How to Coach B Players: Stop Bailing Every Bucket at Once Every sales team has one. He makes his number most months, rarely by much, and your sales manager has tried everything with him: more calls, a new opening line, ride-alongs, another product session. He’s still a B player, and the manager is running out […]
How to Coach B Players: Pick the Right Bucket Read More »
At your most recent L10 the pipeline number was red. You ask why, and one of your reps says the thing that ends every conversation about prospecting: “Nobody answers the phone anymore.” Is cold calling dead? Well, your team has already answered that question in their minds. They answered it by not dialing. And here’s
Is Cold Calling Dead? Or Did Your Reps Bury It? Read More »
Last year I worked with a distributor whose comp plan paid a monthly bonus to any salesperson who put out 100 or more quotes. Six salespeople. Six hundred quotes a month. To what end? They hit it. Of course they hit it. And the average win rate across those six people was 8%. Yep, 8%.
Paper on the Street: What an 8% Quote to Close Ratio Is Actually Telling You Read More »
Why Sales Hires Fail: The Machine Breaks in One of Four Places Your last three sales hires failed three different ways. One never filled the pipeline. One interviewed like a champion and sold like a spectator. One took the offer, dragged through onboarding, and quit at month nineteen — right when the ramp math
Why Sales Hires Fail: The Machine Breaks in One of Four Places Read More »
The invoice cleared in January. Twenty-six thousand dollars. By March you had a salesperson. Good handshake, right background, three references who said the right things. You exhaled for the first time in a year. By November he was gone, and so was the recruiter, and so were eleven months you can’t get back. Here’s the
What a Sales Headhunter Actually Costs Read More »
I live in the Metro Detroit area. The local NFL team is the Detroit Lions. A long-suffering franchisee that has a recent upsurge in success. (Compared to the previous 50 years) The Detroit Lions had everything lined up for a championship run in 2025. Talent. Momentum. A city that hadn’t seen a Super Bowl in
Sales Fundamentals Aren’t Sexy. They’re Profitable. Read More »
Why Your A-Player Sales Hire Is Already Looking for Another Job You fought hard to land that A-player. Great interviews. Strong references. Real talent. Then you fumbled the handoff. And now they’re scrolling LinkedIn on their lunch break. The “They’ll Figure It Out” Myth I had a client who believed their new sales hire would
Sales Onboarding: The Handoff That’s Killing Your Retention Rate Read More »
Your competition is betting on AI to fix their sales problems. They’re about to lose. Here’s what they’re missing: AI is a toolbox. A damn good one. But it can’t build human connections. It can’t read a room. It can’t earn trust when a buyer is scared to make a decision. The sales landscape is
The 8 Sales Competencies AI Will Never Replace Read More »
Here’s a belief that most salespeople have: December isn’t dead time. However, in most industries this is not true. December is opportunity time. While your competitors are checking out early and planning their holiday parties, you have a chance to lock in business and build relationships that will pay off the moment Q1 starts.
Five Effective Actions for Prospecting in December Read More »
Hiring a Sales Manager? You promoted your best rep in March. Four years as your top producer. He knew the accounts, knew the margin, knew when to walk from a job that was going to bleed you. So when the seat opened, you didn’t run a search. You handed it
Hiring a Sales Manager: You Didn’t Fill a Seat, You Emptied Two Read More »