Selling to the CEO

What does it take to gain access and sell to a CEO of a large, publicly traded company?  I had the pleasure of asking Mike Nefkens, CEO of Resideo, these questions and more. In spite of being in the middle of a construction zone, as his family are building a new home, Mike took theCONTINUE READING

Lesson #13 See the Positive

It was the week after Thanksgiving. I was struggling a bit to find the motivation to get back into work mode. It was more than just the long break that was slowing me down—things were hard at work and home. I could hear a whiny voice in my head saying, “Why aren’t things just easier?” ICONTINUE READING

It’s not the People, it’s the System

I recently read an interview with the CEO of a sales-technology company who made the following observation about sales people: “The good news is, people are really bad at selling. People are literally awful at it, for a lot of reasons” The evidence he cited was that 53% of sellers hit their quota last year,CONTINUE READING

The Playing Field has Moved, and We’re Not on it

The Conference Board recently did a study of more than 1400 B2B organizations and found that on average, those companies completed 60% of their purchasing process—researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing and so on—before having a conversation with a supplier. I read several reports from numerous sources over the past few months thatCONTINUE READING

The Mindsets to Build Trust Faster

Trust is the most essential currency in business. When we have trust, things get done. Trust is often created and strengthened over time. Unfortunately, time is not our friend. How can we accelerate the trust-building process? Here’s an approach that might help build trust with clients and prospects at the speed of business. Assume yourCONTINUE READING

Insights gained from a New Seller

Insights I Gained From a New Seller! by Chris Donato Over the past two weeks I’ve been checking in with our newly hired sales reps, doing year-end-review conversations. Today I spoke with JaLisa—we hired her straight from college. It’s not only JaLisa’s first sales role. It’s her first professional job altogether. Having 20+ years of professionalCONTINUE READING

5 Reasons Sales People Fail

How often do you get it right when hiring a new sales professional? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as the company I’m working with has been hiring sales people. In talking with friends throughout the industry—several of whom run some of the largest sales organizations as well as some fast-growing startups—the bestCONTINUE READING