Colleen’s Blog

In this week’s Sales Leader, I examine the difference between an objection and a heckle. 

If you have been listening to me or following my work for any length of time, you know that I consistently implore and demand that you start asking for the sale more. In fact, we know that this is why so many deals and opportunities do not get closed. 

Quarterly business reviews are essential for understanding potential growth with existing customers, retention issues and future opportunities. They are just as crucial for troubleshooting where sales performance isn’t meeting expectations, as well as for measuring the return on investment your client is receiving for the work you do together. Get serious about doing this analysis.

Silence is one of the simplest things a seller can learn to do, but it is the most difficult for them to execute in the sales process effectively.

Have you ever thought of debriefing your sales calls—the good, bad, or mediocre ones? It’s a great practice to get into.

One of my clients chose “predictability” as their company’s 2020 theme. I thought that was a really laudable goal because, in choosing “predictability” as the theme, they created sales processes, territories, and named accounts to really give the sales team the focus they needed to produce predictable results. More importantly, what’s the central key to ensuring that you and your client have predictable results? Adherence to the process. 

There has been no greater impact on B2B sales in the last decade than the online consumer-buying process.

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.

There’s one thing I’ve noticed with organizations and people who are really good at bringing new business: they are good at operationalizing value. These organizations and people have closing ratios higher than the average: 40% to 45%, as opposed to the average of 25% to 30%.

   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.