Colleen’s Blog

Interesting observational research moment today during my session at Dreamforce. In a room full of 400 sales professionals, I made the case that there is no more B2B or B2C and that all selling was B2All. I stated that "the way I buy shoes, is the same way I buy $1 million dollar telecom equipment for my business." There was a visceral reaction. People in the audience older than me, (let's call them 50+) shook their heads in disagreement. People in the audience younger than me smiled and nodded enthusiastically. After the session ended I had the same responses as I spoke to people.

I'm live at the largest tech show in the world this week. That can only mean it's Dreamforce! With 160,000 registered attendees all working in or in support of sales, Dreamforce is not only the largest tech gathering but the largest sales support gathering in the world. The main themes this year are Be Your Best and Be a Trailblazer. Here is what that means to me:

This month I spent a day working with a group of world-class data visualization architects. Who even knew there was such a profession! Nor that the best in the world were based in Toronto. Ironically, being Canadian, I have very little business in our nation’s business capital so it was doubly nice to be working with such a smart group so close to home. The learning environment you choose for your events can either be attractive and inspiring, or depressing and repellant. An attractive environment puts everyone at ease, sparks conversation, and creativity. It’s simply more difficult to be closed minded and cranky in a gorgeous environment. Today’s meeting space at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club on Toronto Island was one of the top spaces I have worked in. Lots of natural light, a view of the lake, high-class furnishings, a building steeped in tradition, well-dressed attendees, and of course, away from their offices. The environment definitely made a difference in the culture of the workshop. While we can’t always have meetings at locations such as the RCYC, we can create the best environments for our attendees to learn and communicate. I notice that the best workshop environments (gauged from participant engagement and implementation) include:

I'm not ready to stop sharing the Wells Fargo fiasco and what it means for us as professional sellers. Today, we are hearing about sales targets. The average American has 3 accounts at their bank. Wells Fargo decided to set 8 accounts per person as their target. Why 8?

Let's call a spade a spade. What Wells Fargo did was illegal. They used private customer information to create bogus accounts, forged signatures and authorized charges that customers were not made aware of.  I, for one, am sick of the media and the banks pussy-footing around with their language describing what happened. "Even U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew weighed in on the Wells Fargo scandal, calling it a "wake-up call." "This is unacceptable behavior -- and it's the kind of behavior we need to be able to catch and stop," Lew said on Tuesday at the Delivering Alpha conference in New York." No Lew, it's not unacceptable.  It's illegal. The fines and firings are a good first step, but shouldn't someone be charged with forgery? You stop it by showing the bank that you are not afraid to press charges. Allowing the VP who oversaw the division that committed fraud to 2,000,000 customers to retire quietly with $125 million is not the right message to send.

Did you just do a double take? Stop closing sales...isn't that counter-productive to our sales success? You heard me right. Salespeople should not be attempting to “close” sales with clients. It’s all in the definition. Closing is something you do to a person. While it may just be a term, the language is completely one-sided. It implies that you are going entirely for the win regardless of what’s right for the customer. Salespeople who approach prospects with this kind of self-benefiting mentality are almost never successful in their long-term endeavors. Depending on their abilities and experience, they may, in fact, convince the prospect to do business with them, but long-term, mutually beneficial relationships are rarely ever fostered. This breed of selling creates the "pushy" and "aggressive" stigma that clouds our entire industry. It puts everyone, including well-wishing, value-focused salespeople at a clear disadvantage with prospects. You want to instill a win-win mindset in your team. Your business hasn't truly won unless your clients are gaining incredible value by working with you. Sales closing techniques that have amusing terms or names are often methods that you should not be using. For example: