I am privileged to get to speak and spend time with hundreds of senior executives every year in various forums. There are smart and driven people as a general rule. There are several common themes that I get to see across this group, regardless of the size of company, industry…
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about an emerging opportunity he has within his company. Already a senior executive, he has been asked to take on a role that is totally revenue focused and will logically evolve into this thing called a Chief Revenue Officer.
As a relatively new father, my 2-year-old son never ceases to amaze me at the pace that he both learns and adjusts. He is very vocal and has a great repository of words that grow daily, so you get to hear how his thought process plays out. Like most kids,…
Building on previous blogs, change is hard and in complex selling environments, a business case is typically required as part of the buying process. They will vary in formality and content, but in the land of consensus decision making, the business case for change is the one common denominator that…
Further to our latest blog titled “Are Your Customers Your Real Competition?”, the next concept is about how can you work with your customers and prospective customers to enable them to make change. If your team is creating the demand, when you show up the customer is firmly entrenched in…
In the world of complex sales, a reality in many markets is there are now more “no decisions” than Wins and Losses combined. A benefit of the work we do with our partner CEB, we get exposed to the most current research and trends from the world of sales and…
It is January 2nd and for most, the first day of the new business year. As an Executive or a Sales Leader, are you and your teams ready to roll? The implication of the question is that there was a lot of thinking and planning done in Q4 to get…
I have spent the past 5 weeks running Strategic Planning sessions for Corporations across North America. I credit these organizations for understanding the opportunity to create alignment, consistency and simplicity by actually having a Plan. There are a couple of realities that I would like to discuss. The first is…
Recently I had the opportunity to attend a conference populated with C-Level executives. Their company size ranged from $20M to $1B+. I was fortunate to be able to interview 10 executives on the subject of sales and how they prefer to be contacted/engaged by sales people. The answers themselves were…
According to recent studies by CEB and others, when your reps get invited into an opportunity [lead, RFP, etc.], the prospect is already 57% of the way through their purchasing process. The implications are significant on your cost of sale and your win rate. Chances are pretty good that the…