Category: Prospecting

Stop Letting the Prospect Control YOUR Sales Cycle

Does this sound familiar? “We’ll need to talk internally, and then we’ll get back to you.” Let me guess, you hear this right after you’ve finished your software demo and are trying to schedule another call. Am I right? Keeping deals flowing through the pipeline is critical for you to hit quota and for your company to realize its revenue goals. However, preventing deals from stalling out and prospects from ...

September 11, 2023

No Sales Process = No Revenue Progress

Co-Written with Rachel Epstein Salespeople often don’t enjoy following imposed rules around selling. And we get it – it can seem more like a burden than a benefit. But companies without a formalized and documented sales process are more likely to have underperforming reps who generate less revenue. In fact, HBR reports that companies with a formal sales processes in place see a 28% increase in revenue. It’s simple… if ...

October 21, 2022

Recession-Proof Your Pipeline…..Now

We’ve had a lot of turbulence in the last three years. The pandemic, the Great Resignation, and most recently the war in Ukraine which has pushed the price of oil and gas to an all-time high. All this turmoil has increased prices of just about every consumer good and I’m now seeing an impact on business spending because of talk about a looming recession. The result for your sales team ...

June 1, 2022

Suspects vs. Prospects

Visualize a stack of 8 1/2 x 11-inch paper 4 inches tall. This is what I think of when I begin to reach out to a group of “suspects” to see if I can turn them into a prospect. My goal with this stack of suspects is to move them from the 4-inch suspect pile into 2 smaller piles – the yes pile or no prospect pile. When you begin ...

March 22, 2021

Are You a Self-Centered Seller?

No one likes a selfish person, but that’s how a lot of sellers come across. I tell sales reps and sales leaders daily: “It has to be all about them before it can be all about you before it can be all about us.” So why am I still getting emails, LI messages, and phone calls from marketing departments and sales reps only talking about the features of their product ...

August 14, 2020

Question Your Way Out of the Objection

Objections are born out of fear. Fear the prospect will spend money on something they won’t use or get value from, fear that they will look bad if it doesn’t go well, fear that others in the company won’t be open to switching vendors or spending money on some new strategy or vendor. The best way to deal with that fear is to better understand it and get to the ...

July 28, 2020

Understanding the Impact of your Prospect’s Pain is What Will Close More Deals

By now I’m sure your sales team is good at uncovering the pain points and challenges your prospects face. But are they digging to get the negative financial impact those pain points are having on the prospect’s organization? Are they able to calculate what the cost to the company is for not solving the issue? Are they able to calculate the positive revenue or negative cost impact that purchasing your ...

December 9, 2019

Are you Ready to Sell to Gen Z?

There has been so much written about the Millennials that I’m afraid we aren’t getting ready for Gen Z. They have hit the workforce and although probably not decision makers yet, they are individual contributors and their opinion matters. They don’t know a world without smartphones and technology. They are used to connecting and communicating in less personal ways; text, email, slack and chat. So, what does this mean for ...

July 15, 2019