The Sales Development Rep (or outbound rep) whose main goal is setting qualified meetings – has the hardest job in sales, in my opinion. Here are a few of the major problems they face and some ideas on how to deal with them. Note: Your last chance to win a Make It Happen T-Shirt appears […]
The Sales Cadence seems to have taken over the world of Sales communication right now and it’s starting to worry me. To make sure we’re all on the same page, the Sales Cadence is a sequence of sales activities that you follow for certain leads. The cadence mostly focuses on e-mail and is usually automated […]
Today I am presenting at Sales Machine 17 on why it’s mandatory to “evolve or die” in sales. Follow along with me on Instagram, Snap Chat and Twitter (@JohnMBarrows) and stay tuned for a video recap of the presentation coming in the next week or two. — I’ve been training the Salesforce sales team on […]
Our products and solutions are being commoditized by the customer whether we like it or not. In Sales, we can and should keep fighting to differentiate ourselves through our solution’s value, but it’s how we approach and interact with our clients that will set us up for the big successes. The way we manage the […]
Recently, I ended up on call list. Now I am getting calls from sales reps who work at the same type of company and who sell the same type of service. The calls don’t bother me. I completely get the game. It doesn’t even upset me that they all use the same approach and say the same thing. (Though I […]
It’s unbelievable how robotic sales reps have gotten when giving demonstrations and presentations and it’s driving me crazy. They’re offered up before reps have even qualified a prospect or know if what they are selling is needed. Lazy reps blast out template e-mails that basically say: “Hi, I don’t know if you’re the person I should be sending this to […]
Have you ever had a client go dark on you? Who hasn’t? I bet everyone reading this post can think of at least a few prospects or clients you’re working with right now that have gone dark and you have no idea why. You’ve done a whole bunch of work for the client — sent […]
“I’ll need some time to digest what you just said.” As a younger, less experienced sales rep, I used to think this phrase was awesome. I would go into a meeting with a prospect, ask my basic doctor-check-up questions, wait until the client spoke approximately 60% of the time (it works every time) and would […]
My 12th Guiding Principle has helped me stay focused on continuous improvement without getting overwhelmed. I took this from the book “Raving Fans” by Ken Blanchard. The book is focused on creating raving customers by going above and beyond the basics. […]
Who is the best person to speak with about this? I’ve been a huge fan of the top-down prospecting approach for a long time now. This is where you craft and send a targeted e-mail message to a C-level executive asking for direction on the best person in their organization to speak with about your service or […]
