Colleen’s Blog

I get called in a lot when organizations are struggling to hit their sales targets. Generally, the first thing I'll do is look at their pipeline. Why?

Let's face it, your competition inevitably comes up every so often while you speak with prospects and clients. You need to know how to talk about the competition.

Financial compensation doesn't have to be the only approach to commission. There's another, perhaps more valuable approach which can further motivate your sales team to produce results.

There is absolutely a difference between how top sellers interact with people, compared to how mediocre or poor sellers interact with people.

I have a challenge for you, ditch your powerpoint. Do this for the next week, or even the next month. Wondering why?

I have a question for you. Do you really know where your revenue comes from? Most businesses can probably answer that question pretty quickly. It's obvious, right? Not so fast.

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.

   A few months ago, I was privileged to be invited to a seminar hosted by Gartner featuring a small group of top level thought leaders in sales. There were about six of us around the table and we got a preview of Gartner's research that they were rolling out at their sales summit later in the year. We assessed and discussed the research—in particular, how it applied to our clients.

When we're making a sale, we're asking someone to make a change—a change in business, strategy, software, people, or products. However, more importantly, change is difficult. If you start thinking about selling as managing a change management process, it really helps you to speed up sales and set yourself apart from the competition. Why? Because your buyers, indeed, don't like change. They're scared of change and making the wrong decision.