Imagine if you could unlock the true potential of your salesforce by understanding their unique strengths and weaknesses, then tailoring your sales training program to fit each person perfectly. Any sales director can tell you that all salespeople are not created equal. Every team has high performers, mid-performers, and low performers, driving companies to invest billions annually in sales training. But here’s the catch: despite this massive spending, many organizations still see disappointing returns. The root issue creating disappointing sales performance often lies not in a salesperson’s ..read more

Happy 15th Anniversary to me! Whew, hard to believe it's been 15 years since I launched Converse Digital on two weeks' notice, with no clients lined up, no money saved in the bank, and a not-so-inexpensive life to help support along with my incredible wife, who had just started her entrepreneurial adventure a couple of years earlier as a real estate agent.  Yep, I did it completely wrong.  And yet... I'm still alive and kicking, doing some of the most fulfilling work of my career, helping people and organizations create Perfect Pitches, showing them how to Sell Greatly vs. relying ..read more

Last week I received an email that pained me to read. The sender had just shared what she hoped had been an impactful PowerPoint presentation during a networking event we both attended and had asked me for my opinion. After trading emails, she finally sent this: I 1,000% need help, especially as we move into this next phase. I know we are creating something revolutionary, but I do not know how to communicate it clearly. I am giving this presentation next week, and I am nervous that it will flop because it is so much. I could feel her pain. You can feel her pain. We all can feel her pain beca ..read more

I’m a voracious reader. I always have been. The best Christmas gift I ever received was a Kindle Unlimited Subscription. I mean, books are the cheapest, highest ROI investment you can make in your future and career. So with that in mind… here is my Christmas gift to you this year. The 12 best business books (and non-business just for fun) of 2023.  And if you want a few more great books, check out my 12 favorite books of 2022 or my 12 favorite books of 2021.  On the first day of Christmas, my Kindle gave to me: Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins AUTHOR: Annette Simmons Why y ..read more

You've spent untold hours crafting the perfect high-ticket offer, a comprehensive agency business development course, a point-and-click easy agency pricing template, and then building remarkable landing pages. You launch, promote, and advertise, hoping traffic shows up. And it does... only there is one HUGE problem. As soon as your visitors see the price tag BAM, they bolt — shopping cart abandonment strikes again.  It's the final barrier between interest and conversion, where many high-ticket offers falter. I know because I'm writing this article because I, too, suffered from this unfor ..read more

In the high-stakes business development arena, your success hinges on evaluating, pursuing, and, when necessary, knowing when to stop pursuing a lead. While I'm not much of a gambler, the professional poker players' wisdom of "optimal quitting" offers a strategic lens through which you can view your business development efforts. A recent article from Wharton pointed out that "expert players abandon about 80% of their hands in the popular variant of Texas Hold’em, for example, while amateurs stick with their starting cards over half the time." That's a lot of quitting. But the results speak fo ..read more

Trust sits at the cornerstone of any successful sales relationship. But that trust can be elusive in today’s digital age, especially regarding B2B gated content marketing. So how can you ensure your gated content builds trust rather than erodes it? Simple. For starters, don't commit these seven deadly sins that undermine your gated content marketing efforts, and follow my tips instead. Gated Content Sin #1: The Generic Swamp  We live in a content-shock world. A 2023 DemandGen report found that 54% of respondents felt overwhelmed by the amount of content available and that quality of a ..read more

"Why don't you write up a proposal to [deliver whatever a prospective client is about to hire you or your agency to deliver to them] with a budget and send it over to me to consider?"  This one sentence creates more anxiety, angst, fear and self-doubt in the hearts and minds of freelancers, coaches and agency owners around the world than virtually any other. And when you talk to them and ask them why creating pricing proposals for prospective clients creates so much anxiety and angst, they usually offer up one of eight standard responses. The prospect will not provide a budget to sc ..read more

Hot off the presses. I received an advance copy of the RSW/US 2023 Agency New Business Report. Since 2010, they've been collecting data to give agency owners a comprehensive look at trends shaping our industry. Over 3,000 agency leaders across the U.S. weighed in this year, providing unique insights into the evolving business development challenges and dynamics as we close out 2023 and gear up for 2024. The 2023 business development landscape continues to be challenging for ad agencies, marketing firms, and PR agencies alike. According to the report's findings, we're all grappling with fewer ..read more