How important Are You To Your Client?

Ask any group of sales people what they want to achieve with their buyers, and a vast majority will tell you they want to build rapport and establish a “relationship” with buyers. It seems like the Politically Correct thing to say, sounds nice, sounds safe, and frankly sounds easy; all the ingredients that the 80% are looking for. Now don’t get me wrong, having a relationship with your buyers and customers is important, but when measured in results and revenue, … Continue reading →

Is It Ever A Good Time? – Sales eXchange – 149

One common objection sales people face when making prospecting calls, is when the potentially prospect says “now is not the right time”. While timing is important, and understanding how specific triggers can help improve your timing, the fact remains that perfecting your timing will only help you in a very (very very) small way, in a very narrow part of you potential prospect segment. Here is why. Timing is only important with two buyer groups, Passive, those who have realized … Continue reading →

3 Ways to Steal Time

There a host of things you can focus on to master to improve your sales execution and results, but none more than the need to master time. We all start with 24 hours at the start of the day, and how we use it will determine our success more than anything else. I have never heard a sales person, no matter how good, tell me they have run out skills, but at one point they have all run out of … Continue reading →

Playoff Selling

If you’re a basketball or hockey fan, you are (should be) enjoying the playoffs. For the most part the level of play, intensity and excitement of the game is at its highest level (most of the time). Every play counts, it is do or die time, and it brings out the best in players. Some players have made a career out of being clutch playoff players, think of “Mr. October”, Reggie Jackson, and others who have distinguished themselves with their … Continue reading →

What Did You Learn?

As good as a qualification process is, none are perfect, and as a result, we do at times end up in meetings that could have waited or completely passed on. Many sales people bitch and moan about the lost time, and while that may feel good it doesn’t change things. But there are steps you an take to make some of these meetings have value to you moving forward, it comes down to what you can learn and apply back … Continue reading →

Leave Me a Voice Mail!!!

Believe it or not, voice mail has been around since the late 1970’s, and for all the advances mankind has made since then, voice mail still seems to puzzle and cripple the success of many B2B sales people. Further, it seems that some sales people don’t want to figure it out and master it for sales success, to borrow a term from a recent commercial, they see voice mail as “an enigma wrapped up in a conundrum“. But it doesn’t … Continue reading →

Guidance On Going “Over Their Head”

We have all faced the situation where the person we have been working with on a sale turns out to be the wrong person, or more often an obstacle to moving the deal forward. While it is OK to be frustrated, you also need to act, and when you step back the only logical thing to do is escalate things, go higher, or what sales people commonly call “going over their head”, for me the only smart way to get … Continue reading →

Leveraging Value Once Defined

A couple of weeks back, I was asked about value, and provided a firm definition for value. The definition is step one, it provides the direction for the seller, next sellers need to learn how to surface it and leverage it for the mutual benefit of the buyer and the seller. As a follow up I was asked: So working with that definition of value, that is removing obstacles that stand between the buyer and their objectives, how does a … Continue reading →

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