Some of the most common and innocent interactions between sales reps and their managers can also be the most harmful. For example, reps often come to their leaders with questions like: “My customer went dark on me. What should I say to get them back to the table?” “This customer is asking for a 30% discount to get the deal done. Should we agree?” “I asked for a discovery call but the customer just wants a demo. Should I push back?” Many sales leaders earned the opportunity to manage teams of their own because they were top-performing individual contributors. So if you find yourself in that pos ..read more

The Massive Impact of Great Sales Leadership I started my career as a research scientist before spending nearly two decades in sales leadership roles across four high-growth tech startups and five years as a Vice President at Salesforce. I’ve spent a lot of time studying the patterns and research around what makes great sales leaders. That’s because in a profession often plagued by poor experiences and bad reputations, great sales leaders are not only a beacon of light to their teams, but the team engagement, development, and revenue production they drive can have a massive impact on a busines ..read more

People don’t love companies because of their physical products. They love them because of the experiences they create. For example: IKEA doesn’t sell furniture. They sell easy transport and assembly. Uber doesn’t sell transportation. They sell frictionless rides on demand. Disney doesn’t sell rides and movies. They sell magic and enchantment. Ritz Carlton doesn’t sell hotel rooms. They sell personal care and attention. Amazon doesn’t sell “everything”. They sell instant checkout and one-day delivery. In the world of modern selling, this phenomenon also extends to the experience buyers have p ..read more

In my wildest dreams, I never imagined I’d end up in sales. You probably didn’t either. David in his “Big Bang Theory” Days (1997) I started my career as a research scientist and got into sales (by accident) in 2000 at the turn of the dot-com boom. Joining startups was the thing to do back then and I was lured into one by the promise of rocket ship growth and working with super smart people. Fortunately, we ended up growing that company to 700 employees and $100M over seven years before being acquired. Since leaving my post as a research scientist, I’ve been a part of four great start-ups in ..read more

When the pandemic hit, my entire sales training and coaching practice went virtual. While I’m grateful that my clients feel my presentation style is fun and engaging, to create the live experience I was after (not to mention creating my entire online Sales Academy program), flipping on my webcam, popping in those ubiquitous Apple headphones, and looking down at my laptop wasn’t going to cut it. Like it or not, we live in an experience economy. That means, regardless of what you sell or who you sell it to, the experience your customers have with you IS your product!  And in a virtual selli ..read more

In sales, customer objections are a fact of life. But running into the same objections time and time again can make selling feel more like Groundhog Day, especially when you know they’re coming! Maybe you have one of the more expensive solutions on the market and have to routinely defend your pricing. Perhaps you work for a boutique firm or startup and constantly deal with questions about your size, youth, or perceived lack of experience. Or maybe you’re constantly coming up against the same competitor in your sales cycles and have to deal with non-stop questions around feature comparisons and ..read more

This guest post was written by Alex Cook, Manager, Enterprise Sales at Klue Year-end can be the most exciting time in sales. It can also be the hardest. As an AE, you may be blowing through your number, signing deals, and having the time of your life. You could also be well behind your quota, struggling to stay motivated and worried about job security. As a leader, it’s likely that your team has a mix of both. I’ve been through plenty of year-ends as an AE. Been on Cloud Nine many times and have also struggled, falling short of where I needed to be. This was my first year going through a year ..read more

Email prospecting is one of the simplest and most widely-used strategies for generating sales leads. It’s also one of the most overused and abused. If you’re not doing it right, it can not only be a colossal waste of time but can also damage your personal and corporate brand. About 320 billion emails are sent and received daily around the world, increasing at a rate of about four percent every year. That means both customers and their corporate firewalls are extremely particular about which messages they interact with. In fact, according to Hubspot, the average email open rate is only a mere 2 ..read more

When I was a VP at Salesforce, one of my sales managers came to me with a disturbing problem. He told me he got a voicemail from a customer saying that he didn’t want to work with the female sales rep responsible for his account and requested that we assign a man to help him. “What do you think we should do, David?”, he asked. No matter how detailed your onboarding manual or how comprehensive your ongoing professional development is, sooner or later each of your team members and colleagues will encounter a situation just like this. One that no amount of formal training can prepare them for. In ..read more

As we’ve all learned over the past few years, with adversity comes perspective. Being diagnosed with cancer gave me lots of it. I was thirty-six years old when I got the news, which, similar to many people, came out of nowhere. I was instantaneously thrust into a world of tests, scans, special doctors, surgeries, follow-up treatments, and the crazy rollercoaster of emotions that go with all the above. For a time, my future had been stolen. Years later, with the grace of my incredible family and medical team, I returned to good health and came to see my diagnosis as one of my greatest blessings ..read more