When you think about your numbers (closing percentages, total calls, etc.), and consider the objections…

Sales has been around since the Serpent convinced Eve to eat the apple. And, unfortunately, the goals have remained pretty much the same ever since.
The sales model was designed for a different time in history, when there were fewer decision makers and products could be easily described in a magazine ad. With the advent of […]

Logic would tell us that our modern – post Dale Carnegie – sales processes are failing. Given the facts, there is no logical reason to believe that a purchase will follow from our selling behaviors. We close at such a miserably low rate that it’s quite stunning no one even consider that  maybe, just maybe, something should be done about […]

A recent client is an international B2B company with a very non-optimal – but not unusual – way of compensating their sales folks.
They split the sales team into an Inside Sales group that makes appointments, and Corporate and Field Sales teams to close them. The structure, as well as the compensation, promotes failure: Inside Sales is paid per appointment (with a tendency to […]

In order for any change to occur – whether it’s a decision to purchase a product, or an implementation to add new technology – whatever touches the ultimate solution must buy-in to the change.
Often our focus is on getting the end-result we think we want. We forget that without buy-in from the necessary  people and policies that maintain the status quo, we face the […]

A term the larger marketing automation firms are trying to promote is dubbed ‘revenue performance management.’ What does this mean? Who’s performance are they hoping to monetize?
It’s been fascinating to me that the major players in the field insist they ‘know’ the buyer’s decision path.