The Competitive Advantage

July 14, 2020

12 Touchpoints While Waiting to Hear Back from a Sales Prospect

I signed-up a new client last week. Pretty excited about it, too. And it only took 2 years to make it happen! :-0

Do you have clients and prospects that are slow to respond? OK, maybe not 2-years-slow – and that was certainly an anomaly for us – but waiting to hear over a period of weeks, or even months, can be very challenging and incredibly frustrating.

June 23, 2020

Make Role Playing the Centerpiece of Your Sales Training. Here’s Why.

True story: My first job after college was as a sales rep for the DuPont Company. While much of the 3-month training program was technical in nature, we also spent a good deal of time developing our selling skills. And on one particular day, we were tasked with doing some role playing (and it was to be videotaped!). My training scenario was that I was visiting a client (played by the Sales Trainer) who started complaining vehemently about the terrible quality of our product. After 30 seconds of being berated by the client and trying to respond appropriately, I just froze up, looked at the camera and said, “Help me!”

May 4, 2020

Selling Success Requires 2 Things… a Good Sales Rep and a Better Sales Manager

8 Keys for Effective Sales Management

I was chatting with an industry colleague this past week and he mentioned he had just repositioned two of his Project Managers into Business Development roles… one as an account manager and one to go after new business.

And then he said something that really surprised me and even made me smile. He said, “This process has made me realize that I’m no sales manager!”

Wow! He is literally the first person in Market Research I have met who has said that. Out loud. Don’t get me wrong… there are a ton of really bad sales managers in our industry – he’s just the first one to admit it.

January 28, 2020

How to Create a Sales Commission Plan for Seller-Doers

I attended the Insights Association’s CEO Summit last week (by the way, if you run a business and have never been – put this event on your “must do” list!) and by far, the topic that generated the most audience engagement and questions was around sales commission plans.

So, for those of you who were not there, here are a few guidelines as you think about your seller-doer team…

December 23, 2019

5 MORE Easy Sales Hacks for Seller-Doers in 2020

Early last month, I published a blog post about ‘sales hacks’ for seller-doers. The feedback was so positive that I wanted to follow that article up with another one. So, to help you achieve your sales goals in 2020, here are five more easy sales hacks for you to employ next year…

December 3, 2019

This Seller-Doer Sales Strategy is Right in Your Own Backyard

Let me start with a few questions. As a seller-doer…

#1. Do you live in or near a fairly large city? [Everyone in NY, Chicago, Atlanta, LA and even in places like Nashville & Baltimore are putting their hands up in the air.]

#2. Do you have clients or potential clients (i.e. sales prospects) based nearby? [Most of the hands stay up.]

Final question. Have you visited any of those clients or prospects, in-person, in the past 3 months? [That sound you hear is all of the hands dropping.]

Why is that? Why would we not visit nearby “business opportunities” in-person?

November 12, 2019

5 Easy Sales Hacks for Seller-Doers in 2020

Hey! All you seller-doers out there… how are your sales efforts going this year? Are you going to hit your 2019 sales goals?

If not, don’t be too surprised. Being a seller-doer is hard work. You try to serve two masters, but inevitably, the “doing” gets in the way of “selling”… which makes hitting those sales goals all the more difficult.

Maybe it’s time to try something new. To help you get started, here are 5 easy sales hacks to help you kick-start your selling efforts in 2020…

August 6, 2019

Do you speak the “language of sales?”

We’re two weeks into the inaugural 3-week Seller-Doer Workshop… and with 30+ participants, I couldn’t be more pleased (or grateful).

In these first two weeks, we’ve covered a number of topics related to general selling philosophies, acquiring new clients and maintaining & growing existing clients. But the one topic that seems to have generated the most group discussion is the “language of sales.”