Colleen’s Blog

Stop hanging on to poor sales performers! It's becoming increasingly apparent to me that sales leaders hesitate far too much when it comes to getting rid of their dead weight. In fact, this is a common element I come across in many dysfunctional sales teams I observe. Wondering if, perhaps, this is something you might be guilty of yourself?

Slow markets don't have to mean slow sales.

If you follow my work, you may be familiar with my belief that the most critical part of the sales process is between getting someone to say yes and when that order actually comes in. The shorter you can make this time period, the less likely you are to lose the sale.

I was recently talking to a sales rep who told me he had not taken a vacation in 5 years. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he saw it as a badge of honor and was bragging about it. I stopped him and told him that it's not a badge of honor to never take some time off. In fact, it's a sign that you are highly inefficient if you feel you can't go away for a few days—let alone a few weeks—and have everything fall out from underneath you. It's also a sign of a really unhealthy ego if you think that your business and your client will fall apart if you go away. You believe that you are the only thing that is holding the territory together. Stop it.

Most of my clients are in traditional businesses: commodities, manufacturing, aerospace, and finance. Businesses and business reps that have a long history in the market have been successful because of relationships. When you spend 30 years in your territory selling to the same customers and buyers, you have a good relationship with those customers. You see those businesses grow, thrive, and flourish as a result of your work. However, recently, we've been helping some of those clients of mine reposition the way they are thinking about relationships.

Summer is not an excuse to stop selling. You don't have to give in to the idea that there are no sales to be made in July and August.

You may have noticed this interesting trend... Lost deals tend to be the same ones that stagnate during the proposal phase.

If you want to make more sales, you have to think about this. First, understand that we live in an "on demand generation."

Want to know the very best way to keep the majority of your customer base? Develop a healthy sense of paranoia. That's right, paranoia.

Take the time to analyze how you respond to things, both online and offline. Recently, I posted a new video on cold calling on LinkedIn.