Colleen’s Blog

I want to have a quick conversation with you about something that often doesn't get discussed when we're talking to sellers, top performers, and sales leaders. It's a mandatory discussion that we have to have on a regular basis.

Is your sales team doing enough to build their current relationships? When you close a sale with a new client, you create a new relationship that needs to be nurtured. All too often, salespeople make a sale and then move to the next prospect. When a salesperson continues this trend long term, their client retention is going to fail...it’s inevitable! I hope you’re helping your team think ahead and make a plan to increase their sales in 2018. But, as you know, client retention is just as important as client acquisition. Here are a few tips to help you maintain and build your current relationships in the New Year. Be sure to pass this information off to your entire sales team so that they can develop their relationships:

Your buyers want to co-create the solution to their problem with you and be part of the solution process as opposed to being told what to do.

This is an interview supporting the book launch of Millennials Matter. Q: Thanks for joining us today, Danita. Give us a quick overview what you’re seeing and hearing about the importance of millennial salespeople in our companies.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is trying to sell to everyone that comes into your pipeline. I know, it’s intuitive as a salesperson to sell as much as possible, but effective salespeople know how to pick and choose which prospects to sell to. They know the good from the bad. The reality is, not every prospect is an ideal candidate for your product or service. The sooner you learn this important lesson, the sooner you can focus on the prospects that are ideal candidates for you to work with.

A big mistake that I see sellers and companies make at the end of the year is failing to not plan for the new year. We get caught up in trying to close every single deal we can to accelerate way past our goals that we forget that January is just around the corner.

Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue? This may surprise you, but putting too much emphasis on closing business is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues. What?! Let me explain.