Sales training is often just a crutch or an excuse for an under-performing sales team.  Sales management grasping for straws over a poor performance will grasp onto sales training as the cure like a drowning swimmer grasps onto the first floating object they come to.  "We need training!" is a cry heard in boardrooms.  No, training isn't by any means a cure-all.  

There seems to be this prevailing attitude that if only your salespeople can learn a few more "tricks" for overcoming object...

There are many ideas about these overlapping terms, but generally speaking sales is considered a subset of business development with business development considered more strategically focused and sales considered more tactically focused.  All sales is business development but not all business development is sales.  The nature of the buyer's buying process and the company's sales proce...

Prospect referrals from your existing customers are great!  They are the least expensive and generally most qualified sales channel.  They provide you with prospects who already have a great deal of trust in you and a great expectation of your competency from the first meeting.  With a good referral, you are also less likely to be fighting against the toughest competitor in the marketplace: status quo!

While there are things you can do to increase your customer referrals (such as just ...

Small and mid-sized businesses have a chronic fear of losing their key sales people.  How many times have we all heard CEOs say, “The customers really love Bob, if he left we would lose their business” or “It took me so long to get Tracy productive that I can’t bear the thought of having to suffer through the effort and unproductive time it would take to get someone else up to...

I conducted a workshop a few months ago in Ft. Lauderdale and was approached by a member of the audience that was the CEO of a local computer services (LAN Integration and Desktop Support) company.  He asked me to take a look at his marketing material and give him my impressions.  His material basically said his company was great at everything.  My response was to yawn.

So I asked him, "So, what are you really good at?"

He said, "Everything"

I then said, "Well, within everything, what...