Over the last year I’ve heard several stories about lost sales opportunities. Many occurred as a direct result of post-conference oversights that could have been avoided. It happens too often. Join me by shaking your head as you read the story below. Then, vow to...
I give a lot of seminars on business development; how to get in the door with prospects, how to get better outcomes from prospect meetings, how to overcome objections, how to increase sales with current clients, you get the idea. Whether I have business owners, VP’s...
Simply put, 100 percent of the top performers prepare, while imposters are content to improvise. This is not just true in business; you see it in everything from sports to politics and the performing arts. Olympic gymnasts train thousands of hours for four minutes of...
One of the most important decisions a business owner can make is how to protect one of the company’s most valuable assets…the sales pipeline. The relationships that you and your team have built with customers and prospects will lead to future income. Some prospects...
What’s better, consultative or transactional selling? It depends on the situation and the company’s goals. The problem comes when you need one approach and miss sales because you have the other. As an example, a seller can sell one item to one decision maker OR sell...
When decision makers say, “No thank you," should you keep trying or cut your losses? My experience is that as long as the prospect is someone whom your research indicates is an “A” level prospect there is no reason to give up, unless you receive new information that...
Moving into my 25th year running a company of for-hire senior level Door Openers®, we’ve learned a thing or two about hiring the right salespeople. Most business leaders want to hire hunters. What they don’t know is that not all hunters were created equally. Year end...
Who likes to work on the weekends? No one does. Who does work on the weekends? Senior level corporate decision makers do. More and more we’re finding the high level execs plugged in on weekends. It’s not just the teenagers who are glued to their devices. I was...
Finding time for new business development can be difficult. There’s always something else that seems to be more important. I’ve found that people who don’t carve out time for this find themselves with an empty pipeline down the road. Here are 10 tips for fitting new...
Have you ever waited for a prospect to return your call? And he doesn’t? You call again, you email and still no reply? Argggg! How frustrating! Recently, a prospect asked me for a proposal. We were an exact match for his needs. Shoe in, couldn’t miss. So...
Consistency earns the respect of decision makers, a necessity for growing relationships that lead to sales. On a flight to Dallas, I met a high level decision maker from a Fortune 500 company. I asked her what she liked and didn’t like about sales people to get her...
I was recently asked, “What is your single favorite piece of sales advice?” Here it is. Have a healthy respect and empathy for decision makers. These days decision makers are doing more than just their jobs. In the corporate world, many companies are still adjusting...