Colleen’s Blog

Recently, I interviewed my good friend, Richard Citrin, author of Strategy-Driven Leadership and The Resilience Advantage. We talked about how resiliency—what he describes as the ability to “bounce forward”—is a hardwired resource in all of us. But you must summon it to make it work!

Today's global pandemic is an extraordinary public health crisis. As we get past the immediate challenge of doing what's necessary and wise to stay well and safe, the next big question is: "What must I do to keep going professionally?" Answer that by looking at the best practices of top sales leaders. The wisdom there is timeless. It applies to every tough situation—including this one. 

We're a couple of months into the year and maybe you're behind. Maybe January and February didn't start out as strongly as you would like. It's not the end of the world. In fact, being behind the first quarter of the year is probably the best time to be behind. However, more importantly, you have to do something about it.

Be honest, is your sales team, or are you lacking consistency?

Quarterly business reviews are essential for understanding potential growth with existing customers, retention issues and future opportunities. They are just as crucial for troubleshooting where sales performance isn’t meeting expectations, as well as for measuring the return on investment your client is receiving for the work you do together. Get serious about doing this analysis.

It used to be that in-person meetings in sales were the default, and video conferencing was the exception. Now, it’s the other way around. Stop fighting this fact!

If you travel a lot with work—as I do—it exposes you to a much wider variety of ways that people experience the world around them. But travelling can also make us keen observers of human beings and how they do business with each other.

A short time ago in the B2B field, buyers were unaware of who sellers were until we called them.

As we approach the last few weeks of the year, salespeople often find themselves either coasting into the new year because they have accomplished their sales goals, or they find themselves pushing hard because they have struggled to reach their sales targets.

I’ve recently been involved in a pilot coaching project with a large organization where we are teaching their sales managers how to coach. These sales managers have been incredibly effective with their coaching and getting their teams to accelerate results.