Colleen’s Blog

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. 

I've always been a fan of coaching sales reps on a given day. I love it when you have a consistent date and time where you coach your entire team one-on-one. However, managers often come up to me and say, "Colleen, it's exhausting." While it can be exhausting, it can also be exhilarating.

Turnover, specifically sales rep turnover hurts your business. How do I know this? I've worked with clients who have suffered some devastating losses because of sales rep turnover.

Recently, I was pulled aside at a sales meeting by a couple of sales reps who said, “This is all great, Colleen, but my manager won’t coach us.  He won’t take the time to help us develop our skills. What should I do?  I mean I can’t get better because I can’t be coached.”

We've already talked about how the more time you spend doing a thorough qualification means you’re going to win more business. You now know what the most often missed question in the qualification phase is: the decision-making criteria, specifically the priority of that criteria.

Over the past 12 months, I have done some deep analysis of the sales pipeline, specifically looking for points of leverage that we can create more success with, as well as looking for any problem points that need to be fixed. Here's what I learned.

Far too often sales reps get into combat with their customers over questions and objections and you can get into combat if you want to win the sale, you have to stay in conversations. So how do we do that?