“If you focus on goals you may hit your goals, but it doesn’t guarantee growth. If you focus on growth, you will grow and you will meet your goals.” I love this quote from John Maxwell (the famous American business author.) For the metrics-obsessed in sales, take note of how Maxwell uses growth in this […]

“Well the buyers were just liars.” Once I was riding Amtrak from NYC to Boston when a cell-phone-toting salesperson sitting in the row of seats behind me uttered this deathless couplet. It was the last day of the sales month and my fellow passenger, who I will call Jon, clearly was attempting to rationalize his […]

Conversation Intelligence might just be the hottest thing in revenue right now. And it’s not hard to see why: Revenue teams are able to deliver more value and better brand experiences when they’re able to take action on the insights from their everyday conversations with buyers and customers. At Revenue.io, we’ve always believed in the […]

Sales is not purely about the numbers. Or your process. It’s about people and their time and attention. Are you so consumed with hitting your activity goals, that you forget about the human beings that are the objects of your sales efforts? By this I mean the buyers and stakeholders that you need to engage […]

Objection is a funny word as it’s applied to sales. The buyer objects to your price? Not really. The buyer has an objection to your product features? Not really. Your buyer doesn’t care enough to object. “I object!” The trouble with using the word “objection” is that it doesn’t accurately portray the buyer’s perspective. Objection […]

How do you build rapport with a prospect? Rapport is a central element of establishing a trusted-based connection with a buyer. Sometimes empathy is used as a synonym for rapport. However, I believe that empathy actually is a necessary prerequisite to rapport building. Whereas empathy is the ability to understand or share the feelings of […]

Complacency is a killer in sales. I came across this piece of art in Rockefeller Center on a morning walk with my wife. It’s Jaume Plensa’s “Behind the Walls,” part of the Frieze Sculpture public art installation. It’s a powerful piece in person. It forces you to stop and think. What are each of us […]

A great discovery call can mean the difference between losing and winning the deal. In fact, every meeting with a prospect should be a discovery call, and the top reps know this. They take every opportunity to better understand their buyer and unearth the challenges they don’t want to admit even to themselves. Watch this […]

Sellers aren’t robots. Or workers on an assembly line. No matter how much certain sales bosses like to think they are. Peter Drucker was one of the greatest business thinkers. One of the things he is most known for is his theory of autonomy. He believed that knowledge workers, a term he first coined in […]

For better sales results don’t train fast. Learn slowly… I was thinking about the ways most organizations invest in sales training. Which tend to be events. Hire a Keynote speaker for an hour-long talk at your SKO or ASM. Bring in an expert to conduct a half-day training seminar. Retain a trainer to conduct a […]

Sales analysts like CSO Insights have been reporting for several years that the percentage of sellers hitting quota is dropping in B2B sales. We’ve all heard that the number is roughly 50%. You might think that this situation would inspire a change in how quotas are set. However, I don’t see sales leaders changing how […]

People will tell you that buyer’s remorse is a perfectly normal reaction on the part of your customers. If you buy that then I promise you’ll experience some remorse yourself. Buyer’s remorse isn’t necessary. And it’s certainly not inevitable. According to one definition: ‘Buyer’s remorse is an emotional response on the part of a buyer […]