Sir Anthony Hopkins is one of the most respected and successful actors in the world. I was reading an article about him the other day and I was struck by his process for preparing for a play or a movie. He stated that he always reads his lines out loud…
As we meet with various sales leaders and salespeople, we are finding a common theme emerging. Many salespeople are presenting their “solution” to the client far too early in the sales process. As we dig into the reasons for this behavior we have uncovered some consistent explanations as to why Premature Selling…
Our blog from a few weeks ago was on the topic of preparation before making an initial call on a suspect. We stopped at preparing your pitch. To continue forward, what are some important elements to consider or utilize as you prepare to pitch. As a starting point, lets begin…
Result: Something that happens as a consequence; outcome. We need more sales, more profitable sales, more of “this type” of sales etc. The common theme is that organizations know the consequence and outcome that they want to achieve. As with any outcome, it is equally important to understand the activities…
There is an old saying, “If you fail to plan then you plan to fail.” In the world of complex sales (the stakes are high), preparation is foundational to every phase of your sales process. I would argue it is most critical during the initial phase or what we call…
Recently I was chatting with a colleague who was down in dumps about his sales team’s inability to properly forecast the opportunities in the sales pipeline. “We have a large number of opportunities at the top of the funnel and nothing that is ready to close.” When…
I am a firm believer in the above statement. It has application to all areas of life; fitness, learning, relationships, your golf game ;-)….but of course in this context, I’m relating it to sales success. As I continuously speak with accomplished executives, sales leaders and business owners, I have found…
To be certain, there are Sales Leaders that are not a cultural fit or do not have the requisite skills to accomplish the mission and should be replaced. What I am referencing as a point of discussion and debate is the “quick fix” that organizations may arrive at when Sales…