Sales
Do you get frustrated when your prospects or customers do not return your calls? I know I do. I may be a Sales and Leadership expert, but when I don’t get a return call, I still review what I said to figure out what I need to change in order to get better results. Remember: Your customers and prospects are…
Does your organization know how to support a sales hunter? As a Sales and Leadership expert, I have noticed that this relationship can be a complicated one—on both sides. Below is a letter written by a hunter to management that addresses typical issues hunters face. The letter is meant to raise issues hunters should address to gain the support they…
When is change the ingredient necessary to success? Do you have the guts to call for a change the way Nick Saban did in Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship? His quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who has been working for him for two years and amassed a record of 25 and 2 wasn’t producing in…
When my 23-year-old daughter Amanda started her job in New York City on October 1, she decided to join the company gym and be there at 6:45 every morning. That means leaving for work every morning before 5:45 a.m. to drive the 30 minutes to catch the 6:15 ferry to the city. I figured this wouldn’t last long. Boy did she prove…
For the past thirty-five years I have used option selling to help close business. and neuroscience reveals why this works so well. It boils down to choices, engagement, stress, and risk aversion. Traditionally, sales people go for the trial close and just offer one solution. If the prospect does not feel the risk is low enough…
Yesterday morning I had the privilege of hearing Daymond John (of Shark Tank) being interviewed by Jeffrey Hayzlett, CEO of C-Suite Network Advisors. Jeffrey asked Daymond about his strategies for success, and Daymond said that he is always learning, always trying new things, and always adjusting his strategies in order to keep growing. Not everything he does…
Whenever I give a keynote or work with an executive team, and an audience member finishes a statement or an exercise, I urge the rest of the group to give that person a hearty round of applause. In my work as a Sales and Leadership expert, I’ve discovered that doing so changes the energy and dynamics of the group.…
In the United States we are two weeks shy of our national Thanksgiving holiday, a celebration that can be traced to an autumn harvest feast held by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in 1621 at Plymouth. Giving thanks is an important cultural tradition, and similar celebrations of the harvest occur in countries throughout the world. These…
A medical doctor recently asked me what I did for a living and after sharing about my role as a speaker and expert on influence and impact, he shared how he has become a better person—and a better doctor—by learning how to listen better. He spoke about not merely listening to the words being used, but…
The number one reason why sales cultures are not performing the way CEOs want them to is simply because they’re concentrating on the wrong people. That’s right. You see, last Sunday was the annual Met Gala in New York City. The Met Gala was started in 1995 by Anna Wintour, who is the editor-in-chief of…
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Did you hear that Rolls-Royce announced this week that it is building five brand new buildings on its main manufacturing site in England? So, I ask you, what was the driver for making this huge, expensive decision? Many of you would say it is to build new cars. That is far from the truth. The reason…
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Do you know that sometimes you have to go slow to go fast? Recently, I installed a new productivity software program. And like many of you, I figured I knew immediately what I had to do, so I didn’t bother reading the instructions. After two painful hours of trying to get the software to work…
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As we’ve all seen for the last year or two, there’s been a lot of shoplifting. A pack of thieves breaking into stores, stealing massive amounts of merchandise, and leaving before the cops come. If they’re caught, they’re back on the streets in a couple of minutes. Shoplifting has gotten to such a high degree…
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When I think of sales success, I think of a Banyan tree. Look at this tree. It is so magnificent. But look at the integrated network of roots. It’s amazing how it grows. Now, here’s what’s special about a Banyan tree. It’s not like normal trees that have one trunk coming down, and it’s not…
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I want you to meet Alex. Alex is a van driver who picked me and a few of my colleagues up from the hotel in Albuquerque this weekend to take us to the airport. It was a seven-minute ride. During the ride, Alex asked us if we had traveled to many different cities and ordered…
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If you truly want to keep your competitors out of your accounts, you must become part of the inner woven fabric of your client’s organization. Consider that loose piece of thread sticking out of the bottom of your sweater, and you start pulling it. All of a sudden, you inadvertently pull apart the entire sweater.…
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A few years ago, I was meeting with Steve Forbes in the Forbes building in his private library. The meeting was to discuss the presentation he was about to give to the National Speakers Association that I was president of. Rather, it was to get him to agree to give that presentation. What struck me in…
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As you create your sales plan for 2024, what’s the one issue you must pay special attention to? That one issue is your ideal customer profile, because that’s going to determine whether or not you gain velocity in your sales efforts. Picture business 2012: I was just voted as the Vice President of the National…
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In the early ‘90s, I trademarked the phrase “The Question Man™.” I believed then, as I believe now, that the answers to your success lie in the questions that you ask. At that time, I had a great client, Hertz Equipment Rental, that rented backhoes. It was a division of Hertz Rental Car Corporation. The VP of Sales was…
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