Colleen’s Blog

The very best habit I ever developed as a sales rep was this single habit:

I have been spending a lot of time in workshops so far this year and the number one thing sales reps ask me is how you move beyond the pricing objection and here is what I’m discovering.

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?

Smaller businesses sometimes don’t have the resources to dramatically increase the size of their sales teams in order to drive more revenue at an accelerated pace. So here is my tip for you.

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.

The scarcest resource for sales professionals at every level is time. So when you hear we've got 10+ hours of actionable tips from the best sales execs in the industry at Inbound Sales Day, you might think that time is better spent on the phone and selling. The thing is, every session we’ve got lined up with world-class sales professionals is laser-focused on saving you time and making you more money. A couple hours spent learning how you can improve your sales process now will pay off in the long run when you see the $$$ rolling in. Here are 7 key takeaways you'll miss if you don't tune in:

Taking the occasional peek at the sales pipeline is not effective pipeline management. Managing and reviewing the sales pipeline helps salespeople prioritize what activities to complete each month, it also gives them an accurate indication of how healthy their sales pipeline truly is. Here are a few steps for you to consider and that you can pass on to your sales force so that they can efficiently manage their pipeline: