Don’t Fumble This Question

“How is DEI addressed in your company?” That was the question I was asked by the leadership team of a DEI Consulting Firm when they were interviewing us for a possible engagement. I fumbled…

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The Perils of the People Business

When Founders, Owners, or CEOs comment that their Fractional Executive did not work out, when they complain equally about hiring and firing salespeople because they didn’t perform, or when the average tenure of their first full-time sales leader is somewhere between 12 and 18 months, it often goes back to not selecting the perfect match.

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10 Hacks to Increase Productivity in Sales

Sales productivity is typically measured in sales revenue per salesperson, individually and as an average over a team. This is a straightforward approach that can be further enhanced by including factors like e.g. hours worked, profitability, percent of target, or lead conversation.

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Avoid Expensive Trial-and-Error

Building and running sales processes and teams without experience is an expensive trial-and-error scenario! Can it be done? Sure, it has been done this way many times. Should it be done? In my opinion, no. Because…

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How and Why to Create an Equal Balance Between Yes and No

Yes and no are very strong and bold words to use. Especially when most of life falls somewhere in between the two extremes. And when the answer to a question sometimes involves something more complex than is immediately obvious.

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7 Tricks to Avoid the Assumption Trap

Sales trap: Assume you know what they want. Problem: If you assume that you know what they want or where they are in the sales cycle, then you start asking questions and giving information that may not fit with where they are at.

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How Much History Helps Focus on Future Sales?

Cleaning up data is expensive in both labor hours and new software configuration, data loading, as well as updating past accounts by the salespeople. The time required and the cost were a function of how many months of historical data is desired and meaningful towards future success. 

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Just Tell Me the Price

"Just tell me the price." "How much does it cost?" "All I want is your best price." "Can you just give me the price?" "How much is it?" "All I am looking for is a price." "What is your best price?" "How much?"

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Are You at Your Level of Incompetence?

What is worse than realizing you put the wrong person in a key seat? Realizing that you yourself have reached a level of incompetence. This is referred to as Conscious incompetence: In this stage, you realize that you do not know how to do something or did it wrong. You begin to feel discomfort because you acknowledged your mistakes or shortcomings to yourself.

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