Colleen’s Blog

You no longer have an ideal buyer. You have to throw out the notion that there's a single person inside your organization that makes the buying decisions.

I'm rarely lost for words, but this provocative question at last night's Enterprise Sales Forum in NYC caused me to pause for a few minutes: "What does the fact that most sellers don't call themselves "salesperson" say about our clients' perception of us, and what does this mean overall for the future of our profession?"

Are you or members of your sales team having trouble getting past gatekeepers? I've noticed a trend. In my latest workshops and training working with top sales performers, one issue that keeps coming to the surface is how to get past gatekeepers. It's an obvious struggle. If you can't get to the individual who has the power to buy and sign purchase orders and checks, it's going to be a long and tough road to making sales (and that road can very well lead to a dead-end). So, how can salespeople get past gatekeepers? There are three important points that you need to consider:

There comes a point in every sales cycle where you have to present solutions to the client and I often get asked how to do this. Here is my presentation process for you to use.

Last year, I was at an extended leadership team meeting for one of my best clients.  We introduced a quick concept to his sales managers around account management and proper account planning.

A key distinction between top sellers and top sales leaders is that top sales leaders must be excellent team players, whereas top sellers do not. Leaders must be team players. Why? Because they must believe that the whole team:

Most of my clients have a practice where they do quarterly business reviews with their best customers. This is something that I advocate as a best selling practice for key account management.

Everything old becomes new again... Have you heard of that saying before? I bring it up because it's true, especially with an "old" lead generation practice which is turning into one of the hottest trends of 2018. That's right, live events...they're back! Let's talk about how you can use them to generate leads.