Colleen’s Blog

One of my clients chose “predictability” as their company’s 2020 theme. I thought that was a really laudable goal because, in choosing “predictability” as the theme, they created sales processes, territories, and named accounts to really give the sales team the focus they needed to produce predictable results. More importantly, what’s the central key to ensuring that you and your client have predictable results? Adherence to the process. 

I have a question for you. Do you really know where your revenue comes from? Most businesses can probably answer that question pretty quickly. It's obvious, right? Not so fast.

December is truly a great time to stop and think about ourselves and our businesses from a marketing perspective as a salesperson, which we often don’t do.

Stop hanging on to poor sales performers! It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that sales leaders hesitate far too much when it comes to getting rid of their dead weight. In fact, this is a common element I come across in many dysfunctional sales teams I observe. Wondering if, perhaps, this is something you might be guilty of yourself?

As we’re rounding out any month, quarter, or year—depending on how your fiscal year is created—I always like salespeople to think about accelerating their sales in the next period. The easiest way to start this process is by looking at your current sales velocity. 

As we approach the last few weeks of the year, salespeople often find themselves either coasting into the new year because they have accomplished their sales goals, or they find themselves pushing hard because they have struggled to reach their sales targets.

Slow markets don't have to mean slow sales.

I’ve recently been involved in a pilot coaching project with a large organization where we are teaching their sales managers how to coach. These sales managers have been incredibly effective with their coaching and getting their teams to accelerate results. 

I was working with a group of sales managers at a workshop a few weeks ago and one of them introduced this strategy. It was a very simple strategy of implementing an account plan when you didn’t have a sophisticated account planning process.

I was surprised when one of the clients I’ve been working with for close to 10 years asked me to discuss referral selling for a sales roundtable I was going to facilitate for them. I was surprised because this client is exceptional at what they do: millions of dollars in services and their top salespeople are constantly hitting records.