5 steps that will make your managers into better coaches

“I’ve been involved in more than 30,000 deal reviews, 30,000 sales call reviews, thousands of forecast reviews, and more. That means I have a rich and varied… and sometimes painful… experience with coaching.”
https://www.membrain.com/blog/5-steps-that-will-make-your-managers-into-better-coaches

The Oversimplification of Sales Performance Work

Yes, you read that right. I’m worried about some of the things I’m reading and trends I’m seeing in the world of sales performance improvement. Simple is good. Oversimplified is not.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/the-oversimplification-of-sales-performance-work

How to ask better coaching questions

Great coaching makes it easy for your sales team to execute on sales process and methodology. It supports skills growth and reinforces the right behaviors at the right times. It also improves ramp-up times and reduces excessive turnover.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-ask-better-coaching-questions

Opportunity qualification is a continuous process

If you’re involved in complex, lengthy and high-value B2B sales environments, you can’t afford to regard opportunity qualification as a one-off exercise. You need to think of it as an ongoing process, in which you continually accumulate new learning as well as regularly revalidating any previous assumptions.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/opportunity-qualification-is-a-continuous-process

These Four Limiting Beliefs are Undermining Your Sales

“Every salesperson has a collection of beliefs. When they are positive beliefs, they support positive sales outcomes. When the beliefs are negative, they sabotage ideal sales outcomes. Our thoughts and beliefs influence our actions, and our actions lead to outcomes.”
https://www.membrain.com/blog/these-four-limiting-beliefs-are-undermining-your-sales

Guiding Our Customers On The Wrong Buying Journey

I have to start this post with a story. I’m an obsessed reader. At least once a week, I have to sign into Amazon to feed my reading habit. On logging in, I’m immediately fed suggestions of books I should buy...
https://www.membrain.com/blog/guiding-our-customers-on-the-wrong-buying-journey

5 reasons you should dump your old CRM

More and more organizations are coming to terms with the fact that traditional CRM has simply not lived up to its promises. Touted as a powerful sales performance tool, in many organizations it has turned out to be an unwieldy tracking and reporting tool, a glorified Rolodex that salespeople resent while sales managers wrangle to get them to use it at all.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/5-reasons-you-should-dump-your-old-crm

Is bad sales logic destroying your profit?

There is an epidemic in the sales industry, and it’s destroying profits. Year after year, sales effectiveness continues to decline, and while the causes are many and complex, there is one big problem that is causing way more trouble than it should.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/is-bad-sales-logic-destroying-your-profit

Revisiting the Buyers Journey

I can still remember the powerful inspiration I gained from my first reading of Hugh Macfarlane’s “The Leaky Funnel” – the 2003 book that first drew the B2B sales and marketing community’s attention to the concept of the buyer’s journey.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/revisiting-the-buyers-journey

Top 4 Reasons Why Salespeople Suck at Consultative Selling

Yesterday, a sales manager I was coaching asked me to explain the difference between a great question and a tough question. I gave him the one-minute version but this article has the expanded version of that answer.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/top-4-reasons-why-salespeople-suck-at-consultative-selling

3 ways your salespeople are multiplying by zero

Grab a ten-year-old and they can remind you of this important math concept: Any number multiplied by zero, is zero.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/3-ways-your-salespeople-are-multiplying-by-zero

Sales Effectiveness: Focus On The Individual Or The Organizational Performance?

The other day, Matt Dixon and I were having a discussion, trying to solve all the problems of sales. As is often, the case in these discussions, we started reflecting on a lot of broad and, possibly, esoteric issues.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/sales-effectiveness-focus-on-the-individual-or-the-organizational-performance

This cognitive bias is making you cocky… and undermining your sales

Over the past several months, we’ve been exploring the impact of cognitive bias on the sales organization, and how to both harness its power and overcome its negative impacts. This week, we’re looking at a cognitive bias that makes you, and your sales teams, cocky… even if you think it doesn’t.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/this-cognitive-bias-is-making-you-cocky-and-undermining-your-sales

9 Reasons Why Salespeople Lack the Urgency Necessary to Succeed

I was in the right-hand lane of very slow moving traffic because of a lane closure ahead, marked by orange cones. I was along side the cones in the lane where traffic was merging left. All of a sudden, a police siren and flashing lights were upon me but I had nowhere to go.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/9-reasons-why-salespeople-lack-the-urgency-necessary-to-succeed

Is your sales enablement enabling the right things?

Sales enablement is a hot topic at the moment, and a key priority for many sales organizations. Yet, as an industry, we’re failing badly at it. According to the CSO Insights 2016 Sales Enablement Optimization Study, 32.7% of surveyed organizations had a sales enablement function in 2016 (up from 25.5% in 2015), but only 5.2% of surveyed companies said that sales enablement was meeting all expectations.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/is-your-sales-enablement-enabling-the-right-things

Contrast drives change

When you crunch the numbers, the most common outcome of even apparently well-qualified complex sales opportunities is a loss - not to an alternative solution, but to the status quo.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/contrast-drives-change

Here are three reasons organizations are abandoning their old CRMs

Before I began the work that would eventually become Membrain, I was a part of, and built, sales organizations. I became intimately familiar with the unwieldy nature of most CRM implementations, including the industry-leading Salesforce CRM. I experienced firsthand the results of poor user adoption rates and low technology ROI–resulting in graveyards of information, instead of guidance for salespeople.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/here-are-three-reasons-organizations-are-abandoning-their-old-crms

How Executives Fail to Understand the Reasons for Poor Sales and Revenue Performance

"That wasn't what I expected!" You might say that after reading an awesome book, waiting for months and years in anticipation of the movie version, only to be extremely disappointed when the much hyped film failed to live up to what you remembered feeling when turning the pages.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/how-executives-fail-to-understand-the-reasons-for-poor-sales-and-revenue-performance

Top challenges for sales leaders in the new year

ProSales Institute issued their 2017 Sales Agenda report last month, which surveyed almost 400 sales leaders on their top challenges for the coming year. I read it with interest as I always do, and the results line up with where I see the industry’s challenges to lie, as well.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/top-challenges-for-sales-leaders-in-the-new-year

The Sales Manager’s Job Is Different

The front line sales manager (FLSM) has, possibly, the single most difficult and important job in the sales organization. FLSMs are responsible for translating the strategies and priorities of the organization into execution by their teams. Through their teams, they are responsible for millions to tens of millions in revenue.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/the-sales-managers-job-is-different

Sales leaders are confused about what content can do

Sales content is a hot topic right now, with companies like Hubspot preaching the value of being able to organize, track, and measure content designed to support salespeople.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/content-will-not-solve-your-sales-effectiveness-problems

Content will not solve your sales effectiveness problems

Sales content is a hot topic right now, with companies like Hubspot preaching the value of being able to organize, track, and measure content designed to support salespeople.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/content-will-not-solve-your-sales-effectiveness-problems

0%, 50% or 75%? In Sales, It Just Doesn’t Matter.

How far has a potential prospect progressed through their buying process before they engage with a seller for the first time?
https://www.membrain.com/blog/0-50-or-75-in-sales-it-just-doesnt-matter

How to design a sales process that helps build trust

There’s no question that trust is critically important in sales. Without trust, sales falter. But have you ever given thought to what, exactly, “trust” is?
https://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-design-a-sales-process-that-helps-build-trust

Drilling into the need beyond the need

Theodore Levitt was the first to introduce us to the idea that “people don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole” - and this observation has surely now become one of today’s most relevant and widely quoted sales aphorisms.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/drilling-into-the-need-beyond-the-need

Why your best performers make terrible managers

Sales coaching is an important key to improving sales performance. The coach is the salesperson’s most important connection inside the organization, and the coach’s success or failure impacts the success and failure of the entire team.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/why-your-best-performers-make-terrible-managers

What Is The Role Of Sales Enablement?

This post may seem like I’m bashing the sales enablement function and sales enablement professionals. Taken in its most broad context, it’s a critical function. Sales enablement professionals have a tough and important job. Many of the most important initiatives focused on improving sales performance come through sales enablement.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/what-is-the-role-of-sales-enablement

How to harness the power of anecdotal fallacy in sales

Cognitive biases of all sorts have a profound impact on the way buyers make buying decisions and on how selling organizations function. A few months ago, we launched this series to help sellers and sales leaders navigate the world of cognitive bias, combatting it where necessary and harnessing it where possible.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-harness-the-power-of-anecdotal-fallacy-in-sales

Is your prime contact a budget maker, a budget shaper or a budget taker?

Most sales methodologies stress the importance of identifying whether a budget exists, and a naïve interpretation of the BANT qualification framework [Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe] might imply that unless a current and adequate budget exists, it’s not worth trying to sell the prospect anything.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/is-your-prime-contact-a-budget-maker-a-budget-shaper-or-a-budget-taker

Here's what you really think about Millennials

When it comes to Millennials in the sales workforce, you have opinions, and you’re not afraid to state them.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/heres-what-you-really-think-about-millennials

Coach People. Manage Objects.

In meetings with a group of sales managers, it became apparent that there is a trend in terms of sales manager effectiveness. It is so common that the sales manager used to be a good sales rep, that it is typically easiest for them to tell the salespeople what to do, how to do it and when to do it...
https://www.membrain.com/blog/coach-people-manage-objects

How to improve sales with better call coaching

Better coaching is a critical multiplier toward better sales performance. Among the many specific capabilities managers need, is sales call coaching.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-improve-sales-with-better-call-coaching

A CEO's Guide to the Differences in Sales Leadership Roles

I was reviewing a sales leadership evaluation with my client, a CEO, who was a bit confused over how this was different from a sales management evaluation. He wondered, "Aren't sales managers and sales leaders the same?"
https://www.membrain.com/blog/a-ceos-guide-to-the-differences-in-sales-leadership-roles

What is Sales Force Automation (SFA), and why should you care?

Nearly every industry in the world is looking for ways to automate processes, and the sales industry is no exception. The word Sales Force Automation (SFA) sounds promising in that it promises a reduction in costs and efficiency improvements. However, sales force automation is not (yet?) everything it is hyped to be.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/what-is-sales-force-automation-sfa-and-why-should-you-care

Rethinking The Role Of The SDR (Sales Development Representative)

Recently, I’ve been on a bit of a rampage, rethinking how we identify and pursue opportunities. In this post, I’m trying to look at how we deploy people to actually find these opportunities.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/rethinking-the-role-of-the-sales-development-representative

CEOs: Why are you ignoring the cost of failing new sales hires?

Everybody in sales leadership knows that a bad hiring decision, or failed on-boarding, is a costly mistake. So why is turnover still so high in the sales industry? Maybe leaders feel like they can’t fix it, so why bother trying. Or they feel like they have more pressing concerns.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/ceo-why-are-you-ignoring-the-cost-of-failing-new-sales-hires

Coaching Your Sales Teams Like a Pro

It’s pretty near impossible to find a negative opinion about the effectiveness of sales coaching on the top line performance of a company.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/should-we-develop-or-replace-sellers-0

Here’s why you need to understand confirmation bias in sales

It’s no secret that human beings do not always make perfectly logical decisions. As much as we may try, our emotions frequently get in the way. To make matters worse, our brains can get in the way, too. We are quite literally wired to take “shortcuts” in thinking, called “heuristics.”
https://www.membrain.com/blog/confirmation-bias-in-sales

Would you prefer your sales people to be heroes or pragmatists?

What I have to say probably won’t go down particularly well with a sector of the sales improvement community whose primary purpose seems to be to convert every sales person into a superhuman hero capable of leaping customer objections in a single bound.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/would-you-prefer-your-sales-people-to-be-heroes-or-pragmatists

Sorry, but AI is not going to do what you think it is

Artificial intelligence (AI) is trending in nearly every industry, ours included. AI promises to automate many routine functions, to reduce head count, and to help everyone work smarter. Salesforce released their version of “artificial intelligence,” dubbed “Einstein,” last fall, and have been touting its miraculous powers ever since.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/sorry-but-ai-is-not-going-to-do-what-you-think-it-is

4 mistakes that lead to an ineffective sales process

All too often salespeople are told that in order to achieve their sales targets they need to network and build relationships, assist potential clients with decision making, or confirm joint commitments.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/4-mistakes-that-lead-to-an-ineffective-sales-process

Cognitive bias: What it is, how it impacts sales

In his groundbreaking work, Thinking, Fast and Slow, best-selling author Daniel Kahneman made the case that thinking is actually much harder work than we often realize.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/cognitive-bias-what-it-is-how-it-impacts-sales

Never mind your prospect’s situation - what about their trajectory?

Most of today’s most popular B2B sales methodologies - including Value Selling, Challenger®, Solution Selling, Consultative Selling, SPIN® selling and many more - recommend that we always take the time to diagnose our prospect’s current pain points before we seek to propose our solution.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/never-mind-your-prospects-situation-what-about-their-trajectory

How to optimize sales effectiveness with Membrain

Many sales leaders remember when Salesforce hit the market in 1999 and created a buzz around how it was going to make sales more efficient and effective and increased pipeline visibility. Next, “sales enablement” was the hot new topic in the industry, promising to change everything for the better and optimize sales performance. Over the years, we've seen social selling, marketing automation and several others being tagged the silver bullet for sales effectiveness. Today, the growing buzzword seems to be artificial intelligence.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/how-to-optimize-sales-effectiveness-with-membrain

(Re)Defining Sales Fundamentals

When I say “sales fundamentals,” what do you think of first?Is it a sales process? Is it a CRM? Is it objection handling (or other similar skills)?
https://www.membrain.com/blog/redefining-sales-fundamentals

Are those new hires you just fired actually revenue gold?

I’ve long had a hunch that sales departments were throwing away perfectly good salespeople on a regular basis, but until recently I didn’t have the data to support my belief or to quantify how much it was costing organizations to operate that way.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/are-those-new-hires-you-just-fired-actually-revenue-gold

Sales Management is Always Responsible - or are They?

I can't think of a single scenario where we can't blame sales management for poor sales performance...
https://www.membrain.com/blog/sales-management-is-always-responsible-or-are-they

What is a complex sale?

We all talk about complex sales, but how do we define it? After asking around, I discovered that everyone has an opinion, but nobody really agrees on a definition.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/what-is-a-complex-sale

Why Inflexion-Point chose to partner with Membrain

Inflexion-Point has just announced a partnership with Membrain to incorporate our Value Selling System® methodology into their groundbreaking sales effectiveness platform for complex B2B sales.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/why-inflexion-point-chose-to-partner-with-membrain

Do you know why your sales team can’t gain traction?

Across the industry, sales organizations have been losing ground for almost a decade. Quota attainment is down, win rates are down, and turnover is up. Sales leaders complain that they just can’t seem to get ahead. A changing sales environment is partly to blame, as is the shifting role of technology in sales.
https://www.membrain.com/blog/do-you-know-why-your-sales-team-cant-gain-traction