Colleen’s Blog

The number one most discussed topic by my community in the past year has been surrounding cold calling. If you're an active member of my online communities, you may recall seeing much of the debate behind the statement I made...cold calling is dead.

At this time of year, the weather is warm (for the most part!), sellers are anxiously awaiting their vacation, and they also seem to buy into the idea that making sales is next to impossible.

How many of you have been asked to do less work than you did last year? No one has ever been asked that. Even my clients in shrinking markets are asked to do more sales. This is what's expected from salespeople.

Millennials in the professional world have been a hot topic for the past few years. It seems every second or third article online discusses how to communicate with them, what they seek in an employer and what gets them operating at their peak potential. It makes sense, with more and more of them piling into the workforce, managers and leaders are trying to get a grasp on how to best handle this generation.

Recently, I have been coaching a number of sales leaders in professional services firms. They've all been complaining to me that their teams are complaining about a lack of results with traditional outbound calling techniques.

It's been a long time since I was perturbed about a sales practice. That changed last week at Saks Fifth Avenue with Georgio Armani cosmetics. Congratulations to the brand for forever tarnishing themselves in my mind.