We know questions are critical to our success as sales people. Sadly, we ask too few, choosing instead to pitch our products and solutions, hoping the customer has some interest in considering them, though we often don’t know why. Most modern selling programs talk about the importance of questions, but too often they focus on […]
Dave Brock
Selling IS a Service
It seems the world is migrating to an “As A Service” model. Every day one hears a new (sometimes not so new) XaaS approach. The model, at least as a subscription payment approach, is not new. We’ve had various subscription, rent, lease capabilities for at least decades, if not centuries. The application of this model […]
Stop Focusing on the Top of the Pipeline!
Virtually every sales person and organization have pipeline/funnel problems. Almost all the time, they are anemic. Virtually every pipeline has quality and integrity issues. Likewise, there are too many velocity issues. It seems the universal, go to solution for bad pipelines is to find more qualified opportunities. That is, we need to focus at the […]
A Paradox: The Sales Process and the Buying Journey
As sales professionals we face an intriguing paradox. We know, for complex B2B buying, the buyer’s journey can best be described as chaotic. What we have always believed is a linear process: identify a challenge, commit to change, define the problem/needs, evaluate alternatives, select a solution, turns out to be chaotic, as illustrated by the […]
Everything in Sales is Dead, Long Live Sales and Selling!
It’s tedious, every day a scroll through my various news feeds, there are any number of articles declaring the death of something in sales, or sales itself. Cold calling is dead Social selling is dead ROI is dead SaaS selling is dead The telephone is dead Email is dead CRM is dead The selling process […]
First Impressions Count!
One of the biggest issues we hear from everyone involved in sales and marketing is capturing the customer attention. Whether it’s that first communication, an email, text, or social engagement, that first phone conversation, or that first meeting. Getting that first contact or engagement is something nearly everyone struggles with. Given the difficulty we have […]
The “Voices in Our Ears”
I have to confess a weakness to spy/thriller movies. They are great Saturday evening fun. On “date night,” I try to encourage my wife we should see one, she usually finds something else. The cool/high tech spies, often, have an earpiece. There is always someone at “control,” telling them what’s happening, advising there is a […]
Stop Chasing Customers You Can’t Help!
I’m often asked the fastest way to improve sales productivity. The answer is simple and should be obvious: “Stop Chasing Customers/Prospects You Can’t Help!” That statement is likely to elicit a resounding “Dugghhhh!” The reality, however, is that sales people waste too much time chasing customers they can’t help or worst, customers that don’t want/need […]
Giving Them the Answers
Let’s conduct a thought experiment. As one might do in experiments, imagine A/B testing. We’ll create an A group and a B group. The people in each group are identical in capabilities, backgrounds, experiences. Both groups are equally skilled and capable. Now we are going to give people a test. It’s around some complex issues. […]
Are You Selling Your Experience or Your Value?
Too often, we confuse our experience with creating value. While they are linked, they are distinctly different. Our experience focuses on us–perhaps reference customers that we have worked with in the past. “We’ve worked with Google, Microsoft, Siemens, General Motors…” These are supposed to demonstrate our customer base, implying we’ve done great things with them, […]
