Colleen’s Blog

Last month, I had the pleasure of keynoting in Washington, D.C. at Alan Weiss's Million Dollar Consulting® Convention. Lisa Larter, who hosted a session at the event, recently shared a blog post and quoted some of the critical points from my keynote. The theme and key message was this: The buying process has changed and, in today's world, you can't assume it starts with you. I've included an excerpt from Lisa's blog so you can gain some of the same ideas I shared with the audience in April, plus Lisa's insights on your "silent" sales partner:

The number one question I get from sales leaders: how do I get my sellers to ask for more referrals? Sellers are notoriously bad at asking for referrals in a business to business environment because it makes them sound needy, helpless, or desperate. How do we rectify this fearful mindset?

I was working with a CEO and his management team recently and the CEO said, "If you're batting 300, you would be in the hall of fame." It was a great reminder to salespeople that we don't win all the business.

In today's world, you either decide to be digital or you decide to be dead. What's your choice?

As much as we all wish that each client we work with turns out to be a dream, we often need to come back down to reality and face the facts. There are certain instances where clients simply need to be fired. Sometimes, they're unprofitable. Other times, they're simply too painful to deal with. Whatever the reason may be, getting rid of them should be done carefully and professionally.

Do you ever feel as though you're not doing quite enough for your clients? You've delivered everything that you promised to deliver, and the client seems to be happy with the services and products you have provided them. Still, you just can't shake this feeling that not enough is being offered to them by you and your team.

Last month, I was working with a client who told me that a core group of their targeted market was interested in speed because whoever gets there the fastest will win the business, regardless of price.

Why are you good? Seriously. Have you asked yourself this question before? Let's face it. Salespeople often come with healthy egos, to put it lightly.

Want more sales? Of course you do. When you ask the typical seller how to create more sales, the mantra is generally to work harder, to grind more, or to double or triple the current efforts.

I have been thinking a lot about pipeline building recently, specifically, a sales rep requirement to not only look short term at the deals within their pipeline that they should be closing, but also to look into the future in order to build the pipeline that they need to close business in the first place.