In the ever-evolving landscape of business, the role of Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) or senior-most sales leaders (by any title), has never been more critical. These architects of growth are tasked with navigating complex market dynamics, driving revenue streams, and fostering a culture of success. However, achieving the highest levels of growth remains a challenge […]
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Senior sales leaders and C-suite execs, this one’s for you. Pay attention. This is free consulting. Background & Context Enablement is Booming In an expanding number of vertical industries (but not yet everywhere), the concept of “enabling the sales force” has exploded. According to Paul Krajewski’s blog, where he tracks the profession, there were 15,000 […]
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This is a post I never wanted to write. I originally posted it as a LinkedIn Article in August of 2020 and unfortunately, find it relevant again already in mid-2022. At the time I published it initially, I had hoped the worst of the pandemic-fueled layoffs were behind us. Unfortunately, many company executives still needed […]
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Sales Transformation. It’s a term that means different things to different people. I’ve been involved in sales transformations that were entirely focused on getting the best-possible performance out of the sales force (ranging from a 30 to 600 percent increase in sales), independent of retooling the rest of the organization. In my experience, the potential […]
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It’s a cruel twist of fate for senior sales and revenue leaders that as the year barrels toward a close with urgency to maximize the remaining time, that strategic and tactical planning for the next year must happen at the same time. At a minimum, these leaders must tackle quota setting, territory optimization, account assignments, […]
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In the first post in this series, I defined Learning, Training, Development, and Education. Learning: Learning is the act of acquiring new knowledge and skills. Training: Training is job-related learning about what, why, and how (and maybe when and where) to do something (or multiple things), to be successful in a specific role. Development: Development […]
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[This article was originally published as part of the Sales Education Foundation 2018 Annual Magazine, co-authored with Robert M. Peterson, Ph.D., Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Sales, Northern Illinois University Professional Sales Program] “The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the […]
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I’ll admit it, right upfront. There’s no doubt that sales professionals need to understand their products and services. This is a given. Product training is necessary. What troubles me, despite how much has been written on this topic, is that so many companies are still not maximizing the potential of their product training efforts to […]
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I did some counting recently. 2022 marks my 37th year in the sales profession and the 27th since my first sales training role. For the past 25 years, I’ve focused on finding holistic performance solutions that move the needle on the metrics that matter and radically improve sales mastery and performance. I’m still enjoying a […]
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“Always be closing… That doesn’t mean you’re always closing the deal, but it does mean that you need to be always closing on the next step in the process.” – Shane Gibson This is probably obvious, but before you panic from thinking that I’ve suddenly become an ABC fan and am sitting in a Cadillac with […]
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