An all to common outcome of sales opportunities is the decision to “do nothing” or stick with the status quo. Much has been written lately about the rising number of “stakeholders” involved in complex sales situations along with “FOMU” (fear of messing up) as detailed in the book The Jolt Effect by Matthew Dixon and Read more

The best modern sellers are both students and teachers.They are students of the game. They read. They seek to continually learn and improve. They study. They practice. They plan. They know they will never know it all. They stay up to date. And they are student of their customers and their markets. They stay abreast Read more

Who originated that inbound lead you just received? You might say, “Duh, the contact who visited our website and requested information” (or to be contacted). Well, maybe not. In B2B situations, that person is often someone I call a “seeker”. In many cases they have been tasked with exploring options, gathering information, maybe even requesting Read more

Effective sales processes for even moderately complex situations include an early stage Discovery process. But how well are you executing it? Are you using it as a check the box exercise, hearing what you only want to hear so you can move ahead with a demo or proposal? Or are you really, really probing and Read more

In selling, one size does not fit all. So we need to be careful with the advice we consume. Not that its necessarily bad (although some is), but it often comes with context; the perspective and experience of the person providing the advice. And there are usually no disclaimers. An area where this is particularly Read more

Discovery is an important (and often short-changed) part of the sales process. During the Discovery conversation we’ve been taught to ask questions to gain insights into the prospect’s buying and decision making processes, roles and criteria among other things. [Note: we should also be sharing our insights with them but that’s a topic for a Read more

Is this situation familiar? Your customer won’t engage in a collaborative peer-to-peer relationship; maybe they block you from gaining access to key decision influencers on your deals; or they refuse to accept you guidance during the sales process; any effort to provide value is dismissed; they force you to submit blind bids to their predetermined Read more

When engaging in a discovery discussion with a prospect, too often sellers operate on autopilot. They know what questions they are supposed to ask. Maybe they have a checklist. And they run down the list, through each question to “check the box” and move on to the next one. After all, they know what answers Read more

Do you get paid for every proposal or quote you issue or for every deal you close? The answer is the latter (or at least it should be). Then wouldn’t it make sense to only spend time proposing deals you have a reasonable chance to win? Do this by conducting thorough qualification and discovery. Get Read more