Partners in Excellence

APRIL 11, 2024

Preface : Jill Konrath is one of the most well respected author, speaker, teacher on all things selling. She’s written 4 masterpieces on selling. She and I are concerned with the increased polarization we see in our communities and society. Why I Love Sales Sales was never a career option I aspired to.

Sell 116

Sell Manufacturing Up-sell Launch 116

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 11, 2024

It’s crazy to think that we purposely design our organizations to fail. Who would think of that, particularly in selling? We are driven to succeed, to over achieve our goals. We constantly talk about winning. If this is true, why do we see year after year of declining performance and results?

Quota 120

Quota CRM Growth Meeting 120

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 18, 2024

As we spoke, it struck me how we revel in these questions. Customers asking us about the product capabilities, drilling deeply into what the products and solutions do. These are the discussions we strive to get since it is all about us and what we sell. Why shouldn’t we be answering those questions?”

Customers 129

Customers Up-sell B2B Trust 129

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 31, 2024

While I haven’t met Daniel, it’s fascinating to read his perspective on selling. Like so many other participants, Daniel didn’t set out to be in sales, but found himself selling. Being in sales allows me to do this day after day, working with companies of all sizes and from all industries. My job is fun!

Sell 124

Sell Electricity Manufacturing Quota 124

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 5, 2024

Some of you may be reading my series, “ Why I’m So Interested In Selling.” Some have run multi-billion sales organizations and companies, some are managing their own territories selling millions a year. At the same time, they are viciously focused on doing the work. We focus too much on shortcuts, hacks.

Territory 117

Territory Sports Technique Represent 117

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 15, 2024

We always exchange stories of sitting at those tables, doing designs on paper. That’s why I’m interested in Sales!” Why Am I So Interested in Sales? I then spent another 4 years in the private sector selling engineering and planning services (see Why Will Buyers Create Their Own Distinction? ).

Sell 121

Sell Retail Commission Engineering 121

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

But in what world do we consider that acceptable? Even though it’s 2-4 times better than other approaches, why do we consider that an acceptable response rate? Why aren’t we challenging ourselves to figure out what it takes to get 5% or more? It’s like so much other data we see.

Manufacturing 115

Manufacturing Technique Pitch Up-sell 115

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 13, 2024

We were at Endicott, New York, where most of entry sales training was conducted. Through our first year, every few months we’d see each other in Endicott at another class. We lost track of each other–John ended up going to senior executive levels in IBM, eventually was the General Manager of IBM Global Finance.

Sell 117

Sell Finance Clients Up-sell 117

Partners in Excellence

MAY 16, 2024

It’s focuses on exploiting any list we get, including “Dear occupant or current resident… ” And the act of cold calling is all about pitching a product, not understanding a customer. But it’s a useful argument, if you want to sell something. The wider the reach, the better. It is alive and thriving.

Cold Call 77

Cold Call Technique High impact Pitch 77

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 12, 2024

We started sharing ideas on LinkedIn, then Kelly has invited me to appear on his podcasts. Like me, Kelly is a “grinder,” he doesn’t believe in tricks/gimmicks, he believes top performers do the work. From a practical viewpoint, selling provides more opportunities for growth – personally and financially.

Sell 110

Sell Engineering Growth Trust 110

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 9, 2024

“How do I avoid or minimize objections?” ” “How do I best handle them?” ” “Should I do everything I can to avoid them?” Selling conversations, problem solving conversations are about change. We look at alternatives, evaluate the pros and cons of a change and solutions.

Conversion 116

Conversion Customers Sell Sales 116

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 2, 2024

I don’t recall exactly how we met, I think he saw me speaking and later reached out to say, “Dave, I think there is a better way to think about these things.” Here’s his take: Why am I obsessed with Selling? Now, let’s get back to the definition of “selling”.

Sell 113

Sell Education Territory Engineering 113

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 25, 2024

We don’t have a set agenda, we talk about what we are seeing, usually it’s me whining about the state of professional selling. I’m afraid too many people will latch onto that concept and miss the real point of this post which is the revenue/growth potential we lose. Think about that for a moment.

Customers 117

Customers Objectives and Key Results Growth Objection handling 117

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 10, 2024

Preface: I’m departing from my normal process of introducing a new story about selling. Some with very distinguished leadership and selling careers. I hope it drives each of you to do the same. We started exchanging notes about some of the stories. Why Am I So Interested In Selling Why am I so interested in selling?

Sell 120

Sell Up-sell Start-ups Growth 120

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 5, 2024

As you will see, Martin has a fascinating and rich career an selling. Martin articulates something that I think so many of us find so exciting about selling: “The main reason is that it challenges you to reinvent yourself and stay current with your knowledge because it is the most dynamic industry of all.

Sell 115

Sell Territory Consult Contract 115

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

We were talking about his prospecting challenges. ” We talked about some of his strategies. He tried to connect what he learned they were doing with his prospecting efforts. ” He said, “I don’t know, that’s why I’m prospecting him… ?” How do you know if he has the problem?

Pitch 127

Pitch Prospecting Start-ups Conversion 127

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 26, 2024

It’s a solution that addresses the way buying is changing, integrating digital and personal selling. But what really interested me were Bill’s perspectives on where buying and selling is headed and how we must change our engagement strategies to work with buyers more impactfully.

Sell 103

Sell Cross-sell Finance B2C 103

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 24, 2024

I just couldn’t think of a better description of something that dominates too many selling conversations. Whether it’s the initial purchase, or the renewal/extension, we and our customers waste too much time in p **g contests about price. We present our price, the customer’s moral obligation is to object to the price.

Price 77

Price Contract Presentation Consult 77

Partners in Excellence

APRIL 30, 2024

All credit for this post goes to Scott Gillum and his fantastic post: Why Relying on AI Won’t Improve Customer Experience. Reading it caused me to start reflecting on how much we misunderstand about AI and how we leverage it in selling. People helping us make sure we are addressing the right issues.

Represent 99

Represent Presentation Up-sell Start-ups 99

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 29, 2024

Let’s imagine we had a game show, a group of CROs and we are giving them the choice to select what’s behind Door # 1 or Door # 2. We seek to get the prospect to a demo then close them. Door # 2: This strategy focuses on Business Focused Selling. Selling cycles are increasing.

GTM 86

GTM Quota Presentation Up-sell 86

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 15, 2024

Sign onto Amazon or any other shopping site, and we are pummeled with recommendations, all based on what we’ve bought and recent searches we may have made. Many of our news feeds present content based on that which we have read and consumed in the past. And we know the problem with these algorithms.

Represent 125

Represent Presentation Up-sell Clients 125

Partners in Excellence

AUGUST 11, 2023

“We do not learn from experience, We learn from reflecting on experience.” This is such an important principle for all of us in selling and leadership, but somehow we seem so preoccupied with activity and busyness, we fail to take the time to reflect and learn from those.

Quota 100

Quota High impact Sell Process 100

Partners in Excellence

SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

Time Available For Selling is a critical issue for everyone in sales. Constantly doing email and social outreach, is unrealistic and unreasonable. But before I go into a further discussion about time available for selling, let me first define how I look at time available for selling.

Sell 139

Sell CRM Technique Territory 139

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 4, 2023

I think, “Why do we revel in achieving our quotas and scaling goals, when we could be doing so much more?” ” If we achieve our growth/revenue goals, we think we are doing well. Too often, however, we could/should be doing much better. Yet they fail!

Quota 118

Quota Growth Sell Process 118

Partners in Excellence

DECEMBER 4, 2023

If you don’t know/follow Brian, you should, he’s one of the best thinkers/practitioners I’ve met in selling. We were talking, loosely, around the advantages of being customer focused and what that means. For decades, we’ve seen data and research contrasting these approaches. So why change?

Customers 115

Customers Pitch Meeting Sell 115

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 3, 2023

One of the things he discusses in the concept of “Selling Possibility.” They have let their fingers do the walking through Google, found your site and expressed interest. But we miss a huge opportunity by waiting for our customers to figure things out. What’s it take to do this?

Sell 127

Sell Up-sell Start-ups Customers 127

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 17, 2024

We started sharing ideas about sales performance, particulalry in some of his early leadership and entrepreneurial roles. We continue those conversations to today. A line that stood out, “If you accept sales is about moving people, then it becomes easy to stay positive about selling. ” Why am I interested in selling?

Sell 77

Sell Up-sell Start-ups Technology 77

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 5, 2024

Preface: Somehow, I got to know Craig Jamieson because we were “hanging out in the same places.” But Craig has hung in there, we have conversations and exchange ideas and opinions about the state of selling. ” Craig continues a through line we’ve seen in other articles. I do identify as a hunter.

Sell 73

Sell Retail Cold Call Commission 73

Partners in Excellence

OCTOBER 12, 2023

We all know customer retention is important. Creating great customer experiences, making sure we deliver on our commitments, keeping them happy are critical. We are all familiar with the “bow tie” chart, showing the importance of not only retaining, but growing and upselling. But are all of these enough?

Cross-sell 133

Cross-sell Up-sell Sell Customers 133

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 21, 2024

In working with Jose, I’ve come to deeply appreciate how he thinks about driving growth and performance improvement in the teams he leads, and his general approach to selling. ” Why I’m So Interested In Selling I worked as a sales engineer and trainer for a technology company, where I was exposed to fascinating technology.

Sell 73

Sell Quota Technology Technology 73

Partners in Excellence

FEBRUARY 8, 2024

Every day I think we have reached bottom with the level of stupid advice I see in my social feeds. Every day, I’m surprised that we can find new depths of stupidity. And there is are endless opinions about what we do as a result of this fundamental “truth” about how tough things are.

Consult 124

Consult Clients Follow-up Up-sell 124

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 4, 2024

Fortunately, we saw past our differences. Jack has written one of the best books on business/financial acumen, I ‘ve ever read: Bottom Line Selling. He suddenly found himself in selling, developing a deep passion for it. I had to figure out how to sell, and quickly. So, tell me why I should bank with you.”

Sell 73

Sell Appointment Finance Pitch 73

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 18, 2024

The first Saturday of every month, we reserve an hour or so to catch up on things, to share ideas. I do reflect on them, they help me pay attention to the important stuff going on. ” “Why I’m So Interested In Selling” Before revealing why I’m interested in selling, here’s a little family history as background.

Sell 73

Sell Education Sports Niche 73

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 22, 2024

I learned he is a surfer and that he was hitting the waves just about 30 miles north of where I was trying to hit the waves… Wish I had known back then, we could have had some great conversations waiting for the right wave. He and I share ideas about the state of selling and how we can drive improvement. I like ideas.

Sell 77

Sell Construction Finance Up-sell 77

Partners in Excellence

JANUARY 12, 2024

I want to accomplish a lot, but I want to do it with minimal effort. As I look at selling, today, it requires far too much effort—far more than I’m willing to do. After all, we have to send 1000s of emails a day, we have to make 100s of calls, we have to spend hours doing outreach in LinkedIn and other channels.

Sell 115

Sell Commission Up-sell Quota 115

Partners in Excellence

JULY 31, 2023

Most of the time, as sellers, we focus on our self interests. As a result we spend a lot of time looking at our selling process and the things we want to do to our customers. We focus on the things that drive our success, perhaps not really understanding what the customer is trying to achieve and their success.

Customers 93

Customers Manufacturing CRM Contact 93

Partners in Excellence

MARCH 8, 2024

He’s written an number of books trust in selling, the most famous is The Trusted Advisor. “Why does all this interest me? And to think we would find such an opportunity in, of all places, selling? I settled into management consulting (“those who can, do; those who can’t, teach or consult”).

Sell 75

Sell Non-Profits Trust Consult 75