Colleen’s Blog

I recently watched a presentation that underscored the best practices of top performers. In particular, one topic they highlighted was morning routines and how top performers had a strict morning routine. For example, they wake up at 4am, work out, have their coffee, make their calls, and check their emails. 

Have you ever put together a sales strategy which you believed to be near flawless, only to see it fail in the long run? In my years of consulting, I have rarely (and I mean rarely!) come across a seriously flawed sales strategy. However, I have come across many (and I mean many!) sales strategies which ultimately fail. So, what’s the missing link? If most sales strategies are sound and concrete, why do so few of them make a lasting impact?

No one in sales has an unobstructed 360-degree view of their relationship with their customers. Nobody. Not even top performers.

Too many salespeople fail to follow up, and often, it's because they don't have a follow up schedule that works.

I've been emphasizing to a number of clients the importance of creating an “early warning system.” It’s a system that helps you identify and prevent client departures. And one of the biggest warning signs or triggers we have discovered is engagement. Specifically, a reduction in engagement or a dramatic change in engagement style.

The days of the "ideal buyer" have gone the way of the dinosaurs. So has the routine sales pitch.

You can't be afraid of your own pricing.

As the post-pandemic landscape continues to reveal itself in today’s marketplace, price increases are a defining characteristic…and a pain point for many of us. In some markets, these increases are incremental bump-ups. But in others, the spikes are meteoric, due in large part to ongoing complications in the global supply chain.

There isn't a buzzword out there today that's more dated than the notion of you being in "partnership" with your client. The fact that it's still used so irritatingly often in business today should give you serious pause.

I was working with a group of high performing salespeople years ago—well before the pandemic. And one of them was whining and complaining to me about how he was losing all of his business to the competition. The competition was crushing him on price and all of his customers were price-sensitive. Everything was coming down to pennies on the dollar, resulting in him losing business.