Colleen’s Blog

Like many sellers, you’re wrapping up your fiscal year soon, so it’s time to close-out your year strong. Now, more than ever, it’s time to get real about your sales: knowing what you can realistically close now, as well as what to target in the coming year. Why? Because too often, we engage in avoidance behavior: putting-off problems until later, when they need to be tackled now. That’s at the root of a lot of mistakes I see in the marketplace today, and is a key hindrance to sales acceleration. Stop kicking that can down the road. You need to plan and execute each of these steps to get real in 2018:

I want to focus on what's on the top of my mind, which is the end of the year for many of my clients. Right now, we're moving towards the end of the calendar year, but the strategy that I want to talk about can and should be done every single month and quarter.

Firing people is never pleasant. Regardless of your personal relationship with an individual, in a business environment, if a seller is doing more damage than good, it's time to think about their role on your team.

This year has been the year of international travel for me. As I write this I'm on my last overseas trip for the year, kicking off a new project in France. As a sales expert, I watch interactions everywhere, and it's fascinating to see how different cultures interact personally and professionally. Here are some interesting observations:

Today, I really want to focus on sales leaders for this strategy. Specifically, any sales leader who has a team who needs to set targets or an individual who sets their own targets such as a business owner or an individual contributor.

There has been much debate on my LinkedIn article regarding cold calling. I've discussed it in-depth this year especially, as in 2017 and beyond there are simply more effective prospecting methods available today.

It's that time of year again. How do we finish the year strong and at the same time, how do we start ramping up for next year?