Training Blog

Recently, I was asked by a very competent salesperson if I felt having a Facebook account could hurt a person’s sales motivation.  Like so many other things with social media, there are two answers: Yes and No.
First the Yes.  It can hurt your sales motivation if you either spend too much time on Facebook when [...]

Want to accelerate your sales and your sales motivation? A good place to start is to slow down.  What do I mean?  Well, our “information society” has too often resulted in “information overload.”  If the noise is getting a bit loud and distracting, consider regaining your focus.
One way to do this is to NOT add [...]

Great article in the Wall Street Journal on July 1 (http://bit.ly/9gur3R)  regarding the use of key words and their impact on sales.
Long-story short, the article talks about how one company did a pay-per-click strategy around key words and it worked and another company tried it and failed.  My take is very simple: Don’t do pay-per-click [...]

Broadcast is likely dead (or dying) and it has been replaced with “mecast” instead.
The only people who don’t know “broadcast” is dead are those people still working in broadcast media like NBC, USA Today, Westwood One, etc.  Unfortunately, people have been advocating we’ve moved from broadcast to narrowcast. I know I was saying this for [...]

Do you sell a physical product? Your role as a salesperson is still to behave as if you’re a service company.
The first step in breaking the paradigm of features and benefits is to view what you sell as a service.  Recently I was working with a group of very seasoned salespeople who sold very premium [...]

The first half of 2010 is gone.  It’s time to assess where you’re at with your goals and your sales motivation.   Take time to look at your goals and find those areas where you’ve done well — either you’re on track or ahead of plan.  Congratulate yourself!  You have worked hard and deserve to appreciate [...]

I still hear of customers who are complaining about their sales being soft  and how their business is down compared to several years ago.  When I probe them as to how they were able to achieve their sales success in the past, it winds up being that they were able to merely answer the phone. [...]

I’ve made three trips to Asia in the past year, and each time I continue to pick up new ideas regarding selling. These ideas not only benefit my Asian clients, but also benefit my clients wherever they are.
The more I travel around the world, the more I see how closely linked sales processes are among [...]

Your level of knowledge is your sustainable advantage vs. your competitor’s.
In the past year I’ve made three trips to Asia, and on each one I’ve encountered sales people dealing with the age old problem of having to cut prices.  Their problem is compounded because they’ve built their businesses on the premise of offering what they [...]

Do you know what the top 10 benefits are that you offer your customers?
Can you state them off the top of your head?
Are they benefits you’ve come up with or are they the benefits your customers have told you?
What are the top 10 benefits of your customer’s customers?
When I work with salespeople, [...]

What you sell is irrelevant. It’s what people buy from you that’s important.
This week’s tip requires a little thinking but I view it this way: If I offer you a steak dinner but you don’t eat it, then what’s the point of me offering you a steak dinner?  Sometimes we get so caught up trying [...]

I’m tired of hearing people say why their numbers are soft.  When people start whining this to me, they always mask it in the context that the industry is down or there is something else outside their control causing sales to slow.
I hate this type of conversation. The only thing it leads to is salespeople [...]

It’s game time!  If you are in sales outside of the United States, then you need to pay close attention to the World Cup. Regardless of whether you call it soccer or football, it is definitely a great conversation starter.  In fact, one of the quickest ways to get someone talking is to ask how [...]

When you meet with a customer, make sure your body language is saying the same thing as your words.
I imagine you have heard this advice (or some version of it) at some point in your career.  Ironically, even though many people hear this advice, several don’t heed it.  I never cease to be amazed at [...]

Recently I was saddened by two items I read on the web. First, apparently one of the U.S. senators from my state of Nebraska has never used an ATM. (Come on Sen. Ben Nelson! Are you living in the world your constituents live in?)  Second, the wacky ex-governor from Illinois, “Captain Blago,” does not know [...]