Success
For the past 12 years, I’ve been on retainer, coaching senior executives at a company. In the first two years, I spotted a major issue: they were sending out far too many proposals. How did I know? Their close rate was a dismal 10%. That’s what happens when you’re wasting time on unqualified leads. So…
If you want to know how to succeed in sales, look at Bombas. That’s B-O-M-B-A-S, pronounced “bum-bus” socks. That’s right, these are the socks; they’re no-show socks. What I love about them is that they stay in place and are of great quality. But that’s not the reason I’m telling you about Bombas. When Randy…
Imagine you’re going into the office of a senior decision-maker at a huge Fortune 100 company. He’s had nothing but problems with your company. He bought 200 units of electric timestamps. Every time a trader makes a stamp, it’s the same time for all trades, and they don’t get fined by the SEC. He had…
What’s more important to you? The will to prepare or the will to win? That is a question the Vice President of Sales for Hertz equipment rental division asked me as we were flying together to his national sales meeting, where I was giving the keynote. Without thinking, I said, “The will to prepare.” He…
Recently, I had dinner with an executive in the baseball industry. He described baseball as a high-failure sport. I love that phrase. Why? Because I’ve always used it in my speeches, not that phrase exactly, but the idea. Think about it: a hitter getting three hits out of every 10 at-bats is a .300 hitter.…
If you were to tell me that you just closed the deal, my answer to you would be there is no such thing as a closed deal. You see, a while back, I was involved in repositioning a major chemical manufacturer with the largest player in their industry. They only had 40% of their demand,…
Two weeks ago, the number one golfer in the world was racing to the golf course for the second round of the PGA Championship. He was about to tee off, and all of a sudden, he ran into traffic in the dark, early hours of the morning. He needed to get there to warm up.…
Who says the market can’t handle high prices? Just ask Del Monte Foods and Melissa’s Produce in California who sell high-end premium fruit and vegetables. It took Del Monte Foods over a decade and a half to develop a Ruby-hued pineapple. There are no others like it in the world. Melissa sells this one pineapple –…
In 1927, JW Marriott opened up a root beer stand. That’s right, Marriott Hotels started as a root beer stand. The first Marriott Hotel did not open up until 1957 in Arlington, Virginia. Since then, you have 4400 Marriotts worldwide. What a success story. Now, what was the reason behind that success? Well, if you…
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…
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…
In today’s world, the pressure to quickly deliver innovative solutions can sometimes lead to unintended consequences. Just ask Boeing. Its recent spate of mishaps is causing it a lot of problems. From increased regulatory pressures to safety concerns to customers, fliers, like me, worrying whether or not the Boeing plane they’re on is actually going to get…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
A few years ago, I was taking a self-improvement course in New York City with a good friend of mine. After the program, we returned to my condo in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on the 10th floor. Now, my friend is an accomplished pilot. He flew overseas commercially for a major airline and was a…
This past Sunday, we had a great Super Bowl with an overtime win—the San Francisco 49ers against the Kansas City Chiefs. Both teams had two different styles of quarterbacks. One of the reasons both teams made it to the Super Bowl was because their head coaches leveraged each quarterback’s strengths. Coach Andy Reid, with the…
In 2006, I collaborated on a negotiation book with famed negotiator, Herb Cohen. Herb has a saying that negotiation is a game, a game that both sides want to win. Yet, most people lose velocity in their efforts to negotiate a deal because they are married to getting the deal exactly the way they want…
So, before you go asking for the deal, do you know your POPs? POPs stands for Points Of Power. Yesterday, I was coaching a young lady who needed to ask for a significant deposit, and that was giving her a little bit of agita. So, I asked her: “Is this a repeat client?” She goes,…