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…
I saw this headline the other day and I was intrigued by this concept given the work we do with executives and sales leaders in the area of sales strategy and effectiveness. It was heightened by an inquiry we received from a rep from billion dollar plus organization. She was…
We have talked previously that the concept of strategy is all about growth. Virtually every executive that we speak with has organic revenue growth as one of his or her top priorities. As corporate balance sheets have continued to improve, the volume of acquisitions has continued to accelerate and multipliers…
If Sales Training budgets are diminishing, then Training for Sales Leadership is even further evaporating down the priority list. As the trend continues to hire “Just Add Water” Sales Leaders [domain expertise, worked for larger brands, and other things that don’t actually work], then the corresponding consequence is to rationalize…
This statement sounds obvious. When you think about your respective corporate strategy, the choices you make are about driving sustainable revenue growth. For most corporations [large and small], the concept of strategic planning tends to feel more like the annual budget process. Correspondingly, budgets project revenues, but by their nature…
If you are in a managerial or executive role within your organization, then you wear different hats every day as it pertains to the role within your teams. Let me give you three common roles: Leader, Manager, Coach. This is a balancing act and I would ask you this question.
The discussion question that I am posing to those of you in the world of complex sales is when you choose to pursue an opportunity, do you develop clear Win Strategies? Based on how you are going to be judged, do you have a clear sales strategy (that aligns the…
There is a lot of debate and discussion in the blogosphere about the concept of Insight Based Selling being fueled by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and some of their researchers and thought leaders that wrote the book The Challenger Sale. Is this new? Is this unique? Is this just…
So, just so we are are clear, I am the “old white guy”. Whenever we get into a conversation about anything “social” (LinkedIn, Twitter, et al) with a CEO, regardless of their background, it feels like a bunch of old guys discussing something they know is important, but they have…