Category Archives: sales

Sales Success: Set Yourself Up

The problem with most sales books is that they focus solely on what to say once you are in front of the prospect. That’s not half as important as what goes on before you even set up the meeting. There’s a smart way to set yourself up for sales success. The first steps in organizing [...]
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Sales Communications:
How to Conquer a Bad Sales Habit

When you’re talking with customers, which of the 16 bad sales habits do you commit? Do you fall into the traps of failing to be fully present? Selling past the close? Selective hearing? It’s never easy to create a new habit, but it may be easier to stop a bad one. Here’s the secret: Don’t [...]
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16 Bad Sales Habits

Marshall Goldsmith, Don Brown and Bill Hawkins in What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales!: How Successful Salespeople Take It to the Next Level, (McGraw-Hill, 2011), identify 16 bad sales habits that severely damage a customer’s sales experience. Eliminating even one or two can profoundly improve your sales and influencing abilities. Failure [...]
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Customer Communications
and the Empathy Deficit

Have you ever wondered why some people seem naturally quite good at sales and communications, while others struggle? It has a lot to do with the way our brains are wired. In fact, the quality of your customer communications depends on your ability to show empathy. We innately connect with others, both emotionally and physiologically, [...]
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Customer Communications: What Messages Do You Send?

What do you need to know to improve customer relationships and communications? Even if you’re not in sales, you still need to be current on the messages you want customers to know. “No matter who employs you or what your organization is selling or servicing, you work within two areas of responsibility; there are two [...]
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The Customer Experience:
Not What It Used to Be

Leaders seem to forget that their human assets make or break a customer’s experience. “Interpersonal interaction, though sometimes not the top reason for making a purchase, is almost always the reason for not repurchasing.” ~ Marshall Goldsmith, Don Brown and Bill Hawkins, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales!: How Successful Salespeople [...]
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Social Media: Sink or Swim with Customers?

If your company hasn’t jumped on the social media bandwagon yet, It’s probably missing opportunities to connect with customers in new ways. Information technology is reshaping the company/consumer relationship, often bringing benefits to both. The misuse of technology, however, can erode customer care. In the work I do with organizations, I’ve heard more than a [...]
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7 Tips for Selling BEFORE You Approach Anyone

In a series of recent posts, I suggest 7 tips to prepare the way to getting more appointments for selling, and having more sales conversations: How to Prepare for Selling: 3 Really Tough Tips 2 Tips to Prepare for Good Sales 7 Tips for Getting Known in Your Target Market None of these tips involve [...]
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Mapping Your Sales Preparation: Gather Info

In a recent post, Better Informed, Better Sales, I explain how important it is to research information about your target market and prospects before you ever approach the selling process. I quoted the late Bill Brooks of the Brooks Group: “In a highly competitive crowded marketplace, all other things being equal, the one with the [...]
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Selling Is NOT Accidental – Visual Tips

In the last few weeks I’ve been excerpting tips from the book I collaborated on with 7 esteemed colleagues, Masterminds Unleashed: Selling for Geniuses, Selling When Selling Isn’t in Your Title. Not because I want to flog more books, although that’s always fun to hear someone’s bought it. My main motivation, however, is this: I’ve [...]
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