The Biggest Sales Coaching Gap Isn’t Capability. It’s Coaching.
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn The Biggest Sales Coaching Gap Isn't Capability. It's Coaching. A few weeks ago, I wrote about what I described as the CRM Elephant Graveyard. It was a reflection on the countless CRM implementations that promised to transform sales performance yet ultimately became little more than reporting systems. Looking back, […]
Your Buyer’s Shortlist Existed Before Your Opportunity Did
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Your Buyer’s Shortlist Existed Before Your Opportunity Did In B2B sales, the competition may be largely decided before the salesperson even knowsthere is an opportunity In my previous article, The Validation Economy: Why Buyers Don’t Want Your Pitch Anymore, I explored a fundamental shift in the role of the […]
It’s Never Been About the Sales Funnel. It’s About Opportunity Flow.
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn It's Never Been About the Sales Funnel. It's About Opportunity Flow. Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared four articles exploring what many people would describe as the sales funnel. We started by looking at attracting the right buyers, then explored why sales funnels become blocked, why opportunities lose […]
The Biggest Cost of a Poor Sales Forecast Isn’t Missing the Number
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn The Biggest Cost of a Poor Sales Forecast Isn’t Missing the Number Sales forecasting has always fascinated me because I don’t believe it’s really about predicting revenue. I believe it’s about creating confidence. Ask most sales leaders what a forecast is and they’ll probably describe a prediction of what […]
Why Buyers Stall in the Middle of Your Sales Funnel
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Why Buyers Stall in the Middle of Your Sales Funnel One of the most frustrating experiences in sales is watching a genuine opportunity lose momentum. The buyer was engaged, the conversations were positive and everyone left the meeting feeling optimistic. A proposal was requested, a demonstration was delivered and […]
Why Sales Funnels Become Blocked
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Why Sales Funnels Become Blocked One of the biggest misconceptions in B2B sales is that a busy sales funnel is a healthy sales funnel. It isn’t. We’ve all sat in pipeline review meetings looking at page after page of opportunities and left feeling reassured that there is enough business […]
The Story of Two Sales Funnels
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn The Story of Two Sales Funnels From a distance they look remarkably similar. Both belong to lubricant businesses. Both have websites, LinkedIn pages, sales teams and products they’re proud of. Both invest time and money trying to attract new customers. Yet one consistently creates better conversations than the other. […]
From Product to Partnership: Why Transparency in Services Is Becoming Non-Negotiable
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn From Product to Partnership: Why Transparency in Services Is Becoming Non-Negotiable Buyers in the lubricants supply chain now assess suppliers digitally before starting a sales conversation, including the services offered beyond the product itself. Transparency around what services exist, who they are for, and how they create value helps […]
Why Your Sales Process Starts Too Soon
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Why Your Sales Process Starts Too Soon The Intersection Has Moved In the past, sales began with a handshake, a brochure, and a firm pitch. Sales reps approached buyers early, full of enthusiasm and a bag of features. Buyers, by contrast, waited to be educated. But today, the buyer […]
Why Sales Funnels Aren’t Buyer Journeys And How to Bridge the Gap
Share this article Facebook Twitter LinkedIn The Sales Pipeline Illusion: Why Your Funnel Looks Full but Isn’t Flowing In today’s B2B sales world, there’s a lot of buzz about buyer journeys. But here’s something many sales teams quietly struggle with: they’re still stuck managing sales funnels. And while both concepts are important, they are not […]
