Colleen’s Blog

Last week, we talked about persistence and I walked you through a call and email plan that’s designed to get somebody on the phone. There’s one other element of persistence that’s really important as you’re following up with an account and that is to be persistent with multiple people.

The world is run by people who follow up, and for sellers, that means being persistent.  You will win more business by being persistent than anything else. 

I’m a big fan of using your best to mentor the rest. One of the other things that I’m a huge fan of is learning by doing. So, what exactly does this mean and how can you harness its power in your organization?

Recently, I was pulled aside at a sales meeting by a couple of sales reps who said, “This is all great, Colleen, but my manager won’t coach us.  He won’t take the time to help us develop our skills. What should I do?  I mean I can’t get better because I can’t be coached.”

We are now in the second quarter of the year! Didn't we just ring in the new year? By now, either you're making steady progress towards your sales goals for 2017, or you may have already forgotten about the goals you set. Whether you're behind, ahead or whether reading these words is serving as a reminder to actually set important goals, there is a fundamental mistake that salespeople make when setting and working towards their objectives. What's the mistake you ask?

Chris and I are working on an interesting project helping a client provide transformation technology to the hospitality industry. We recently spent a week in Japan, a country known for their hospitality. Our week abroad has provided us insights about where North American businesses can improve their customer experiences. Here are my top 3 tips for you:

A few weeks ago, I was at a client sales management meeting and we were discussing Account Management because many were concerned that they were starting to lose some of their accounts.  There was a lot of resistance from the sales managers that said their teams won’t do account plans because they don’t want to go to the rigor of documenting what they’re going to do as clients are often unpredictable.

Throughout this year, we’ve been talking a lot about the hallmarks, the characteristics, and the personality types of the top performers.

The sales profession is in the midst of a perfect storm. Buyers have more power, more information, more at stake, and more control over the sales process—than at any time in history. Legions of salespeople and their leaders are coming face-to-face with a cold, hard truth: what once gave salespeople a competitive edge—controlling the sales process, command of product knowledge, an arsenal of technology, and a great pitch—are no longer guarantees of success. Yet, in the eye of this storm, an elite group of top 1 percent sales professionals are crushing it. These Ultra-High Performers are acutely aware that the emotional experience of buying from them is far more important (and powerful) than products, prices, features, and solutions.

We’re approaching the end of first quarter for many salespeople and it’s a good time for us to take stock.