sales management
Has buying changed and has B2B selling adapted?
My articles begin with analogies so we'll start by asking, has baseball changed? Games take longer, there is role specialization, starting pitchers rarely complete games, hitters are stronger, pitchers routinely throw in the mid 90's and there is a trend towards either hitting a home run or striking out.
Win/loss analysis – are you learning as much as you should?
I’m always stunned by how little win/loss analysis we do. Of course, when we win or lose a deal, there is some reason code–usually some drop down in CRM that gives us a handful of choices about why we won or why we lost.
What is the difference between complicated and complex in sales?
No matter how much we try to simplify, some things will never be simple. We can automate, systematize, create processes, buy software - but in the end, complex b2b sales will stay complex.
What are Priority Issue Profiles - and why do you need them?
Many of you will be familiar with the idea of having an Ideal Customer Profile - and if you’re not, you should be. The Ideal Customer Profile is a powerful tool that helps to align your entire organisation around the common characteristics of your most valuable existing and potential customers - a combination of demographic, structural and behavioural/cultural factors.
The digital buying journey is very human
We see tremendous research on the digital buying journey. We know customers spend more of their buying journey finding information in digital and other channels. Engagement with sales people represent the smallest part of their time investment. I’ve written about this transformation suggesting we are going through a transformation of sales led, digitally supported to digitally led, sales supported.
Want to be liked by your prospects? Get respect instead
I grew up playing sports. I played softball and volleyball, and I loved being part of a team. But no matter how much I’ve encouraged the idea, my daughters have never wanted to play sports. Then out of the blue, my oldest told me she wanted to play a sport in high school.
