The soul-crushing experience of telling your sales manager that the deal you were so confident would close is now a no-decision is a bitter pill for sales reps to swallow. The opportunity that started off so positively and was looking like a win is now a ghost account that will not return calls or emails. As sales professionals, we rack our brains trying to figure out what we did wrong.

However, when the concept is introduced, it’s greeted with cold stares, heavy sighs and resistance. Whether the employees voice their concerns or keep them to themselves, they sound something like this: “I’m not a salesperson.” “I didn’t join this company to sell.” “I don’t want my customers to think I’m trying to sell them more.”

A survey by Bain and Google of 1,208 people at U.S. companies who are involved in buying software, cloud hosting, hardware, telecommunications, logistics, marketing, and industrial equipment revealed a set of misconceptions among sellers about how buyers behave. Sellers don’t realize that 90% of buyers choose a vendor that was on a short list at the beginning of the sales process; they focus too much on high-level decision-makers, underestimating the number of people inside the buying company who have influence; they rely too much on digital channels, neglecting physical selling; and they don’t realize how much the product demonstration factors into buyers’ decisions

It is gratifying to witness practical new research on a topic that has been around for centuries. Feedback is a topic one can constantly research, analyze, and implement new practices. Some of these new insights on feedback run contrary to prevailing beliefs. Others challenge bedrock assumptions that have grown up with the modern conceptions of organizations.

I recently moved to a new apartment, an occasion that calls for celebration—preferably outdoors in my brand-new backyard. But I didn’t expect how much being in a different space would disrupt my sense of safety. So I worried—about my cat escaping out the front door, how to protect my family from COVID, raccoon-transmitted diseases, and more.

One of the most telling signs that the U.S. is experiencing a burnout crisis may be the fact that Google searches for “burnout symptoms” hit an all-time high in May 2022, as we weathered the third year of the pandemic while facing the prospect of a faltering economy.

Traditions die hard. How else do you explain the outdated sales tactics still in use by sales professionals? Traditions are great for Thanksgiving and July 4th. But the trouble with traditions as sales professionals is that they prevent us from learning and implementing the required new skills. Consciously or unconsciously, sales professionals defer to outdated tactics that hinder performance.

A company that can’t sell can’t survive. I think we’ve all realized that in a market economy, sales are self-evidently good, like oxygen. So, it is hardly surprising for many years we have sent salespeople to a multitude of training programs in an effort to teach them how to sell more stuff.

There’s a lot of advice on how to be better at cold calling, but the best cold call tips focus on the conversation over metrics. Cold contact tends to put prospective customers on edge; the key to booking more meetings is to approach each call to make a genuine connection. As the world’s leading experts on sales development, we’re sharing our favorite cold calling methods, on-call best practices, and must-haves for effective cold calling.

Big changes are happening with B2B buyers. They are acting like B2C buyers. They want an Amazon-like buying experience, and they aren’t afraid to walk away from a purchase if they don’t get it. Traditional B2B selling practices are no longer effective with today’s digital buyers. If companies in that space want to compete, their sales teams need to take a hard look at their systems and processes.

Strategy should be a creative exercise but companies frequently end up with plans that look very much like their previous ones. Strategy expert Graham Kenny describes a three step process for avoiding this trap: 1) open your mind to ideas from external stakeholders, 2) take a cold, hard look at where your performance is failing, and 3) study companies in other industries that have solved these problems.

We’ve all wished for more willpower sometimes. If only we had more self-control, grit, or the ability to delay gratification, we would be more persistent in pursuing our goals.

But there’s a problem with this scenario: Willpower doesn’t usually work. Willpower alone can’t ensure that you’ll delay gratification or resist temptation to achieve your long-term goals. It will fail, and probably just when you need it most.

The hybrid work world has been a reality for several months now, but whether it’s working well is really a matter of debate. A new report from Microsoft, entitled “Empowering your workforce in economic uncertainty,” checks in with both employers and employees and finds there’s a definite divide between management and worker perspectives.

A study of more than 20,000 job listings for salespeople posted between 2019 and 2022 reveal many of the attributes that have always been crucial for success in this field, such as communication skills. But this study revealed five forward-looking qualities that are showing up more frequently. They are anticipating the customer’s future, collaborating inside and outside the company, leveraging digital and virtual channels, the ability to get power from data, and the capacity to adapt.

In today’s B2B market, it’s not enough to be the best salesperson in the room. Most buyers prefer to do their own research, comparing competitor options before they make a final decision. That’s where consultative selling can help you stand out. B2B buyers have an endless array of options to choose from, with new products and services launching every day

I've written several articles (same as always) about OMG (Objective Management Group) Tailored Fits/Proofs of Concept where I analyze the differences between a company's top producers and bottom producers to identify the findings/scores that differentiate their tops from their bottoms.

Companies can reap great benefits from digitalizing their sales organizations—that is, using technology, data, and analytics to improve the sales process. Done well, digitalization increases customer engagement, boosts the skills and performance of salespeople, and supports a more customer-focused business model. But digitalization initiatives are often plagued by slow progress, poor adoption, or low sustained impact. This article discusses why that happens and recommends five actions to increase the odds of success.

Is empathy a helpful tool for understanding other people better, or does it simply reflect our biases?

This question has plagued researchers and philosophers for decades. Some have argued that empathy is flawed and problematic (especially in certain situations, like judging people in a court of law or choosing where to donate money).

Most people recognize that effective execution is a critical skill and strive to perform it well, but they may a) underestimate how important it is to their career advancement or b) not realize that you can improve on execution without working longer hours. On the first point, bosses place a premium on execution, which we define as the ability to achieve individual goals and objectives.

I grew up in a very small town in India, in a house with no running water or bathroom. When I was a teenager, I was a poor student. The safe bet would have been to coast through high school with mediocre grades and, upon graduation, simply eke out a living.