B2B selling is too complex and dynamic for a formal sales process

There’s a very good reason people say that sales is an art, not a science. Considering the ever-changing complexity of the B2B sales environment, it’s reasonable to feel that a formal “scientific” sales process would only inhibit good salespeople from doing their job flexibly and well?
http://www.membrain.com/blog/b2b-selling-is-too-complex-and-dynamic-for-a-formal-sales-process

Strategy vs. skill - a Las Vegas showdown

As veteran consultants, we have worked with practically every type of sales force, so we are rarely surprised by the clients we encounter. However, we have to admit we suspected someone was joking when we heard that a Las Vegas casino wanted us to help them with a sales force that services high-stakes gamblers.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/strategy-vs.-skill-a-las-vegas-showdown

How to use positive psychology to make your salespeople happy

It’s a topic we don’t often talk about: Salesperson happiness. It doesn’t seem very business-like to focus on a fuzzy thing like that, but we know it substantially impacts our organizations. From productivity to turnover, happiness makes our employees more resourceful. Plus, it’s just plain great to know we’re making a difference in our team’s lives.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-use-positive-psychology-to-make-your-salespeople-happy

What to include in a win loss review process (#3/3)

“We can believe that we know where the world should go. But unless we’re in touch with our customers, our model of the world can diverge from reality. There’s no substitute for innovation, of course, but innovation is no substitute for being in touch, either.” Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer Microsoft.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/what-to-include-in-a-win-loss-review-process

Why Salesforce CRM sucks for salespeople and how to fix it

Let’s be honest. CRM is a basic necessity for every sales department, but it’s really not everything it was cracked up to be, is it? If you’ve invested in Salesforce or another major brand CRM expecting it to form the backbone of a sales effectiveness engine, you were probably sadly disappointed.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/why-salesforce-crm-sucks-for-salespeople-and-how-to-fix-it

How to set up a win loss review process (#2/3)

“The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do” said Harvey Firestone, one of the founding fathers of modern American business.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-set-up-a-win-loss-review-process

How to set up a win loss review process

“The successful man is the one who finds out what is the matter with his business before his competitors do” said Harvey Firestone, one of the founding fathers of modern American business.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-set-up-a-win-loss-review-process

What neuroscience tells us about winning at sales: An interview with David Hoffeld

In the sales industry, we talk a lot about best practices and how to apply them inside our organizations. But what if applying best practices isn’t actually the best way to improve sales performance?
http://www.membrain.com/blog/what-neuroscience-tells-us-about-winning-at-sales-an-interview-with-david-hoffeld

Don’t Talk Yourself Out Of It

People have an amazing ability to convince themselves of almost anything. This is great when they are facing a challenge and they reach inside and not only conceive a means of addressing the challenge, but taking extraordinary action and successfully hitting it head on and overcoming it. Of course the opposite is also true and more common, when people see a challenge, a big challenge in their eyes; so big and seemingly overwhelming, that when they look inside, all they find is the rational for giving up and a list of “why nots”.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/dont-talk-yourself-out-of-it

Three bad things that happened to you in 2016 and how to make 2017 better

If you’re like most sales organizations, 2016 is unlikely to go down in history as a banner year for you. We’ve seen declining effectiveness across the board for nine years running, and there have been no major shake-ups to reverse that trend.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/three-bad-things-that-happened-to-you-in-2016-and-how-to-make-2017-better

What Makes a Great Sales Coach?

For managers, developing others' abilities is indeed critical - it's the emotional competence most frequently found among those at the top of their game. This is a person-to-person art and the effectiveness of counseling hinges on empathy, as well as the ability to focus on our own feelings and share them.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/what-makes-a-great-sales-coach

Why you will not meet your sales goals

It’s that time of year again: goal setting. We do it every fourth quarter, and every first quarter we launch into the new year with high hopes. On what basis do we place these high hopes? Certainly not on past attainment, if industry-wide statistics are to be believed.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/why-you-will-not-meet-your-sales-goals

3 Letters That Will Change The Way You Sell: WLR

“I’m sorry but we’ve decided to go with Company X, instead of you. Thanks for all your hard work”. As a sales professional, hearing this statement from a prospective client can be a bitter pill to swallow, particularly after a long and complex sales cycle.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/3-letters-that-will-change-the-way-you-sell-wlr

How to stop the sales department hire and fire cycle

Early in my sales leadership career, I struggled to improve performance on my sales teams. Like many people responsible for sales teams, I hired and fired repeatedly, looking for the rock star performers who could make the organization succeed.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-stop-the-sales-department-hire-and-fire-cycle

Can Sales Process Win the Hearts and Minds of Sellers?

The concept of ‘winning the hearts and minds’ of your sales force is becoming popular in the world of sales training. Winning the hearts and minds of sellers happens when you give salespeople decision-making tools that remove ambiguity, create clarity of task for each seller, and equip them with tools, resources, and coaching that is highly targeted and relevant.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/can-sales-process-win-the-hearts-and-minds-of-sellers

What Your Salespeople Really Think About Your CRM

It’s no secret that user adoption is one of the biggest obstacles to a successful CRM implementation. According to a survey made by Merkle, approximately 63% of large CRM implementations fail, and 49% of those failures are due to slow user adoption.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/what-your-salespeople-really-think-about-your-crm

Why You Should Stop Tracking Win Rates (And What To Track Instead)

Traditionally, after gross revenue, tracking win rates is one of the most widely measured metrics in sales. Many studies and research projects focus on tracking win rates as a key performance indicator, and the prevailing vision is "the higher, the better." And any of my clients routinely track win rates, too.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/why-you-should-stop-tracking-win-rates-and-what-to-track-instead

You need to know these win/loss analysis secrets

When I ask sales leaders about win/loss analysis, nearly everyone agrees that it is important. But when I ask them whether their company engages in them consistently and effectively, very few answer with a confident “yes.”
http://www.membrain.com/blog/you-need-to-know-these-win/loss-analysis-secrets

The Sales Process Club… Are You In Yet?

It used to be a joke among a small group of people… The Sales Process Club. I met one of the original members more than a decade ago at an industry conference where we both were speakers. I was sharing some of my early thinking on sales processes and their importance to sales performance, and my newfound friend smiled and said, “Hey, you should join our club.”
http://www.membrain.com/blog/the-sales-process-club-are-you-in-yet

Five keys to better sales enablement

Let's dive into the key elements of an effective sales enablement system, and look at how the technology must support them.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/five-keys-to-better-sales-enablement

When Less Is More!

We have a complexity crisis in our organizations. There is no place where it hits harder than in the sales organization.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/when-less-is-more

Sales methodology vs. process: Why the difference matters

In the never-ending search for higher sales performance, many organizations invest in methodologies and process improvements, often without understanding the difference between the two.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/sales-methodology-vs-process-why-the-difference-matters

Connecting the Dots: Sales Coaching Leads to Quota

If you want sales coaching to take root in your organization, it has to align with the real-world priorities of sales managers. So what is the top priority for a sales manager? Hitting the sales numbers is king, of course! When coaching is connected to goals and objectives, sales managers will naturally make it a top priority.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/connecting-the-dots-sales-coaching-leads-to-quota

Can Your Salespeople Maximize Global Accounts?

If your sales organization engages in complex sales to global companies, and you don’t have a strategic plan for maximizing those relationships, then the odds are that your sales team is leaving millions on the table.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/can-your-salespeople-maximize-global-accounts

Proven Ways to Grow Revenue with Pipeline Management

Since so many companies have sales pipelines, you’d think that there’s a well-worn set of pipeline management best practices out there commonly used by sales managers. Even if that is the case–and I don’t think it is–do you know how many sales leaders struggle to manage their pipelines? An overwhelming majority, apparently.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/proven-ways-to-grow-revenue-with-pipeline-management

Ever Wonder If Procrastination is Killing Your Sales?

It is said that the number of people procrastinating
http://www.membrain.com/blog/ever-wonder-if-procrastination-is-killing-your-sales

The Dance Between Strategy and Sales Execution

Many companies are going through their annual planning process. As the business unit head, you and your team have put in hundreds of hours building your marketing plans, analyzing trends, developing key tactics and building and revising slide decks.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/the-dance-between-strategy-and-sales-execution

How to set sales goals your team will actually achieve

Imagine what your organization would look like if every salesperson on the team consistently attained their sales goals. For many organizations, for which even a 60% goal attainment would be an improvement over current performance, it can feel like an impossible dream.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-set-sales-goals-your-team-will-actually-achieve

Today, Selling is Neither an Art or a Science - It is Both

The dichotomy facing sales leaders today is how they reconcile the fact that most corporations provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/today-selling-is-neither-an-art-or-a-science-it-is-both

World-class sales organizations continually optimize their process—here’s how you can too

Despite all the data demonstrating the value of implementing a formal sales process, the vast majority of companies still have not done so. Many others do have a sales process, but it’s located in a folder on a shelf, and rarely consulted.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/world-class-sales-organizations-continually-optimize-their-process-heres-how-you-can-too

Where is Your Sales Manager?

I sympathize with first-line sales managers, because I have always felt that their job is one of the hardest. They are accountable for a number, have to manage up and down within their own organization, and have to know their customers as well or better than they know themselves.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/where-is-your-sales-manager

The ABC’s of Sales Effectiveness

Just for the fun of it, here are my ABCs of sales effectiveness:
http://www.membrain.com/blog/the-abcs-of-sales-effectiveness

Is it Time to Systematize Your Sales Process?

Sales is the department that drives all the others. Without revenue, there is nothing to ship, install or invoice. So why is it that this important department often is the last one to be systematized?
http://www.membrain.com/blog/is-it-time-to-systematize-your-sales-process

How to build a qualifying process that works for your sales team

Nearly every sales organization I talk to says they know who their best fit prospects are, yet almost none of them have a clearly defined process for ensuring only qualified prospects make it into the sales pipeline. This, despite the fact that unqualified prospects waste massive amounts of time for salespeople and their managers alike, and simultaneously diminish the reliability of sales forecasts.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-build-a-qualifying-process-that-works-for-your-sales-team

New Sales Process? Simplify Your 90-Day Plan

Implementing a new sales process or any type of change in your sales organization can be wrought with problems without a clear plan to drive accountability and timely completion of key deliverables.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/new-sales-process-simplify-your-90-day-plan

Five qualification problems that drain your sales productivity

What if I told you that your salespeople don’t need more prospects—that, in fact, they’d be better off with fewer? A prospect who is engaged by your salesperson, but who never closes, on average uses up 60% more time than the prospect who closes. In other words, your sales team’s productivity can be sucked dry by a too-large field of prospects.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/five-qualification-problems-that-drain-your-sales-productivity

5 Things Every Sales Manager Should Do Every Day

Many of my clients are looking for ways to boost performance with individual sellers.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/5-things-every-sales-manager-should-do-every-day

How we’re getting sales management wrong: An interview with Jason Jordan

The day that a star salesperson is promoted to sales manager is both the “best and worst day of their life,” says Jason Jordan, co-author of Cracking the Sales Management Code.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/how-were-getting-sales-management-wrong-an-interview-with-jason-jordan

Top 15 Keys to Shortening Sales Cycles

My local Sports Radio station was discussing the age-old issue about the need to shorten baseball games. This time they want to get it done in 2015, so one might ask, "What's different this time?"
http://www.membrain.com/blog/top-15-keys-to-shortening-sales-cycles

What is sales enablement, and why should you care?

It’s one of the buzziest buzzwords in the industry right now: Sales Enablement. Everyone knows you need it. Top performing organizations have it. Nearly everyone has invested in it at some point.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/what-is-sales-enablement-and-why-should-you-care

Bigger Sales Pipelines - The Dangerous Truth

I usually get notified when new sales studies are published and I'm asked to link to those reports from my Blog.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/bigger-sales-pipelines-the-dangerous-truth

What happens when you talk to customers when they're not buying

An interview with Dave Stein:
http://www.membrain.com/blog/what-happens-when-you-talk-to-customers-when-they-are-not-buying

When Buyer and Seller Act as Partners, They are Building a Bridge to Profitability

I think (hope) we all accept that sales success today demands a radical shift from the “peddler” mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a “flashy” sales presentation alone alienates rather than persuades.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/when-buyer-and-seller-act-as-partners-they-are-building-a-bridge-to-profitability

Six truths about agile sales that your organization needs to understand

Last week, I talked about implementing lean process in sales organizations. This week, I want to look at a concept that is often confused for lean selling, but that is actually very different and equally important: Agile selling.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/six-truths-about-agile-sales-that-your-organization-needs-to-understand

Five Reasons Your Sales Team May Not Be Hitting Quota

We’re half-way through the year and sales managers are either smiling or singing the blues when looking at sales numbers. If you’re team isn’t hitting quota, it’s time to apply the EQ skill of delayed gratification and look for the root cause for missed sales goals.
http://www.membrain.com/blog/five-reasons-your-sales-team-may-not-be-hitting-quota