Leading Sales Now

What is your typical approach to competitive strategy?  Have you left yourself open to competitive risks?  Increase your win rate with a  balanced approach to competitive strategy.

Procrastination is something I have been thinking about lately because I recently started this podcast.  I have had to change my focus and workflow quite a bit to make time for it.  So, I've had a practice at procrastination, in some cases missing my schedule entirely (as you can see from my record). However, I recently read an article on procrastination which provided some good news.  We often think of procrastination as a character flaw.  They claimed that procrastination is something our brains are naturally wired to do.  We, through our evolutionary fight for survival, are wired to attack the stuff that's right in front of us.  In today's world, that means the "near term immediate gratification" type of things.  Which means we do not prioritize the things that have long term payouts.  Our brains are actually wired to avoid doing those things that are not going to produce a fast result.  In the sales world, this means we prefer to work on active deals and respon

There is a lot written about the importance of sales management, but not a lot written about how to value sales management.  As a sales manager, what is your primary value to the organization?  Are you doing it?  This podcast discusses the main purpose of sales management, and a simple way to value it.   First line sales managers are responsible for a lot of things - hiring, firing, planning, reporting.  But in essence, their primary role is improving team productivity.  This is true for all management.   But in sales there can be a very clear trade-off, because the money spent on a sales manager could be spent on a quota producing rep.  So essentially a manager needs to improve their team's performance by AT LEAST one rep's quota.  For example, if they manage 10 reps, that team must produce like they have 11 reps, so the manager should add 10% productivity to their team.  If they manage 5 reps, they need to add 20% productivity.   Of course, this product

As we head into prime vacation season, there is the risk that some of your deals will stall - perhaps to never restart.  Today's podcast is about how to keep the momentum in a way that is valuable to both you and your customers.

Tired of setting goals, but not reaching them?  Do you have a couple of things you would love to see happen, but can't seem to get there - due to time, consistency, or longevity?  This is podcast discusses a simple, but counter-intuitive approach to achieving anything.

Are you losing deals late?  Running a great sales process, but then at the very end, losing?  If you're losing to "no-decision" - that's a customer pain problem.  If you're losing to a competitor - that's likely a "gain" problem - and that's what this podcast is about.  Listen to find out how to make your buyer a hero.  

If you are tired of missing forecast or continually pushing deals out to the next quarter, don't miss this podcast.  We  focus on deal qualification, and introduce how to "win by losing", plus a simple but highly effective qualification model. 

Today's podcast focuses on the "first call presentation" - how you initially present yourself, your company and your solution, and discusses the key questions a buyer is asking  and the importance of answering them in the right sequence.  Otherwise you not only miss the chance to grab and engage your audience, but you risk boring them.

Today's podcast is aimed at sales managers and helping you develop your seller's most critical competencies.  We introduce a different approach to identifying the skills that drive success, which makes them relevant and easier to train and develop.

Today's podcast is about a mash-up that wins.  By combining whiteboarding and story-telling, you can make your message memorable and differentiate how you sell.  It's not as hard as it sounds, listen to learn how.

Today's podcast is aimed at sales managers, and we discuss one of the biggest challenges in building a high producing teams - hiring and developing for the long term.  There are two things you can do now that will ensure high performance next year (and the year after, and the year after…).

Today's podcast addresses how executives are conditioned to dislike sales meetings, and 3 specific things you can do as a seller to prove their assumptions wrong - at least in your case!

In today's podcast we discuss that contrary to what you may have read, sales people are more important than ever - if they know how to add value.  We cover two specific ways sales people can consistently add value to their buyers.   And, because this is our first episode, Brian introduces himself and provides some background on the Leading Sales Now podcast.