Groundhog Day

I’m in Ireland this week and next working with Sales Executives and CEOs in a series of one- and two-day workshops as part of the International Selling Program offered by Enterprise Ireland (Ireland’s commerce department) and DIT (The Dublin Institute of Technology, where I am an adjunct professor of sales and sales management).   My [...]

My 2009 Word of The Year, So Far

One of my most-used words these days is “scrutinize.”  Merriam-Webster says it means “to examine closely and minutely.”
At ESR, we find ourselves using the word fairly often:

VPs have been asking us about how to determine which sales reps to keep and which to redeploy.  In this current economic situation some of what salesreps depended on [...]

Hope Is Not A Strategy, But It Can Make All The Difference

“Having hope,” writes Daniel Goleman in his  study of emotional intelligence, “means that one will not  give in to overwhelming anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or  depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks.”
Rick Page is right.  Hope isn’t a strategy.   Profound words.  Hope doesn’t replace the comprehensive and objective assessment of a selling situation, [...]

I Would Buy From This Guy!

Although I met Charlie Green a number of years ago when we were both presenting at a sales conference, I’ve only recently gotten to appreciate his perspective, his integrity and his intelligence.
Rather than me tell you about him, I asked him some questions instead.  Read, learn and enjoy.
Dave Stein: You’ve created a fabulous brand [...]

New Year Resolutions For Sales Leaders

Pick one or more of the resolutions below.  Commit, execute, enjoy the results.

I’ll never hire another sales rep who can’t get the sales job done. First, completely understand the position and the skills and traits required to be successful.  Evaluating whether a candidate meets those requirements requires [...]

Another Opinion About Selling In This Economy

Read McKinsey’s recent article, The downturn’s new rules for marketers (registration required).
I was pleasantly surprised to see some sound advice about sales organization function and structure in the article.   The real meat for those of us on the sales side is near the end of the piece, beginning with, “Reprioritizing sales function.”
There is no shortage [...]

The Care, Feeding (and Training) of Salespeople

Brian Lambert of ASTD hosted a webinar this week where I presented The Care, Feeding (and Training) of Salespeople.  It’s targeted at learning and training organizations leaders and managers.
Registration will get you access to an archive of the event.

A Few Good Sales Coaching Blog Posts

If you’re in sales (or general) management, two consecutive posts on Bill Caskey’s Inside the Sales Mind blog are really worth reading:

Sales Training Q&A #12: How to Maintain a High Performance Sales Team.  During my years as a sales consultant this was one of the coaching exercises I did with every sales manager.  It is [...]

Sales Gods

Geoffrey James ran a wonderful series of posts last week.  He spent six months collecting nominations for whom he eventually determined are his ”Sales Gods.”  I literally went to his blog first thing each day to see who he was featuring. 
Although this post,  What We Can Learn from “Sales Gods”, is the last post in the series, [...]

Sales Lessons From The Presidential Race

No matter what side you were on, here are a few observations, affirmations and truths, post-election, with respect to selling:

Strategy and tactics are equally important.  The purpose of executing tactics in a sales campaign is to drive a well-founded strategy.  Tactics without a strategy is like playing darts with your eyes closed.
Message! Not messages, messages, [...]