Movies like Glengarry Glen Ross and the Boiler Room have helped glamorize a sleazy approach to sales that discredits our profession. Unfortunately, many of us within sales unknowingly reinforce these negative stereotypes. At the root of the problem are some of the phrases we use to describe sales and ourselves. With this in mind, here are several common sales phrases I hate. Hustler. A quick...
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One of the biggest differences between the 35 year old and 45 year old version of myself is the ability to execute on difficult, long-range projects. Being an instant gratification sales guy at heart, this hasn’t been an easy transition. From studying others and my own experience, I’ve learned that executing well requires following a proven process as much as it requires attention to the...
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At the start of every year I look at what I consider to be the 3 most credible sales hiring forecasters (2016 Reports – CareerBuilder, Linkedin and Manpower) to project the year ahead. As each company gets their data from slightly different sources, I trust the aggregate of their forecasts. From this aggregate, it’s clear that the 2016 Sales Hiring Forecast is very good news...
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Most Sales Leaders intuitively understand that overselling a job opportunity might lead to disappointment. What they don’t know, is that it can also be a potential career killer. To be fair, we don’t believe that most Sales Leaders that do this are being malicious. Their goal is to attract and hire sales superstars and they bait their hook accordingly. To their credit, the examples and...
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Barb Giamanco, a sales trainer and author of a popular sales blog recently wrote “Why I’m Over Social Selling”. She makes the point that there’s just too much “noise” out there and that social selling is at best a “tool”. In her opinion, this “tool” is being over-hyped and misused. But what about the highly touted Linkedin stat that social sellers are 51% more likely...
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The January 2015 Harvard Business Review article – Managing Yourself – A Second Chance to Make the Right Impression – shares the science and the thought processes that go into how first impressions are made. The point of Ms. Halvorson’s article is show us how to give yourself a second chance if a first impression is wrong. My interest in her article was to learn...
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Despite hours of preparation I often find myself feeling anxious the day before a big presentation. Did I include the right information? Should I take out slide 7? Is my message on point? I know this isn’t an uncommon feeling for sales professionals. Personally I’m okay with pre-game jitters but I’m not ok with losing. Especially losing on a deal that I should have won. With...
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(It’s not every day you get to stand next to a Lombari Trophy.) This past June I found myself in the enviable position of meeting Tom Cable, the Assistant Head Coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Tom gave the Seattle chapter of EO (Entrepreneurial Organization) a private tour of the Seattle Seahawks facilities that culminated in a presentation/discussion about the Seahawks’ way and how to build...
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A quick Google search on the topic of men vs women in B2B sales will pull up numerous opinions on the subject. A widely read blog by Dave Kurlan (One of Hubspot’s Top 25 Sales Blogs) “Who Are Better Salespeople – Men or Women?” makes the case for women. My own conversations with clients over my recruiting career have similarly been stuffed with opinion, theory...
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After 20 years of listening to my candidates’ reasons for leaving their employer I’m all too aware of the high cost of poor corporate culture. In fact, my income depends on finding top sales performers who are looking for a better cultural fit. From this experience, I have developed an almost paranoid obsession with creating and maintaining a healthy culture here at Sales Talent....
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