Colleen’s Blog

Last year, I finished a project with a client who generated a whopping 1,600% return on investment. How? They shared their wins internally.​

After months of global pandemic responses, including economic shutdowns, everyone has been thrown off balance. The hurt will be here for a while, and as I’ve pointed out in a recent article, resiliency is what you must summon now—not later—to position yourself for the coming recovery.

I want you to think like your competitor. Why? Thinking like your competitor will help you figure out where you're weak and strong in the accounts you’re managing, which can lead to retention and growth activities.

We were taught at a very early age to never make assumptions. However, I still encounter salespeople who make assumptions all the time. I want to, in particular, highlight two tales of woe from clients who I discovered were making damaging assumptions.

Recently, I interviewed my good friend, Richard Citrin, author of Strategy-Driven Leadership and The Resilience Advantage. We talked about how resiliency—what he describes as the ability to “bounce forward”—is a hardwired resource in all of us. But you must summon it to make it work!

In today's selling environment, we're using video more than ever before. And in some markets, video is the only way we can engage in face-to-face interaction with our customers. While I'm not going to delve into the specific platform or camera you should be utilizing, I do want to provide you with tips that are going to help you as a salesperson create more engagement with your customers.

Yes, sometimes, it's OK not to grow.

I know these are challenging times for all of us individually and for our businesses. And now, in particular, is the time to absolutely micro-manage your metrics. You need to be on top of your business metrics like never before.

I had numerous conversations with sellers over the past weeks who were worried about being laid off, fired, the business shutting down, or the consolidation of departments. In particular, they asked me what they could do to keep their job.

What are you doing to prepare for reopenings?