Colleen’s Blog

As you may know, I like to keep up on the state of the current buyer: what's going through their minds, how are they behaving, and how are they rewarding or not rewarding sellers like us?

Recently, a Canadian colleague of mine needed to travel out-of-country and wanted to purchase medical coverage for COVID-19. I happily referred her to my business insurance broker. But what happened next sure did not go the way either of us had expected.

I was working with a group of sales managers at a workshop a few weeks ago and one of them introduced this strategy. It was a very simple strategy of implementing an account plan when you didn’t have a sophisticated account planning process.

I was surprised when one of the clients I’ve been working with for close to 10 years asked me to discuss referral selling for a sales roundtable I was going to facilitate for them. I was surprised because this client is exceptional at what they do: millions of dollars in services and their top salespeople are constantly hitting records.

The best leaders are proactive. They create policies, plans, and action before they need to. The NFL has failed in this regard. While I applaud the work they are doing now to deal with future cases of domestic violence, one gets the sense they are only doing the right thing because of public outcry and fear of sponsorship loss.

Have you ever come across a corporate policy so ridiculous that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth? It’s even more frustrating when this new policy or rule doesn’t seem to serve any significant purpose. Back in 2012, Chris and I were booked at the Fairmont Sonoma on a summer package that I purchased during a charity auction. We were traveling on an "Ovation Certificate" and I had been guaranteed a nice, newly renovated room with a view of the garden. However, I decided to inquire about upgrading - at my extra cost - to a suite. I called the Fairmont Hotel with the expectation that I would have to provide some information about myself, perhaps demonstrate proof of purchase and would be off the phone shortly after with an upgraded suite.