Dave

The Worst Advice: Sales Questions & Answers

Q. What is the worst single piece of advice to a sales person you have ever heard? A. Wow. I love this question. I can’t identify one single piece of advice. I’ll have to opt for two: 1. Be yourself. 2. Learn on your own by trial and error.... Read >

Be Prepared To Handle Common Objections

This is one of those practices that truly distinguish the committed, professional sales people from those who aren’t that interested. That’s because it takes time and effort to become well prepared at anything, much less objections. Those who are serio... Read >

The Ultimate Survival Skill for the New Economy

We're living in incredibly turbulent times. In spite of newspaper headlines proclaiming growing employment and a slowly growing economy, many business people admit to a pervasive feeling of uncertainty and confusion about their businesses. The well-spri... Read >

Selling Commodities

“How do you create a perceived value to differentiate yourself from the competition when you are both selling a commodity?" That’s a question I’m often asked in my business to business sales manager training and corporate sales training.  It uncovers a... Read >

Fine in the Past: Hindered by Antiquated Sales & Marketing Policies

I call it Fine in the Past. It refers to all the sales and marketing efforts, ideas, policies, principles, techniques, and strategies that worked well in the past, but are no longer effective. The past is everything that’s pre-2010. I still recall a po... Read >

Use A Systematic Approach To Managing Information About Competitors

Here again is one of those best practices that mark the behavior of the superstars, the Top Gun sales people. Most sales people never even consider this. Every sales person has to compete for the business. In some cases, there can be dozens of compet... Read >

Does Popcorn Remind You Of Your Sales Efforts?

The title seemed to scream "Years of economic muddle!"! That was the banner on the seminar brochure I received recently. As I survey some of the forces flowing through our economy, and witness the way in which they impact my clients, I have to agree. U... Read >

No One Can Motivate You Like You Can

Occasionally we feel as though they are really struggling with the highs and lows of field sales, as though the weight of the world were on their shoulders. This is one of those rarely voiced issues that every salesperson confronts sooner or later. Unles... Read >

It's Not Hard To Sell

To help you come to grips with what selling process, the effective sales person understands that it is a series of decisions, and his/her job is to help the customer make each affirmatively. 3. Connecting people with what they want. If your prospec... Read >

Stealth Cause Of Lackluster Sales

Does this scenario sound familiar? You just introduced a new product. At the sales meeting, the sales people seemed excited. Yet, it is three months later, and nothing’s been sold. What’s up? Or, you work with a sales person in the field, and identif... Read >

Professional Salespeople Are Not CSRs

At a meeting with a VP of sales on a new compensation plan for his sales force, he wanted to encourage the team to make more presentations of new products and programs to their customers. I asked how many presentations they made each week, on the average... Read >

Can't Get A Word In Edgewise?

A common problem - and it reminds me of an ex-neighbor – the ultimate non-stop talker. A single guy, he had adopted our family as his, and was in the habit of showing up for dinner at every holiday. That was not the problem. At a particular Thanksgiv... Read >

Quickly Creating Rapport With New Contacts

I like to break the sales process down into its simplest components: 1. Make them comfortable with you. 2. Find out what they want. 3. Show them how what you have gives them what they want. 4. Get an agreement on the next step. 5. Follow up and leve... Read >

Unlocking The Onions Potential

As a consultant and sales trainer, my objective is to bring about affirmative change in organizations, managers and sales people. My content has always been about sales in one way or another, but my actual work has always been to create change. Creating... Read >

Like An Onion

My work has consisted of bringing about positive change in sales organizations, sales managers and sales people. Though my content has always been about sales in one way or another, my actual work itself has always been to create change. I have made cre... Read >