Category Archives: Trusted Advisor
Influence Versus Persuasion in Sales
People will dig in prior to giving in. Parents will probably agree with me — if you have ever tried to persuade a tired two-year-old that it was time for their nap, only to watch them resist, you’ve experienced the dig in effect. The best way to handle a prospect who digs in as a […]
Critical Thinking as a Sales Superpower
Over the past few years, our profession has witnessed an exciting evolution. Products and solutions have become more complex, buyers better informed, and this convergence has created a demand for highly skilled sales professionals, not just sales reps who know how to overcome objections and learned a few rebuttals. Modern sales professionals are trusted advisors […]
Tips to More Effective Healthcare Sales
Is there a gap between how medical device sales reps sell and how healthcare institutions buy? For some companies, there is a starkly divergent view between the two. Performance suffers when a gap exists between the device sales rep and the buyer. Closing the gap between expectations and performance begins with understanding the buyer. In […]
What We’ve Learned Supporting Telecom Sales Teams
“Sell telecom,” they said. “Work from home,” they said. “It will be easy,” they said. The new year is upon us, and this year looks to be anything but easy for telecom sales. It was a rollercoaster of a year last year for enterprise sales: It’s not how we start in January but how we […]
Tips for Building Material Sellers
“You don’t understand what it’s like to sell building material supplies in this market,” a sales rep recently grumbled. I replied that his company is a smaller supplier in the market. “The best customers are doing business with your competitors. And when you do price a project, they turn around and shop your quote to […]
Strategies for Cyber Security Sales Teams
“We need more salespeople for our anticipated growth,” said the CEO of an enterprise cyber security firm. The digital transformation and remote work environments create heightened security concerns among end-users and growth opportunities for providers. Enterprise providers, like Microsoft, Cisco, and Amazon Web Services, are all searching for experienced salespeople with cyber security expertise. Finding […]
Gaining Trust in Financial Services
You don’t need to be J.P. Morgan to predict that higher interest rates will lead to more expensive borrowing, increased uncertainty, and credit risks that we haven’t seen in over a decade. When markets become uncertain, resources are managed more cautiously. For bankers, financial advisors, and business development officers, generating new business becomes more complicated. […]
Working Smarter, Not Harder
As a sales leader, you may sometimes find yourself wondering what’s changed with enterprise B2B sales? Your sales team is intelligent, dedicated, and motivated, yet sales have slowed, and the team is barely making progress toward their year-end sales goals. Overworking and underperforming was not part of the sales plan for 2022. The effort is […]
Selling in a Downturn
Headwinds. That’s the term that the CEOs of Salesforce and HubSpot describe the macroeconomic conditions for the second half of 2022. I’m not a sailor, but in the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” The headwinds these CEOs are alluding to mean softening demand and inflation. For sales organizations […]
