Today's guest blogger is Todd Peneguy. Early in my sales career, I had a boss that was all about the elevator pitch.  We spent an entire day, with an elevator pitch consultant, learning how to write and present the perfect pitch.  We then spent a week working on our own unique messages with the goal of winning a prize that was to be given to the person that came up with the best written and best delivered 15-30 second sound bite.Being young and naïve, I […]

Time. It seems we can never have enough. Ironically, you have all the time. And because you own it, you can control it. And that means "choosing" to have less choices.There's external stimulus, and internal stimulus. And it's all too easy to get stuck focusing on the external stimulus because it's all around us: Your boss wants this; your friends want that; your spouse, kids... etc.And what about the internal stimulus? What's driving you? If you haven' […]

There is a trend that I've noticed among small to mid-sized VC-backed firms in the emerging or "next generation" technology space that seem ripe for a contract (or 1099) sales model. This is especially true for Software as a Service (SaaS) companies.  More often than not, the CEO or COO of these companies is directly managing the sales & marketing function in addition to their primary executive role. This is due, in large part, to the early stage maturit […]

Have you ever felt that you were close to winning a deal but ended up stuck in a maze of bureaucratic red tape?How did you end up in that situation?  Perhaps you went into a final presentation without a clear understanding of how the customer’s decision-making process. Or maybe their own internal politics got in the way of their ability to make a decision.It can be almost impossible to walk away when you can see the end in sight.  When you understand the opp […]

Today's guest blogger is Todd Peneguy. Who likes cold calling? For those of you that said yes – really? (Said rather obnoxiously).I think that a better question is: Are you are still making cold calls and if so why?  Seriously (said as if you were mental).Cold calling = doing the same thing over and over and expecting what – different results?  If you have been in sales for any length of time, I'm sure that you have read more than your fa […]

I had the privilege to speak recently to the Team Beachbody coaches and I have to tell you… I was impressed.  These folks inspired me and I was there to inspire them.I had just flown from Istanbul to New York and from New York to Los Angeles to get there for the event.  And unfortunately I also experienced some flight delays and arrived in my room around 3 a.m.I was deep in sleep when at 7 a.m. I was awakened by what could have been an earthquake. I was on […]

Sales is from Mars; Marketing is from Venus.  And all too often, the marriage between these two disciplines is strained, dysfunctional and downright costly.  Marketing wages an air war and Sales fights the ground war – but are often miles apart in their targets and execution.Most marketing professionals have never been in sales ("never carried a bag") and are often operating at the 20,000-foot level. They busy themselves with creating a new brand b […]

During meetings with customers, they may identify some missing information that they say they need.  It is often instinct to immediately fulfill their request.  You may try to provide them what they are looking for right away -- and if we do not have it available on the spot, we'll promise to get it to them as soon as possible. It is worthwhile to pause a moment and try to understand the reason for their request before taking action.  For exampl […]

Have you ever heard the comment: "It's just a status meeting, we don't need a call plan. We are just going through a bunch of items." I've heard it. For today's post I thought it would be a good exercise to walk through what some of the Call Plan elements might look like for a status meeting. I'll leave it to you to decide if it provides any value to your customer interactions.Let's first establish what we mean by a status meeting.  To m […]

The sales stages. As leaders you and your teams live and breathe it every day. But think for a moment, if you will, on how you would define them. Imagine it as a dictionary definition -- or perhaps more appropriately, a Wikipedia explanation -- that you had to create. The End in Mind for this post is to enable you as sales leaders to determine whether what you’ve set out to accomplish in the different stages of your sales process is valuable -- or perhaps it needs another loo […]