More than 40 percent of sales professionals say prospecting is the most challenging part of the sales process according to a HubSpot survey. Thirty-six percent said closing was the most difficult part while 22 percent cited qualifying prospective clients as toughest.

Would you like to know what surprised me most about these survey results?

The fact that prospecting only had 40 percent.

I believe that prospecting is the most important part of the sales process and the one that causes the most stress, worry and procrastination among people who sell for a living.

When speaking to sales reps, I sometimes … Read the rest

Do you want to be more effective at closing deals? If so, you might need to change your way of thinking, because closing is actually “an act of service.”

So says sales consultant James Muir in his report, “The 7 Deadly Sins of Closing and the Statistical Truth that Will Improve Your Sales.”

“Your customers expect you to help them make the positive changes that will bring about their desired results,” says Muir, who is also author of the best-selling book, The Perfect Close. “They expect you to encourage them to become better than they are…. Be their coach … Read the rest

Many sales professionals talk about the value of emotional intelligence, also known as “EQ.”

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, control and evaluate your own emotions while being in tune with and empathetic of others’ feelings and behaviors. The ability to express and control your own emotions while being highly perceptive when it comes to others’ emotions is critically important in sales. Similarly, it’s even more important if you have a leadership role in your company.

According to author Daniel Goleman, people with high emotional intelligence can recognize their own emotions and those of others, they use emotional information … Read the rest

I just talked to a sales pro who had her best month ever. She’s on top of the world. There’s arguably no better feeling in the world than hitting a new sales peak.

Maybe you’re having your best month now too. If so, congrats. If not, you surely remember your best month (and your best year too).

For the sake of argument, let’s say you are having the best month of your sales career.

Everything is going right and you’re incredibly busy. In fact, there’s so much going on you have several deals that are closing at the same time. … Read the rest

According to one of the world’s richest persons, “content is king.”

That’s what Microsoft founder Bill Gates declared in an essay he wrote in 1996. You could make the argument that content is even more royal today than it was in the ’90s. Content attracts attention and draws prospective clients.

I’m a big believer in writing fresh, original content because it makes a revenue generator’s job so much easier.

As a professional speaker, I do zero advertising. The only “marketing” I do is write articles that are intended to be valuable for people in my target audience and post similar … Read the rest

This might not be a pleasant memory but close your eyes and picture yourself one year ago. Remember what you were thinking and how you were feeling. The pandemic was new, and the fear caused by the recently implemented shutdown was raw. People who sell for a living were shell-shocked, wondering how they would pay bills or keep their businesses afloat.

I have written more than a thousand articles in my career, but a year ago today, I wrote one of my most important ones. It was titled, “How Can You Sell Your Way Out of This Crisis?” Here’s a … Read the rest

You want to know the quickest path to winning new clients?
Use referrals.

It’s getting harder and harder to cut through the clutter and reach influential decision makers. That’s why referrals have never been more valuable than they are today.

In an era when buyers are jealously protective of their time, a referral from a trusted source is your ticket to the show. The more senior a prospect is in a company; the more important referrals are.

Reaching busy decision makers is not the only reason you should ask past and current clients for referrals. By asking for business leads, … Read the rest

Forbes has a fascinating feature called “The Real-Time Billionaires List,” an up-to-the-minute listing of the world’s richest people and their current net worth.

Remember all that talk about Elon Musk passing up Jeff Bezos as the richest person? Well, it didn’t last. Bezos is back on top with $192.8 billion as of the morning of February 5, 2021. But Musk is still getting by; his net worth as $185.4 billion. Bill Gates is fourth richest. Zuck is fifth. Warren Buffett is 9th. The richest member of the Walton family is 17th. China’s Jack Ma comes in at 20th.

But each … Read the rest

One of my all-time favorite “sales” quotes came from a man known simply as “The Greatest,” the late boxing champ Muhammad Ali: “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses — behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”

At the end of a boxing match, spectators see the glory and adoration of a victorious champion. They don’t see what it takes to get there. They don’t see the hard work or the blood, sweat and tears. It’s the investment of time, effort and discipline leading up … Read the rest

I get them every day and you probably do too.

I’m talking about connection requests on LinkedIn that are really cold prospecting messages. You know the drill — someone you’ve never heard of sends you a connection request. Against your better judgment, you accept it partly because you’re a nice person and partly because you think, “Well, I guess a person can never have too many connections.”

About 15 seconds after you click “accept,” you receive a LinkedIn direct message from the person nakedly pitching some product or service.

There are a lot of reasons why we receive so many … Read the rest

Do you invest in the stock market?

If so, you’re probably aware of the constant waxing and waning that characterizes the life cycle of the stock market. What goes up eventually goes down and what goes down eventually goes up.

If you’re a long-term investor, you tend to wait out the market cycles and instead count on the long-term growth that has always happened in the market over extended periods of time. If you’re a short-term investor, you may be playing the cycle, hoping to buy or sell at precisely the right time.

Either way, the stock market goes up … Read the rest

Prospecting is not just something sales professionals do to fill their pipelines. Prospecting is a mindset, and for the most successful sales pros, it’s a way of life.

If you work in sales, nobody has to tell you that prospecting today is exponentially harder than at any other time in history. Why is that?

Here are four reasons:

1. Prospects are busier than ever, making them distracted and difficult to reach.
2. Products and services are now commonly considered to be mere commodities.
3. Salespeople all sound and act the same. Too many of us utter the same meaningless jargon and gimmicky sales

You know that old saying: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Perhaps we could add another clause: “…and keep your references closest of all.”

One of my readers recently asked me “to write an article about work and business references in this age of business closures, people moving on, etc.” The reader mentioned that he had lost a few references lately. One had moved, changing his email address and phone number, and couldn’t be found. Another relocated to China. A third one retired and no longer seemed interested in talking about anything that reminded him of life before … Read the rest

We don’t want to be tone deaf when we talk to current or prospective clients, but that doesn’t mean our communication should lack substance.

Hard-sell tactics are not typically effective, and they are even less so in times like this. Because of that, some people are recommending that client communication should be soft, sensitive and relationship-centric, such as this:

“Hey, I’m just calling to check in with you and see if you’re okay. I’m thinking of you and wanted to see how you’re doing. I know this is a difficult time to make decisions, so just know that I’m here … Read the rest

Most sales reps believe there are an infinite number of objections that a prospective client could give them, but objections really boil down to just a handful of things:

• Competitor: “We already work with X.”
• Timing: “Call me back next quarter.”
• Price: “We don’t have the budget.”
• Limitations: “Can you do X, Y and Z?”
• Lack of Value: “Send me some information.”

Most reps don’t like dealing with objections, and there are several reasons why. Some objections come across like rejections, and that simply doesn’t feel good. Most of us fear rejection at some level. Other objections could signal that … Read the rest

A colleague recently handed me a yellowing copy of Robert Ringer’s Winning Through Intimidation, a personal development book published 47 years ago. The fact that it was so old was precisely the reason I was excited to read it.

I’ve been on an old-book kick lately. I’m deliberately reading sales, leadership and personal development books that are at least 20 years old, so I can compare how thinking has changed.

I’m a big believer in learning from history. While you must stay on the cutting edge and keep up with our changing world, the most successful people never stray … Read the rest

Have you ever heard the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt?”

It’s an old English proverb that traces its roots back many centuries. Chaucer wrote those words in 1386 in the “Tale of Melibee.” According to the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, “Long experience of someone or something can make one so aware of the faults as to be scornful.”

It’s not just a saying — familiarity can indeed breed contempt (unless you work hard to avoid it). I hear it all the time when I work with sales professionals, some of whom dangerously take their clients for granted: “That customer is … Read the rest

If you’re like most sales professionals, there’s one part of the sales process that you like less than the rest.

Hubspot.com set out to determine which part of the sales process causes reps to struggle the most, and the survey results were quite interesting:

• Prospecting 42%
• Closing 36%
• Qualifying 22%

Why is prospecting more intimidating and less enjoyed than other parts of the sales process?

Well, to start, let’s look at the definition of prospecting:

“Prospecting is the art of interrupting someone when they don’t expect to hear from you in order to provide them with something they need that … Read the rest

Let’s say we ask this question of the typical sales rep: “Is it important to build a relationship with your prospect in order to make a sale?”

Answers to that question vary but they ultimately sound more or less like these:

• “Yes, if it’s a major purchase. Nobody buys a complicated product or service without establishing some relationship and level of trust with the provider.”
• “No. Prospects are too busy, too self-absorbed and too time-starved to build relationships with vendors. People are so overwhelmed that they no longer are interested in becoming friends with salespeople or even the owners/executives of

“Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage,” wrote Publilius Syrus more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome.

Such wise advice from ages ago has never been more relevant. In the modern professional world, we are suffering from a listening crisis.

Actually, it’s a “lack-of-listening” crisis.

Whether your role is executive, managerial, sales or anything else, it’s critically important to your success that you listen.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” wrote Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Too often we get that order mixed up. … Read the rest

If you’re looking for a way to attract new business, you might consider media exposure (getting quoted in periodicals, websites, radio talk shows, and television news). Such exposure is valuable and helps attract prospects.

However, it’s awfully difficult to earn media quotes. That’s why more and more professionals are blogging and submitting articles to media outlets. There’s great opportunity here. Every major city has numerous media organizations, and many of these depend on outside writers to supply the content.

The writer Robert Benchley once said, “The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece, per word or perhaps.” … Read the rest

During question-and-answer periods, the same issue keeps coming up in my sales workshops: how to deal with gatekeepers. These people are the receptionists and administrative assistants who stand between you and the decision‑maker you seek.

I’ve probably been asked five times about gatekeepers in just the past three weeks alone. Why does this issue keep coming up? It’s probably because cold prospecting is getting harder. Decision-makers keep getting better at insulating themselves from the outside world. One of their most effective defenses is a diligent gatekeeper.

When it comes to gatekeepers, the biggest mistake you can make is to think … Read the rest

Does your company have raving fans?

The term “raving fans” has become part of the business lexicon ever since Random House released a book called Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles 15 years ago. The book was intended to help companies improve their customer service. The authors’ central message was that you need to go above and beyond, because “satisfied customers just aren’t good enough.”

That book is part of a breadth of publications designed to help companies and individual professionals do a better job of pleasing customers. In fact, we often hear executives spurring their employees to … Read the rest

Generally speaking, we learn better and develop better ideas when we work in groups. Human beings are social creatures. Our ability to team up has allowed our species to build amazing structures and advance once-unimaginable technologies.

When two or more people put their heads together and tackle challenging problems, we often end up with amazing innovations. Teams beat individuals.

But those of us who have chosen a career in sales tend to be individualists. Some of us are even considered “lone wolves.”

Now, there are benefits to behaving like an individual when you work in sales. Our profession requires quick … Read the rest