You can learn a lot about a sales team by looking at one real indicator: Their Leader Boards. Some teams have multiple boards taking up entire walls, some have outdated KPI lists in a back corner, and some teams “respect the salespeople’s privacy” and have none! The simple truth is Read more…
The thing about facts is they are still facts regardless of whether you believe them. Any given fact, however, is completely different from an individual’s Personal Truth. A personal truth is experienced-based knowledge/information that is a hard earned reality for that individual. If history and data shows that a product Read more…
Prospecting is the soil in which sales careers grow. Like farmers planting this season’s crops, sales professionals do amazing amounts of research, leg work, and phone calling to turn prospects into paying customers. While no specific prospecting activity is guaranteed, we know that consistent, high quality prospecting always results in Read more…
In the mid 1940s, a groundbreaking experiment was conducted at the University of Minnesota to study the effects of starvation on humans. In a controlled environment, volunteers ate a severely reduced diet – similar to those in concentration camps – for 6 months. All the while, physical and psychological testing Read more…
Projection has always been blind spot for sales professionals. We all have been told some version of the “millionaire dressed like a bum” retail sales parable! At its core, this is a warning not to allow your personal bias interfere with your job as a sales professional. This parable has Read more…
How many more times do we need to read about the end of Retail Sales? Each week there are more articles touting the rise of AI in the retail sales environment. Every month there is a news report of a major brick and mortar store closing its doors and moving Read more…
Everyone in sales wants to get a referral. We have all heard stories of that special sales professional who has a completely referral-based practice. We all want referrals because we know their power. The question at hand is “Why don’t you receive more referrals?” Defensively, many sales professionals will react Read more…
“Sales is a numbers game” “Sales is a game of No’s” “You need X number of No’s to get to the Yes” “A 20% close ratio equals 80% No’s.” Etc., etc… All these are, to some extent, true statements that sales professionals deal with on a daily, weekly, monthly or Read more…