a Power Point slides that illustrate low sales activities, sub-par quota performance and 50% or higher salesperson turnover rates.
Then the ideas are passed around like the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving - Maybe a new contest? Maybe tweak the comp plan? How about a sacrificial firing to get everybody on their toes?
Read MoreManagement by Naughty List
You see kids, before Chippy the Elf began his worldwide Big Brother Surveillance State we now live in (All Hail Chippy) Santa used a very basic management structure to make sure I was more Nice than Naughty. The Big Kringle was informed of my good and bad actions by two people – my mother and father.
Read MorePut That Marshmallow Down
In the world of trying to convince people to buy your thing instead of the other guy's thing, it's hard to leave that first marshmallow on the table - I get it, as I've carried a quota and managed teams that carried quotas. Many of us have lived the old axiom "a marshmallow in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Read More"Clean your room" and Sales Leadership
When I was a kid, my mother would ask me to clean my room. I was a messy kid - so clothes on the floor, half eaten bags of Cheetos left out - TV left on. You know the story. There were two ways to clean it - the way I cleaned it to get her off my back and the way I cleaned it to actually clean it.
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