B2B Sales
Your Sales Managers Are Scoreboard Watchers
Your sales manager just sent you the weekly forecast update. Pipeline looks good. Activity metrics are up. Everyone hit their call numbers. But your close rate hasn’t moved in six months. Here’s why. Your sales manager is a scoreboard watcher. They’re tracking results. Not fixing the behaviors that create them. What Scoreboard Watching Looks Like…
Read MoreThe Conversion Math CEOs Get Wrong
You spent $5,000 on marketing last month. Generated 50 leads. Not bad. Your sales team talked to 30 of them. Ran 20 demos. Sent 12 proposals. Closed 4 deals. Total revenue: $34,000. You look at this and think, “We need more leads.” Actually. You need to fix your conversion rate. Let me show you why.…
Read MoreThe 4 Discovery Questions That Make Closing Easy
Your rep is on a discovery call. The prospect is talking about their challenges. They seem engaged. They’re asking good questions about your solution. Your rep thinks: “This is a great opportunity.” Then the deal sits in the pipeline for four months and dies. Here’s why. Your rep never asked the one question that separates…
Read MoreThe Question That Ends Bad Deals Early
In 20 years of working with sales organizations, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this: “Our reps just can’t close. They get to the end and prospects won’t pull the trigger. What closing techniques should we teach them?” Here’s what I’ve learned after seeing this play out with 150+ companies: Your closing…
Read MoreYour Sales Reps Are Rushing Discovery Calls. And It’s Costing You Deals
Your rep just got off a call with a prospect. You ask how it went. “Great! They’re really interested. I’m sending a proposal.” You look at the CRM notes. The call lasted 18 minutes. There’s almost nothing in there about what the prospect actually said. Just: “Interested in our solution. Sending proposal by EOD.” Here’s…
Read MoreThe Real Reason Deals Collapse Before Contract Signature. And How to Fix It
The deal closed. Your rep is celebrating. You’re updating the forecast. And the deal is about to fall apart. Because nobody protected it. I was working with a professional services firm last year. About $22M in revenue. They were bringing on what would have been their largest client. $180K engagement. The prospect said yes. Verbally…
Read MoreCoaching Through Fear: The Real Reason Reps Miss Quota and What Leaders Must Do
The rep everyone thinks is underperforming I was working with a professional services firm last year. About $18M in revenue. Team of six reps. One rep… let’s call him Bob… was consistently at the bottom. Hitting maybe 65% of quota. Pipeline always looked thin. His manager was frustrated. “Bob just doesn’t put in the effort.…
Read MoreWhy Your Sales Team Is Busy But Not Productive
I was on a call last week with a CEO who couldn’t figure out what was wrong with his sales team. Everyone was working hard. Lots of meetings. Lots of activity. Full calendars. Late nights. But deals weren’t closing faster. Revenue wasn’t growing. The pipeline looked the same as it did six months ago. “I…
Read MoreYour Sales Forecast Is Fiction. Let’s Fix That.
I was in a pipeline review two weeks ago with a president of a manufacturing company. She’s trying to figure out if they’re going to hit their Q4 number. Her sales leader pulls up the forecast. “We’ve got $2.8M in the pipeline. We need $700K to hit our goal. We’re in great shape.” I ask…
Read MoreThe Belief Costing Your Sales Team Six Figures
I was on a call with a client last month. His team had been stuck at about 60% of quota for three quarters straight. He’s convinced it’s a pipeline problem. Not enough leads. Lead quality is down. Marketing needs to step up. So I ask him if I can listen to some calls. First call…
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