Colleen’s Blog

How much attention are you paying to the way your sales team is engaging with their buyers? Why, you ask? Well, there's a big difference between the way mediocre or poor performers interact with their buyers compared to how top performers do. Average salespeople view and regard their prospects as one of two things: 1. superior to them or 2. inferior to them. Let me explain.

“Buyers have changed and loyalty’s dead now. Customers don’t care about the relationship anymore!”  I’ve been hearing that whine a lot from sellers. Most recently, it was from a client of mine, saying: “I’ve been supplying my long-time customer with free donuts and baseball hats every month for the last 20 years and now they’ve suddenly moved to the competition!”

It's a common scenario, and it kills proposals.

As you may know, I like to keep up on the state of the current buyer: what's going through their minds, how are they behaving, and how are they rewarding or not rewarding sellers like us?

Working with so many different clients across a variety of industries really opens your eyes to new ideas, strategies, and insights. I'm always open to embracing fresh new thinking!

Getting sales calls returned is almost always on a salesperson's mind.

A bad apple spoils the bunch? Not so fast. I often hear one of these familiar whines: "Colleen, it's different around here..." "Colleen, what you need to know about our market is..." "Colleen, it's unique here..."

You've probably heard some of the buzz around leading with fear.

Sales leaders spend a great deal of time talking to managers on how to be effective coaches. However, it’s important for salespeople to realize that they need to be coachable as well.

“Follow every step of this bulletproof routine every day and you’re sure to become a high performer in sales.” That, my friend, is terrible advice. And yet that kind of guidance keeps getting spread around as though it’s the plain truth—when, in fact, it’s just…well…bull-sourced fertilizer!