Colleen’s Blog

Could your organization be giving into certain stereotypes? There are a limitless amount of companies out there seeking to cater to certain generations.

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.

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.

It occurs in just about every business and it’s happening a lot now: the dreaded call from a buyer who says they need to renegotiate the terms of an agreement you have with them.

Be honest, is your sales team, or are you lacking consistency?

I want to highlight a sales strategy I’ve noticed perform incredibly well as of late. We started calling this the “land and expand” strategy.

   Here’s an idea for all of you planning your sales kickoffs or big sales meetings with all of your team present: rather than just having a number of outsiders come in and talk about their motivational, sales, or consulting principles, have somebody come in and interview your top performers.

   We've seen a lot of very high performing sales managers that come through our program. And one thing I noticed was that most of them were never the best salesperson in their organization. In fact, the majority of them had very little sales experience. They had enough to be credible in the marketplace and they had enough sales experience to know what it is like to face rejection and to get a big win.

We recently experienced great success with our sales training programs. The customers involved received up to 200 to 400 percent return on investment just a few short months after the program was implemented—not after a year or multiple years, but indeed just a few short months.