Recently, I read an article about sales being more science than art. Perhaps I was a little unfair in my comments, but the author’s premises were flawed. I think we want to see sales being more like science because of what we perceive as the predictability and certainty that seems to exist in science. We […]
Dave Brock
Great Selling is Habit Forming
I’m sure you’ve experienced something that gives you a “rush.” It’s when, all of a sudden, everything just falls into place, everything is working as it should, it seems effortless. Sometimes we experience it in sports. For example, when I’m riding, I get it a groove, I’m in a paceline, my pedal stroke is perfect, […]
What Problem is Your Customer Really Trying to Solve?
The majority of sales people, unfortunately are just peddlers—walking, talking brochures. Needless to say, customers are finding digital sources of information much more useful than talking to those sales people. The data consistently shows customers limit contact with these types of sales people to the very end of the buying process. Some few sales people […]
Fear of Failure
As sales people and leaders, we have an interesting relationship with failure. We are in an intensely competitive profession. Our customers are and should be evaluating alternatives. In any buying decision, there will only be one supplier selected, with the others losing. As good as any of us are, we all fail! Like any other […]
Prospecting Differentiation
We want our prospecting efforts with customers to stand out. To, somehow, differentiate ourselves from the dozens of other prospecting calls or emails our customers receive. Unfortunately, our efforts at differentiation tend to focus on the wrong thing: we focus on us, ourselves, our companies, what we sell. This leads our prospecting conversations to discussions […]
Are You Selling What You Can Sell or Selling What You Need to Sell?
Most sales people I meet are genuinely busy. They are trying to meet new customers, find new deals, qualify them, move them to closure. It seems to be almost a badge of honor when I speak to sales people, to proclaim the long hours and hard work. Sometimes, they proudly proclaim, “I’m selling everything I […]
Leadership is Not About “Monitoring”
Too often when I speak to sales managers, they focus on “monitoring” their sales people. They constantly focus on: Where they are on MTD, QTD, YTD numbers? Do their pipelines have the right volume/velocity of opportunities? Are the sales people hitting their goals on prospecting calls, customer meetings, and so forth? Are they keeping CRM […]
Too Busy to Do What We Know is Right
The sales team knew the sales process helped improve the results they produced—they had tested it, they’d seen profound improvements in result, but they weren’t using it. They struggled to produce results. The manager knew he was supposed to coach his people. He knew that coaching was the most effective way to improve performance and […]
Changing the Questions
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 […]
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 […]
