We spend 100’s of millions on SKO speakers, books, and training–all focused on doing the things that drive business, sales and marketing performance. We are inspired by thousands of articles, podcasts, and videos–each offering the same answers to what we have to do to be successful. (I contribute my fair share to the clutter.) We know what we have to do, and, for the most part, each of us is well intended–we really want to do the things that cause us, our customers, and our companies to be successful. For example, as sales people, we know–without a doubt that: We’ve got to prospect and fill ..read more

Preface: Every once in a while, by pure chance, we meet someone who is inspiring. This is my experience with Inshal Khawaja. I first met Inshal about a year ago. I was working with Howard Dover on a “business acumen” program he was introducing into the UTD curriculum in the Fall of 2023. It involved interviews of senior sales executives. Ultimately, this would be done by students. I had piloted the concept through interviews with dozens of executives, but we needed to see how students would be able to implement the program. Inshal was working with Howard, so he assigned her to pilot the inter ..read more

Preface: Barry Trailer has been a leader in researching/surveying sales performance and providing deep insights into that performance. Something many people may not know is that Barry was trained as a civil engineer. Whenever I get on a Zoom call with him, I’m distracted by the classic drafting table on one wall of his office. We always exchange stories of sitting at those tables, doing designs on paper. Always brings back such fond memories. A couple of things stand out–one the survey Barry cites stating that sales people are tied with politicians in how credible people believe they are. And ..read more

Preface: Jill Konrath is one of the most well respected author, speaker, teacher on all things selling. She’s written 4 masterpieces on selling. More importantly, at least to me, Jill is an important mentor to me. She has been a very willing coach, helping me think and execute at higher levels. Very few people care enough to say, “Dave, you can do so much better….” Jill and I share a common dream, how to make a difference—in the people/companies we work with, in our communities, and in society. In the past year, Jill has shifted her focus to a very important mission: What’s Really Possible? S ..read more

It’s crazy to think that we purposely design our organizations to fail. Who would think of that, particularly in selling? We are driven to succeed, to over achieve our goals. We constantly talk about winning. If this is true, why do we see year after year of declining performance and results? For example, we see percent of people achieving goals declining—today roughly 40% of sellers are achieving or exceeding quota? To most of us, it’s unimaginable, but why do we see this persist YoY, even continuing to decline? We see win rates plummeting. I was quoted once saying, “I fire people whose win ..read more

Any reader who was trained as an engineer or anyone with experience in assembling machines (or Ikea furniture) will recognize the Tolerance Stack Up Error. But, too often, I see the equivalent of this problem in our GTM strategies and execution efforts. For those of you scratching your heads, let me describe the tolerance tack up error. When we are designing a machine, we specify the dimensions and performance characteristics of each part in the assembly. While we provide exact specifications, “It has to have dimensions of X inches, by Y inches, by Z inches. It has to have a hole of R inches ..read more

It’s trite to say we live in worlds of growing complexity. The rates of change and disruption seem to be accelerating. Global competition, new technologies, new business models, new market opportunities both create challenge and opportunity. Workloads seem to sky rocket as do demands on our time. Distractions whether device based, app based or self inflicted consume our time. And it would be unrealistic to expect any of this change for the better. But……. To often, I think much of the challenge we face is self inflicted. We tend to make things more complex or more difficult than they need be ..read more

Every quarter there is the inevitable rush to close deals, to hit our numbers. Yet there are so many challenges and barriers. The global economy/turmoil and continued layoffs/reductions, and shuffling of priorities–both within our customers, markets, and within our own organizations. The simultaneous promise/threat of AI, “Will it help me be more efficient or will it make me unnecessary?” The increasing difficulty–perhaps–inability to engage our customers, with many claiming “outbound is dead,” and others seeing PLG and other inbound strategies as critical to making the numbers (forgetting PL ..read more

Preface: Shari Levitin is one of the most well know thought leaders and speakers in sales and marketing. Shari and I first met at a meeting of “sales thought leaders.” While all of us are fairly high energy people, Shari brought an energy level and passion beyond all of us–causing us to raise the level of our discussion. One can’t help getting energized, excited, and driven when Shari is part of the discussion. But there are a couple of things about Shari that are very special to me–her deep compassion, and she “gets” my weird sense of humor. There are so many important ideas in Shari’s story ..read more

For the past month, I’ve been publishing stories on “Why I’m So Interested In Selling.” The group is fascinating–both in their stories and in their diversity. Some have had long careers in selling, some are relatively new. Some are or have been senior executives in very large companies, some are individual contributors. They come from all over the world, they represent B2B, technology , basic materials, SaaS, industrial products, professional services, B2B2C and B2C. So far, I have 51 stories (not all have been published yet). I will probably cap this at about 100 stories. But I wanted to do ..read more