Colleen’s Blog

Sales is an interesting game. You never know when the most (seemingly) minor slip up can cost you. <-- Click To Tweet Because of this, I want to highlight a few common, and not-so-common mistakes so that you can build awareness around them. Take time to read though each item on the list and consider the consequences of making such an error in your own business. The more real it feels to you, the more likely you are to take it seriously and avoid making it in the future. If you've already made a mistake highlighted in the list, relearn the lessons associated with it. A mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it.

Following last month’s post of what to stop doing in 2016 today, we will focus on what you can do to accelerate sales in 2016: 1. Create an Account Management plan that includes a monthly touch point with all of your current customers.  This could be a phone call, business review, courtesy call, email, call from the customer service team, call from your manager, personal letter, thank you gift etc. The options are endless, and the results are always a boost in loyalty and sales. 2. Ask for internal referrals every week. Plan who you want to be referred to and ask a direct question such as “I would like to meet your VP of the western divisions. Can I tell him about work we have done together?"

I was lucky enough to watch a pod of humpback whales pass by our beach yesterday. I was on the shore and you could easily see them off in the distance breaching continuously for 15 minutes or more. Why do whales breach? Some say communication, to signal danger, a change in direction, or to woo a new mate. It could be to mark a territory, a menace, or simply to clean off pesky parasites and barnacles. Surely 40 tons of whale crashing into the Pacific would shake almost anything lose! Others say the breaching is to help the whales look around to see what's on the horizon. Could they have spotted me watching?

After a much needed, quiet three weeks at home, I started to travel for myself and clients in late January. Here is the round-up of the good, the bad, and the unexplainable. Use the lessons to elevate your own customer experiences. They could make the difference between a loyal client and a lost one.

Let’s face it, sales as we know it has changed, from how to attract distracted buyers to how to nurture a long-term relationship when loyalty is diminishing almost as quickly as our attention span. Fortunately there is new information that can help us make sense of this evolution, which in turn can help educate our sales teams as to what they need to do differently. But have you considered that possibly our sales teams as we would define them have changed as well?

This year, we've been blessed with an extra day! That's right, because "February 29" shows up on this year's calendar, we have an extra 24 hours to speed up, catch up or to simply use as a way to rest and recharge. Chances are, most sales leaders won't look at their time this way. They won't even acknowledge that they have an extra day this year, or if they do, they'll underestimate what they can accomplish in a day. So, what exactly can you do with the extra day you've been given this year? Here are 16 ideas inspired by my work with the top performers inside the Engage Community: