Category: Sales Inspiration

Recently Forrester Research stated that within the next four years, 22% of all B2B sales roles will be gone. As a sales leader, there may be a sense of angst when that is said or that you’re losing your luck.

We all know that the speed of technology is dramatically changing our lives and is reshaping the world of sales (and many others). For example, in the last few decades, remote or inside sales jobs have grown 16X faster than field sales roles. With this, your sales team will need to ensure a massive change. Why? Well, today 57% of the buyer’s journey is completed without the buyer even talking to you. This sales evolution isn’t slowing down either. What’s next?

January is named for Janus, the Roman god with two faces. One face looks back and the other looks ahead. It’s actually a great idea to take the time every January to conduct that kind of introspection before everything shifts back into high gear. This strategy worked out pretty well for the Romans for about 1,000 years and you have to admit that they were pretty successful at growing their organization.

Stop No. 1 on your introspection tour should be a re-examination of your work-life balance. Get it right and your team will spend 2016 knocking down goals like world champions. Get it wrong and you will be wasting valuable company resources on unproductive distractions. Here’s how you’re going to make the right decisions.

Leadership doesn’t have to equal high blood pressure. It’s true that as the leader, people count on you to make the tough decisions. However, getting stressed about it isn’t going to help. The ability to keep cool under fire can be learned, and even enhanced. Why are CEOs on magazine covers always smiling? They’ve already deployed some of the following apps.

In my effort to increase productivity and achieve super-human status, I’ve found myself experimenting in 2015. If Tim Ferriss can do it, then why can’t I?

One of the most interesting patterns I’ve been able to observe is how the super-productive and successful have standardized so many things in their lives. What a paradox!

Your buyer has changed and with that, you might be finding it difficult to sell with traditional methods. As good as a sales professional you are, not acknowledging the modern buyer can be detrimental to your sales goals and career. No fear though, learning from your failures will lead to success. This is how greatness is born. Sometimes you just need to light a fire to kickstart your success and hopefully warm up your cold calls.

Sales is a lot like dating in many respects. Both can be exhilarating and fruitful at times and utterly painful at others. On the one hand, if we are willing to continually put ourselves out there, the world can be our oyster.

It’s difficult not to take it personally when a first date goes horribly wrong. Likewise, it’s hard not to get down on ourselves when someone hangs up the phone half way through an opening pitch. But if we learn to keep our heads up and stay positive, another fish is always bound to come swimming along.