Hey, it's beautiful out there, it's sunshiny, it's time to go out and enjoy life, and the best way to enjoy life is to be able to afford what it is you want to do that you enjoy doing the most. So I'm going to talk about something here that I think will help you succeed in living your best life, living your fullest life.
Sally and Sanjay were comparing notes after a very busy week out selling. Sally was exhausted, but at the same time pretty satisfied that her week was highly productive and would produce some nice revenue for the company and herself. Sanjay, on the other hand, was exhausted and uncertain about what actually happened to him and what success he created.
Look, I've been in this business for 35 years, on the coaching and training side. I've spent the better part of 15 years prior to that, when I was about 14 or 15, “selling” my lawn care, cutting neighbor's lawns, and doing work for my mom's real estate office.
“The weather is changing; flowers and trees are popping out and I am exactly the same” thought Sam. Sam has been in sales for her entire career. She knows she does well enough as she has climbed the ranks through various companies, but she tends to plateau with medium accounts. Sam has yet to earn some of the major accounts and or territories that make salespeople’s careers. She has always been one to read all the top business books, listen to podcasts every chance she got, attends conferences, and even enrolled in a few training classes that promised to help her reach the next level, but nothing ever changed, despite putting all the things she learned into practice immediately. Sam felt ready to make some significant life changes on her own and earning more commissions would make it all possible. Now, she really wanted to see if it was her turn to be one of the big-time players.
Hey, everybody, it's time for another Fast Tip Friday. This Friday, I'm actually at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, enjoying a few days of PTO with my wife and some friends.
It was Thursday at 7 pm and Frieda was sitting on the sidelines of her daughter’s softball game with her head buried in her phone. This championship game had come out of nowhere as the team wasn’t very good but managed to keep winning. Frieda was thrilled for her daughter, but it couldn’t have come at a harder time for Frieda’s work schedule.
Hi there, everybody, I could go down a rabbit hole on this one. I'm going to try to hit the high points, throw it out there at you, let you digest it, go apply to your business development practice, as best you can.
Marcus found himself sitting in his car, in his driveway but still felt lost. For some reason, this feeling was a more regular occurrence for Marcus at the end each day. It was as if the one or two things he was supposed to remember to accomplish would come to him if he just didn't turn off the engine and open his car door.
Hey, I wanted to tell you that part of our business offering, here at Growth Dynamics, is to support the best possible outcomes in hiring talent. For our clients out in the marketplace, we work with a lot of different people to help them find the best available talent to add to their business development teams, sometimes to their executive teams.
John's territory involves working with many prospects that ask for samples, demonstrations, proposals, references and all the usual items that buyers want from a vendor. Trying to appear accommodating and professional, John finds himself spending hours of time preparing, writing, setting up or sending all this information that he believes will help "convince" his prospect.
Hey, this is a topic that a lot of people are thinking about, but not a lot of people want to articulate. So I thought I'd jump right into it and get your minds dealing with the economy, and how the economy is changing, and what some people think is going on, and how it's going to impact them personally.
Diane returned from the product demo certain that the features and benefits she shared with her prospect had wowed them. The buyer nodded when Diane asked if the product fit into the product categories they offered to their customer base, and everyone else that sat in on the meeting told her how much they liked what she had presented. She felt as good about this call as she had in a long time, but now six weeks later there was still no purchase order and the prospect had gone radio silent. How did their excitement turn into Diane's frustration?
Another installment of Fast Tip Friday! Sometimes the ideas, I don't know where they come from. I stand in front of a camera and do these recordings. I like the challenge. I like the pressure of having to come up with a thought and articulate an idea.
Matt is looking at his calendar and doing some planning, knowing that many things he does look too much like random acts of mindless behavior. Looking back on past months, he feels like he was scrambling and playing catch up all the time instead of having that feeling that he had some deliberate control of his actions.
Hey, everybody, how are you? Charlie Hauck, Growth Dynamics lead trainer and president, here for another one of our famous Fast Tip Fridays.
Julie felt conflicted as she listened to the other members of the sales team talk about how they were going to spend the big commissions everyone was earning this quarter.
Normally, it's pretty easy for me to think of business topics that I think would be important to a good number of you that are out there. But, every now and then life teaches me a lesson that I need to remember, not just in life, but in business. This is one that I'll admit is a little embarrassing. It just happened recently. There's no hiding it. It was funny, but inconvenient. Let's talk about it.
Symptoms:
Carl was feeling frustrated and hurt. One of his best accounts was showing a definite decline in volume that was way beyond what could be explained by the market or the economy, and he could not imagine that he had done anything to create the change.
I've got an idea that's been rattling around in my head for a while, and I thought I'd put it out there. I use this when I'm talking to a lot of business owners that are thinking about how and or why, why do they even want to hold their business development teams accountable? I think there's a pretty simple formula, that even if you're not a sales manager, if you're just out there in the world of business development, and you want to find a way to make life easier for yourself, I'd like you to think about this three word, process.
We have been taught that the customer is ALWAYS right, no matter what. What if we told you that you have rights as the seller as well.... Here is YOUR bill rights.
Carrie looked at her calendar and started to worry. She was near the end of the 3rd quarter and at only 60% of her annual sales goal. As she reviewed what she had done over the first nine months, she saw lots of cold calls and follow-ups on the leads she had generated at the two trade shows her company targeted.
Look, business development is hard, it's really hard. Some days, frankly, we have so much going on, it's not just that you get a new client, but you've got to service new client.
Mary was on one of her first sales calls as a new rep and the prospect, with his first question, invited her straight onto the Buyers Bus: "Tell me about your company and what you do".
It has been three years since we were able to offer a local to Growth Dynamics High-Performance Sales Program and we are pleased to say that run ends NOW.
Starting on March 8, Charlie Hauck, lead trainer and partner at Growth Dynamics, will be back where he belongs in front of business development pros looking to refine and improve their sales process.
We know our program works, but what company would advertise their class and say anything different?
My topic today is something that I think anybody in business development, and frankly, anyone that's into communication, in a way they think they just got to get better at it, and they're tired of having conversations that might not be the real conversations they should have.
Andrea hated the pressure of selling. After three years in the business of selling payroll services Andrea thought she would be past this stage of professional development. Day after day, call after call it was still there; that pressure to convince someone that you are the perfect fit for their company when the market offered so many options. Andrea had to admit that at times she felt like she was lying to get a sale.
I was thinking about 2022, and where we are in 2023, and I really started to reflect on what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and this is the part I really want to talk about today, who was with me when it happened.
Ruben was excited about the call he just finished with the Facilities Manager at a school in his territory. The situation was a perfect fit for his company's new line of industrial faucets. Plus, the Facilities Manager told him the hardware needed to be installed ASAP or the school would face a fine from the local building inspector.
Symptoms:
Jerry was having a year that was slightly ahead of last year, but he was frustrated that he wasn't doing as well as he thought he could be or should be. Although he had taken some sales training and learned some unique words, phrases, and approach tactics, he felt like he was struggling to say and do the "right" things when it came to managing his activities and sales calls. He wondered what he needed to change so that his daily work became more natural, fun, and productive.
We're in the middle of winter. In Philadelphia, we haven't had any snow this year, but it's been cold. Tonight, it's going to get really cold and tomorrow, it's going to be really cold. Guess what... no matter what the temperatures are, we still have got to get things done.
Symptoms:
Most of Mike's potential accounts seem to be unable to make a decision on their own regarding his service. They claim they have responsibility, listen to his presentation, but then let him know there are "others" who have final decision-making authority. He is frustrated by this situation and usually just makes his presentation, anyway, hoping for the best. As a result, his closing ratio is poor and his sales cycle is exceedingly long.
I want to throw a challenge out to everybody reading. It's something that's been important to me in my career, and a lot of the people that I respect and have set the path forward in the training and development business are big proponents of this, so I want to share it with you.
Fully dressed in his umpire gear, Gary was behind the plate calling the 3rd inning of his son's little league baseball game. The kid on the mound was so good he was picking apart the corners of the plate on almost every pitch. Although Gary was calling them the way he saw 'em, there were so many close calls that it didn't take long for the parents and the bleacher crowd to start riding him with the usual insults, heckles and personal attacks.
My idea today is something that came up in a conversation I was having, with a client and their team, about the expectations of customer service, or taking care of account relationships.
Donna hated feeling like this. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to do when she got back to the office after being out for a couple of days making calls on new prospects and checking up on some existing clients. Her to do list had a bunch of things scribbled on it, but Donna didn’t know which items were most important or when the people she had been talking to were expecting her to follow up.
EDIT:
The Brooklyn program has rescheduled to start on March 20 & 21.
The Beastie Boys said it best- No sleep ‘til Brooklyn. Growth Dynamics is pleased to announce the return of in-person business development training and will be kicking off in Brooklyn, NY.
Abby prided herself on the level of customer service she delivered after the sale, and loved the loyalty her customers expressed to her. That loyalty also had a troubling side and it was beginning to show.
Hey, everybody, this is the fast tip Friday for New Year's week. I really want to throw something out to all of you. I'm going to put myself at risk as I do it.
We wish you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, whatever else you celebrate. We hope that the next few weeks, or days, however much time you choose to make about the holiday season, is one that you are making the best for yourself. Enjoy the people you want to enjoy. Don't feel pressured to do the things you don't want to do. Make sure you are taking some time for yourself to recharge, refocus, and be ready for 2023.
There are a lot of people who are dominant, driven, perfectionist, say they're never satisfied, in some cases, they're type A personalities, but in some cases, there are also people that if everything isn't perfect, they're never going to be quite happy. This is a message to those people in particular, but I think all of us can get caught up in this game of chasing the horizon.
Friday afternoon and Julia’s mind was already on the vacation she had coming up in three weeks. The past week she dealt with the one sales challenge that constantly caused her frustration, and no matter what rebuttals her manager told her to throw back at the prospect the result remained the same; no sales because her price was too high.
Hey, welcome back. I've got a little challenge for some of you out there that are in the business development world, that think it's your job to get your prospects or suspects so excited that they can't say no to your offer.
Ryan hated the pipeline review meetings his sales manager scheduled every two weeks. These meetings were meant to help the sales team validate the actual work being done towards hitting goals and meeting objectives, but they also helped determine what opportunities really weren’t opportunities at all.
I've got a few topics that we're going to be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks. We are going to focus a little bit, as we get closer to the January 1 date, we're gonna focus a little bit on some goal setting and some goal accomplishment. Not just setting, that's the easy part. So pay attention over the next couple of weeks, I think we will have some good topics for you. Today, here's what I want to talk to you about.
Bill and Pat were returning from their monthly poker game and while riding back in the car they both agreed they had witnessed a situation that they could apply as a "lesson learned" to their business careers.
Good Monday morning. This is Sarah Waple, general manager of Growth Dynamics, and today we have a special edition, and personal, Monday Morning Manager.
It's time for another Friday Fast Tip. Today we have some insight and hysterical ideas about business development. One of the things I hear about a lot is, "I've got a lousy client, what do I do about it?"
I really want to throw something at you. If you're in business development, I know that there's a lot of pressure and there's that old phrase, ABC, Always Be Closing. And there's a lot of pressure, a lot of people that maybe your managers, your mentors, even the people you respect the most, that are saying, "you've got to learn how to close, you should always learn how to close, always be closing, a lot of pressure to close, get that decision, close the deal".
Hey, welcome back, it's Charlie Hauck, President, CEO, and head trainer at Growth Dynamics. Here is another one of our Friday Fast Tips. Today we have a quick lesson on business development execution.
Here it was again. Dracula had no idea where things went sideways. He was sitting on a zoom meeting, black boxes abound, no one talking and not sure how to break this stalemate. The client requested the meeting, requested the zoom format, and promised up and down they would be on, with video, and ready to go. This client was notorious for turning into a ghost on calls. Dracula knew this and it is honestly how he came to be the account manager with this client because the old account manager had enough.
Hey, welcome back. Here's another Friday Fast Tip from Growth Dynamics. I'm Charlie Hauck, President, CEO, and founder of the business. I love the opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas with all the people out there in the world trying to make a living in the greatest profession of all, business development.
Jackson felt that lump in his throat and just wanted to scream. Big Shot Bob of ABC Engineering did it again; he promised Jackson he would keep his appointment this time after three cancellations or no shows, but his admin was apologizing for Bob not being available once again. Because ABC was one of the biggest firms in the metropolitan area, Jackson just could not bring himself to share his anger at being stood up once again.
Hey, welcome to another Friday Fast Tip. Today's topic is something that seems to have come up a few places recently and I don't like to ignore a karmic message and try to outsmart it. So, here's today's topic - What happens at eight o'clock does not matter at ten o'clock, particularly if you're in business development.
Dewey is a prolific prospector. Like the sun rising in the east, you can count on Dewey making more sales calls than anyone on his employer’s sales team. No matter where he goes, Dewey will find someone to talk to about his products and services.
Hey, how is everybody out there? Thanks for tuning in to Fast Tip Friday from Growth Dynamics, this is Charlie Hauck. I've been running into a lot of conversations recently with my clients and some other people that I do business with and it's centered around this idea of understanding people.
It drove Izzy crazy, and he had no clue what to do about it. Day after day, email after email, Izzy sent messages that were honest, professional and ineffective. His subject lines told the truth in short comfortable requests for the recipient to please read the message. In short, Izzy felt like all his email correspondence was going into black hole where no one read them or responded to them. He knew that getting some traction with his new line of beverages would be a challenge, but this was downright agony. Was everyone in the world so cold and callous that they just did not bother to send a reply, even if it was thanks, no thanks?
I want to talk about a little sales strategy here and it's something that over the 30 plus years that I've been in this business, is one of the things that sort of annoys me more than anything else that I hear business development people doing out there. They do what I call "drive-by disqualify". They decide that it's not worth it to make that call, to pull into that driveway, to knock on the door, to go ask someone to have a business conversation.
Situation:
You just realized that you sell a commodity, and all that feature and benefit propaganda the Research and Development specialists fed you sounds exactly like the competitor’s features and benefits. Now you must find a way to re-invent yourself so that you are not just another “me, too” person trying to schedule a sales call here, there, and everywhere.
It's time for another one of those Friday fast tips from Growth Dynamics. I'm Charlie Hauck, President and CEO of the organization and I want to bring up a topic that I'm sure a lot of you've heard about in your professional and personal lives. I want to take another stab at the idea of the value of time and getting things done.
Symptoms:
Have you ever been part of a sales call where there seemed to be little structure, where both parties seemed to be on different pages, where expectations were not met, and little was accomplished? Even worse, you expected something positive to occur but simply got a lukewarm response such as, "I need to think it over. Call me in a few days." Opportunities are squandered and the buyer seems to be in control.
Hey, I've got kind of an offbeat topic to talk to you about today. Real quickly, I want to bring up this idea of what we call, "wishy-washy" language.
"Bulldog" was his nickname and he was proud of it. Guido spent years proving that no one could escape him once he made you a prospect.
Hey, welcome back, everybody. It's nice to have taken a couple of weeks break, gotten away from things for a little bit. I needed to vacation. I feel reenergized and back to offer another Fast Tip Friday moment from Growth Dynamics.
Matt is looking at his calendar and doing some planning, knowing that many things he does look too much like random acts of mindless behavior. Looking back on past months, he feels like he was scrambling and playing catch up all the time instead of having that feeling that he had some deliberate control of his actions. He wants to get back that feeling of being on a roll, where it's like running downhill instead of uphill all the time.
Hey, I had an experience earlier today that I thought I'd share with you. At the core of business development success, and I think at the core of relationships success, there's one issue that is paramount in creating the type of healthy, respectful, mutually beneficial relationships, not just in the business development world, but in all parts of our lives.
Kyle loves selling. He also loves the company he works for and the products and lines he represents. His cup is filled by going to work every day and sharing with his prospects, suspects, and clients about what is new at in his professional world. With so much positivity, Kyle does well for himself, and his managers are pleased with his production. So, what’s the problem here?
Hey, there's a big topic that I think every one of us that's ever been either a buyer or a seller thinks about at some point in time. It can have such an impact on our results and the outcomes that we create, no matter which side of the transaction we're on. If you're a buyer, you're thinking about negotiating. If you're a seller, you may be thinking about it, but you may not like it. Let's just take a second and talk about negotiation.
Welcome back to another Growth Dynamics Friday Fast Tip. I'm Charlie Hauck, founder and lead trainer Growth Dynamics.
Ed and his wife had been to several Caribbean islands before, but had never seen such large waves or felt the heavy undertow of the surf on this island facing the Atlantic Ocean.
Hey, normally I try to stay in business attire, talk to you about business things, dressed as a business person. But as you see, today, I've got a I've got a bike jersey on.
Having earned a small commission check last month from her sales job, Marta was doing her best to replace her old refrigerator and had already hit the local appliance stores, as well as a few of the Big Box outlets.
Hey, welcome back! Another Fast Tip Friday, Charlie Hauck Growth Dynamics, trying to share some experience and possibly some wisdom with you as you go about your business development career.
Like many business development people these days, Robin won't be going on her appointments tomorrow by herself. This time she is bringing Rich, and he is the VP of Sales from one of her largest vendors.
Hey, this is going to be a quick message this time. I sit down and I record a bunch of these things at one time. We use Simmons Media.
Leslie finally got the referral she had wanted: a high-profile client that could be a cornerstone to her entire next year of business.
Oh, boy, I don't even know why this topic is coming up a lot recently, but I've run into a lot of people that have, for some reason or another, the word fear has shown up in our conversations and coaching sessions. And so I thought I'd take time on this fast Friday tip to sort of dig into this idea of fear and share some thoughts with all of you.
We are pleased to announce the newest rotation of our High-Performance Sales Program is slated to start on Wednesday, Aug. 10. This course follows the revised timetable and curriculum that was offered at the start of 2022.
With her best customer looking for something creative to solve his inventory issues, Ginny realized that none of her immediate ideas sounded likely to impress the customer.
Hey, hello again, this is Charlie Hauck, president and founder of Growth Dynamics, offering up another fast tip Friday for all our social media followers.
How did it happen again? Ed believed he nailed that presentation and felt he’d been as prepared as he could be for any questions the prospect could have had about his company’s latest technology.
Hey, good afternoon, it's time for another fast tip on Friday. I want to get you to stop and think for a minute about how your sales week went and how you did as a business development professional. And whether you collected enough decisions to get you on track or to keep you on track for the goals that you've set for yourself this year.
Good Monday morning. This is Sarah Waple, General Manager of Growth Dynamics and I am here with a another special Monday morning Manager. instead of the normal routine, we have a special mid year checkup review, wake up call whatever you need it to be from Charlie. So without further ado, here we go.
Good afternoon, welcome to another fast tip for Friday. Today's topic is one where it's the end of the week, I hope everybody's had some success prospecting. I hope someone has advanced the opportunities in their pipeline to the point where you can expect to collect a decision on the next call, you've done enough fact finding, you've done enough discovery or diagnostic interview and work and now you're at that step in the process where it's either time to fish or cut bait, or we're gonna get a yes or no, but either way, we're going home for a decision.
Recently, nothing stung Darren more than when his wife pointed out that he failed yet again at his promised to be home for dinner. And, tonight he knew that he wouldn't make it to dinner again. His two kids were at the ages where they always seemed to be headed from one practice or another, and his wife Jessica was feeling often deserted when she asked Darren for help with all the driving around town. “Work/life balance” meant nothing more than disappointment to Darren as his boss just kept the pressure on by asking for more sales every month. Darren could see his future was bright at his employer, but at what cost? Jessica only knew her husband kept promising to be home for dinner, but just never knew which day he would actually be seated at the table with the family.
Hey, welcome everybody, it's time for another fast tip on Friday.
Hey, this one's kind of a little bit off the beaten track cause I'm going to make a cultural reference to an old television show that was a classic when I was growing up. But you don't want to know how many years ago that was. And frankly, I'll tell you, it was in black and white, it's that old. So, back when I was a kid, there was a television show called Dragnet on TV. And Dragnet was really one of the original cops type shows that was on the airwaves back when there were only three channels. So, it's that long ago. And one of the core things that happened in every Dragnet episode is they would bust the perp.
Sam has been in sales for her entire career. She knows she does well enough as she has climbed the ranks through various companies, but she tends to plateau with medium accounts. Sam has yet to earn some of the major accounts and or territories that make salespeople’s careers. She has always been one to read all the top business books, listen to podcasts every chance she got, attends conferences, and even enrolled in a few training classes that promised to help her reach the next level, but nothing ever changed, despite putting all the things she learned into practice immediately. Sam felt ready to make some significant life changes on her own and earning more commissions would make it all possible. Now, she really wanted to see if it was her turn to be one of the big-time players.
Hey, welcome back. Here's another one, Friday fast tip. I know everybody, everybody seems to be really busy lately. I know I'm busy. I know Sarah's busy here in the office. I know Matt, who does our IT and social media stuff, I know he's busy. And I'll bet you're busy too.
It was early Monday morning and Brett was lying awake in bed, worrying about his upcoming week. Although his business and personal life was running about average so far this year, he had fallen into the habit of replaying past failures in his head, worrying about every little thing on his numerous To Do lists, and allowing a constant stream of negative internal talk. All of this was causing him a lot of anxiety and stress, both before and during many of his business development meetings.
I want to throw something at you, particularly since it's the end of the week that I know is going to make some people pretty uncomfortable. But it is one of my core beliefs as a business development consultant. One of the things I always wonder about is our people who think they're good at follow up really good at sales, and my gut instinct. And if you've worked with me in the past, or talk to me about what makes the best salespeople, the best is follow up is probably a crutch, not a skill or an attribute.
Symptoms:
The silence was deafening. Both Valerie and her prospect sat there looking at each other waiting for the other person to speak first. Valerie had finished her presentation of the new products' features and benefits and was expecting the Director of Operations to give her some indication of how well she had done. Since the training she had received on the new product said any prospect would be blown away by all the new bells and whistles, no one had ever bothered to consider what to do if that wasn't the case. Valerie had covered everything and found herself stuck not knowing what to do or say next. Was the sales call over or was something else supposed to happen?
In this Fast Tip Friday, Charlie Hauck talks about the importance of DISC and how it can make all the difference in the world of sales.
Symptoms:
Justin was spending some time off around the holidays thinking about his 25 years in sales. There were many things to be proud of, but after a bit of soul searching, he was forced to admit that he thought he'd be a bit further along financially by now or perhaps have a more prestigious title or even work for a better company, considering the two and a half decades he was reflecting on.
Do you ever get caught up with warm leads? You have hope but cannot get the win? If so, this is the topic for you.
Symptoms:
Jerry never felt compelled to trust or rely on technology. In his opinion nothing beats getting out there and looking someone in the eye or at least picking up the phone and chatting live with a prospect or a customer. No one ever refused to do business with Jerry, and in many of his customers’ locations he had free rein to essentially come and go as he pleased. No way email could be that important as long as Jerry could walk in, pull up a chair and talk about personal “stuff” before staring his pitch. Jerry thought email and all this new “webinar” and virtual selling stuff was just more trouble than it was worth and never going to be as important as that face to face visit. Jerry stuck to his guns and even managed to get one of the inside team to transcribe his emails, so he was not forced to adopt that new-fangled irritation into his sales game. And then Covid-19 arrived, and Jerry was lost.
Do you prefer hotdogs or steak? I bet you said steak.
In this episode of Fast Tip Friday, Charlie talks about the analogy of Steak and Hotdogs to encourage your sales efforts.
Chris is concerned about his sales team. They are active, they are selling, and sales are up but margins are way down. The business model allows reps to be flexible in the field and sell at the prices they feel appropriate. But something is missing, and Chris is unsure how to help his field reps get more margin. He doesn't want to kill the ability of his reps to set pricing in the field, but doesn't know what information they need in order to be better at the task.
Charlie had been working with a long-time client and just can’t believe why some meetings could really get under his skin. Charlie left angry with this client’s attitude towards him, the ability to waste time like it was nothing and at times complete disrespect for Charlie and his process. Yet, this client was important to Charlie’s success each year and he was unable to fire them. He opened his stamp book and added a nice bright red anger stamp on this client’s page after the last meeting he had.
Recently Charlie and I were talking about work I was doing with interviews for a client. As I was reviewing profiles and setting up my standard interview questions, he suggested a list of questions that I must ask all candidates. I had a few on my list already but this one is one I never would have thought to ask, but it surely is something everyone can relate to.
Elizabeth had just gotten the call every sales person hopes for each day. A target account in her territory reached out and asked that she come right away to help them with a big problem. Knowing her technical expertise could be very valuable in this situation, Elizabeth felt sure that winning the project was just a matter of not making a fatal mistake. Her competitive fires were stoked and her confidence at an all-time high as she made the appointment to be there three days later. Despite the repeated requests for her to drop everything else she had going, Elizabeth held firm and kept the date she asked for at the outset of the conversation. She had seen this movie before so this time she was determined to keep her emotions under control and the prospect on a leash instead of rushing head long into another disappointment.
Mary was on one of her first sales calls as a new rep and the prospect, with his first question, invited her straight onto the Buyers Bus: "Tell me about your company and what you do". As is typical, she proceeded to talk about the long and successful history of her company, then described the numerous accounts they had helped, and then went for a strong finish by stating how confident she was that her extensive line of products would find a good fit somewhere within the prospects business needs.
Cody knew that the firm he represented was considered best in class by the other major players in the market. As far as technical competency, customer service and the ability to deliver more than clients expected, Cody's firm always scored extremely high. With that ace to play whenever he needed to, he was sure that his new position as a Business Development Specialist would soon prove to be the road to riches. After his first 90 days Cody and his manager met to review his progress, and the picture was not pretty. Feeling the pressure to turn his fortune around quickly, he only felt more confused since so many of the people he had met with had openly said they were "interested" in his offerings. Why wasn't it working when all the stars seemed aligned?
After a long sales process finally appeared to be coming to a successful conclusion, Paul was breathing a sigh of relief until his client decided he wanted to extract some sweat from Paul for the win. Just when he thought it was over and done, the regional vice president chimed in with one last contract change that he claimed was a deal breaker if it wasn't accommodated. Once the shock and anger had subsided, Paul collected his thoughts and recalled his training that brought this exact situation up in a role play scenario. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" was the sound echoing through his brain as Paul was sure not to be the fool another time.
Symptoms:
Linda was frustrated by her prospect's unwillingness to make a decision. Her prospect said he needed some time to digest the three options outlined in her proposal before making a decision. The prospect added that he was pleased with the proposal and that she had done her job well. Now she found herself in the "chase" mode because the prospect wasn't returning her calls.
Symptoms
Melody and her boss just couldn't understand why she continued to struggle to close business. She was a very outgoing person who was extremely well liked by her customers. She went out of her way to be friendly to everyone and appeared to possess a good knowledge of her product and the selling process. Her failure to excel was confusing to everyone.
Symptoms:
Jason really wanted to impress both his sales manager and his prospect with how prepared he was for the first call of his sales career. He had all his literature organized and had armed himself with all of the background info he researched on the prospect's website. He felt good, except that after reviewing the website data, he really didn't know what
Symptoms:
One of the most common objections salespeople get is about price: "That's a bit more than we were thinking about paying." "Your prices are kind of high." "That just doesn't fit our budget" are typical comments. Salespeople tend to be very quick to take these comments at face value. They assume these price objections are the real issue standing between them and an order, so the path of least resistance is almost always to begin dropping their price to get the sale. And, more often than not, once the price issue has been "resolved", more resistance comes to the surface.
“Here we go again,” Jim thought as he walked into his last call of the day. He always scheduled this monthly call to be the last of his day as it left him annoyed, angry, and confused when he walked out the door. Jim just could not create the type of relationship with this business owner that he felt was key to his success with other clients. There were never issues with products, pricing, or communications from Jim, his agency, or the manufacturers, but these monthly update and prospecting meetings always ended up making Jim feel like a complete failure. Jim’s positive, enthusiastic, and lighthearted approach obviously missed the mark with this client, and Jim was sure the client disliked the meetings as much as he did.
Self-awareness is the foundation of developing high emotional intelligence, but it can be a difficult concept to fully comprehend. The good news is that increasing self-awareness is a lot easier than it appears. Here are four fast ways to improve your self-awareness!
Symptoms:
Valentine looked at his schedule and realized he is schedule to go visit a favorite client, or maybe a prospect, or maybe even still a suspect, this week. He absolutely loved spending time with this person and company. It was so easy to get into the office and visit with all the staff in the office and then grab a few minutes with the CEO to catch up and see what’s happening in their world.
Buying a snowblower? Pick one, have it delivered, wait for a snowstorm and blow some snow. What's the worst that can happen?
Symptoms:
Sondra worked relentlessly to hit her numbers and keep her territory on top of the rankings. Never shy about asking for business, if a sales report showed a dip in the numbers, Sondra would beat the bushes for the orders that might help push her over the goal for that quarter. Her customers believed her products were top-notch, as did other users down the distribution line. And because of this, if Sondra pushed a little at times, they often felt it wasn't too hard to accommodate her request to order early or more than planned.
This recent testimonial comes from one of our newer students Gianna. Gianna is a recent college graduate and was hired for her first sales role before her college commencement even took place.
Symptoms:
The sales quotas for the new year came down from the C-Suite. Hunter took one look at the email and felt sick to his stomach. This past year Hunter felt like he did as much as he could do without giving up all his personal time to his job. What more could he do to hit the 18% increase that was now expected by the bosses? Big accounts, whales, mom and pops, and all those accounts that no one else wanted helped make up his production this year. Hunter struggled to believe he could do 10% more let along a full 18%.
There are so many lessons that have been taught to us, learned by us and in some cases, forced upon us.
Symptoms:
Sadie was pumped to have a meeting with the right decision makers on her new product. They quickly agreed to her lunch and learn invitation and even let her know how excited they were about her products. They used a competitor’s products, and this was her chance to get the sale. She gathered the standard slide deck, added a few slides comparing her product to the others in the marketplace and even went as far to include delivery information. She knew this was the lunch and learn to end all lunch and learns and it would be an easy close.
Yet, when the presentation wrapped up Sadie asked if there were any questions and no one had any. They kindly thanked her and out the door she went. Later she learned the company went with their existing vendor.
As the calendar indicates the New Year is fast approaching, it is prime time for sales management to ask some challenging questions about their team’s performance. Most sales managers find that checking the final numbers for their team satisfies their desire to evaluate what happened over the previous 12 months. But are those results the real story of how your team performed or could they be hiding some important facts that require a deeper look?
Face it; sales is difficult even for the best in the profession. For many sales provides too many opportunities to give up or make excuses for not making quota or just setting an appointment for a sales call. Being significantly successful in business development requires a commitment to being significantly uncomfortable a significant amount of time. You must learn that without risk of failure there is little chance of experiencing the rewards that top producers enjoy, and frankly, for many that cost is too much to pay.
Symptoms:
Carlos believes that sales success is simply a game of numbers, and his commitment to relentless
prospecting has proven him right quarter after quarter, year after year. However, all that prospecting creates problems, for Carlos often finds himself so overwhelmed by follow-ups and open opportunities
Symptoms:
When Kathy hired Everett, a former user of her company's products, she thought she had finally found someone who could easily penetrate her market. Everett came from the industry and had been a devoted user of Kathy's products in his role as a product repair specialist. When Everett told Kathy he wanted to make the jump from user to salesperson for her product line, she thought it a great idea and immediately offered him a position.
Employee engagement has been a hot topic in the last year but it’s not going anywhere in 2022 and beyond, so your organization needs to make sure that the right kind of engagement is a priority built into your hiring process and operational strategy.
Sophia loves selling. She loves it so much that she enjoys trying to sell her products to anyone that will listen. Her philosophy is: “No stone should go unturned.” Over the years, the number of prospects she has contacted, presented to and worked up proposals for have always been the highest in the company, but her sales results place her in the bottom quarter of the sales team.
Symptoms:
Kathy is frustrated after a recent sales call. She believes if she was brave enough to ask about certain things, the call would have gone her way. It seems like she is constantly on defense and that the client is intentionally "pushing her buttons". Despite her training, it felt like she was always reacting to every little thing that was said rather than thinking about what was really going on. How can she find a way to consistently act like a professional on the call?
Recently, nothing stung Darren more than when his wife pointed out that he failed yet again at his promised to be home for dinner. And, tonight he knew that he wouldn't make it to dinner again. His two kids were at the ages where they always seemed to be headed from one practice or another, and his wife Jessica was feeling often deserted when she asked Darren for help with all the driving around town. “Work/life balance” meant nothing more than disappointment to Darren as his boss just kept the pressure on by asking for more sales every month. Darren could see his future was bright at his employer, but at what cost? Jessica only knew her husband kept promising to be home for dinner, but just never knew which day he would actually be seated at the table with the family.
Symptoms:
One thing was certain: Derek was going to get an earful when he mustered the courage to tell his biggest customer that the truckload of material he was expecting was going to arrive three weeks late. With the last six months seeing all kinds of shipping headaches, the customer told Derek that their patience was wearing thin. They demanded a more reliable delivery schedule and that Derek be more honest and timely communicating with them.
Marcus found himself sitting in his car, in his driveway but still felt lost. For some reason, this feeling was a more regular occurrence for Marcus at the end each day. It was as if the one or two things he was supposed to remember to accomplish would come to him if he just didn't turn off the engine and open his car door. So there Marcus sat. Worried. Confused. Afraid. What if the missing item that never made it to his To Do List cost him a big opportunity, or even worse, cost him his job? Being so busy was a good thing in most cases, but Marcus also found himself feeling overwhelmed and out of control when his memory failed him in moments like this. And even a quick check of his To Do List offered no help.
When an injury causes trouble with typing, your vlog.
While scrolling on Instragram this morning (you can follow Growth Dynamics) I cam across a story that included the information in the headline and a little bit more. My mind was somewhat blown. Was yours as you read it?
My initial response was to start thinking about ALL I should get done between now and the end of the year. I started to factor in all of the days off my kids have, the vacation days I have, the vacation days and travel days Charlie has and a few other times I know Growth Dynamics won't be working. I immediately became overwhelmed with what I want to accomplish for GD and myself. Truth be told, since the start of covid and all of the changes that have happened with that, I can get overwhelmed easier than before covid times. When I get overwhelmed, my productivity drops.
While workplaces continue to grow and change in the new world of work, they need to ensure that they’re finding the right people for the right positions. Making smart hiring decisions is more important than ever before.
For the last few months, I have heard this line in one fashion or another from so many salespeople that I think I want to scream. It is not just this line that is the problem, but the rest of the conversation that revolves around that it makes no sense to make sales calls because prospects are going to ask for the items that are not available. In other words, selling is at a standstill because back orders are everywhere, and salespeople cannot change that reality.
The last quarter’s sales numbers were posted online for the entire sales team to review. There was no hiding once the sales manager sent the email out to his entire team, and Darren hated seeing his name in the lowest 25%. What made him more confused was that he had been with the company for 14 years, yet three of the top five producers had less than half of his experience.
John's territory involves working with many prospects that ask for samples, demonstrations, proposals, references and all the usual items that buyers want from a vendor. Trying to appear accommodating and professional, John finds himself spending hours of time preparing, writing, setting up or sending all this information that he believes will help "convince" his prospect. Everyone appears very impressed with what John shows them, except it seems like they don't act on all that "interest" often enough. Although his results are okay, he cannot understand why all this activity is not leading to more orders.
THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED UNTIL LATER THIS YEAR.
The Growth Dynamics team has been reviewing our goals for 2021, planning for the remainder of the year and holding conversations about planning 2022. We think maybe you've been having them too, especially after our Mid-Year Check In Podcast from a few weeks ago. So now, we want to have them together and offer our coaching to help you get ready for the final months of 2021.
Sally and Sanjay were comparing notes after a very busy week out selling. Sally was exhausted, but at the same time pretty satisfied that her week was highly productive and would produce some nice revenue for the company and herself. Sanjay, on the other hand, was exhausted and uncertain about what actually happened to him and what success he created. As they compared “war stories” Sally could detail where she was with each prospect she engaged and exactly what the next steps were in the decision process. She could validate she was in control and her future was certain to be positive. Stunned to hear such detail and certainty, Sanjay couldn't comprehend how Sally managed to systematically get through the minefield his sales approach created. “You mean you don’t have all these problems I keep running into?” Sanjay queried. Sally looked at him and replied, “You only have to deal with them if you do not have a process to keep you out of them.”
Diane returned from the product demo certain that the features and benefits she shared with her prospect had wowed them. The buyer nodded when Diane asked if the product fit into the product categories they offered to their customer base, and everyone else that sat in on the meeting told her how much they liked what she had presented. She felt as good about this call as she had in a long time, but now six weeks later there was still no purchase order and the prospect had gone radio silent. How did their excitement turn into Diane's frustration?
This week Major League Baseball held its annual Home Run Derby. We've seen the home run derbies before. We watch them every year. They are always the same - each slugger tries to hit more home runs than the other sluggers in the contest. At the same time, they are always different and last night there were four stories that made this year's home run derby different from all the rest. Pete Alonso, Shohei Ohtani, Trey Mancini, and Juan Soto made the contest different. It is always the individual story lines that make the mundane different.
Lauren hated watching the network news or seeing the latest news flashing on her phone. It seemed like the "Big Story" everywhere was another mass shooting, a political meltdown, a plane crash or other sad story. The positive outlook Lauren typically brought to each day had always kept her going no matter what she encountered in her business development activities. But now, so many people she spoke with apparently felt like there was so little certainty left in the world, and some of them wanted her to join in their negativity. Looking at how hard she was working just to maintain some positive momentum, Lauren began to have some doubts of her own about the future.
Mark is looking at his schedule and realizing the July 4th holiday is just days away. Oh, Oh! Is the quarter really almost over? And the year is half over too. The sales reports are bound to follow, and he is determined not to let his performance slip away. Mark has decided it's time to review and get his game plan back on track.
Have you been experiencing long-term stress? If so, you might be at risk of suffering from brain burnout. Brain burnout is more common than you might think, but it presents differently in introverts and extroverts.
Marcy, her manager and their product expert just finished a conference call with a hot prospect, and after the last caller signed off, she felt like the last hour had just wasted a month's worth of effort in getting it set up. They had all agreed to dial in, so why was there so little interest, so few questions and no action items at the end of the call? Why was there so little interaction between her team and the audience? Granted, she didn't have too much to say on the call, but the purpose was to show off their company and their offerings. Or was it? Now, looking back, she wasn't so sure.
As the calendar hits mid-June and I can hear the kids in the neighborhood celebrate the last day of the school year I ponder what they learned about life as well as their scholastic advancement. Those ideas provoke thoughts about what salespeople learn from one year to the next, or are they just repeating their earliest days in sales over and over, not really growing from the experiences along the way. So often when I am working with a sales team someone will complain about a prospect that will not return a call or a customer that expects to buy everything at the lowest possible price. Inevitably someone says that is just the way sales is and that complaining never makes it different. In other words, just live with it because that stuff just goes with the territory.
Andrea hated the pressure of selling. After three years in the business of selling payroll services Andrea thought she would be past this stage of professional development. Day after day, call after call it was still there; that pressure to convince someone that you are th
e perfect fit for their company when the market offered so many options. Andrea had to admit that at times she felt like she was lying to get a sale. The competition was not really any better or worse capable to deliver what the market expected for their services. At this point Andrea felt trapped by her inability to be gung-ho about her company. Was it like this in every sales job? Was there anywhere that the old feature and benefit routine did not exist in the sales culture?
The next episode of Charlie & Company Talk Business, Life and Everything In Between is here. Charlie Hauck, president and owner of Growth Dynamics, and Sarah Waple, general manager, spend some time with Chuck Swope and Nicky Lyddane of SwopeLees Commercial Real Estate.
It was early Monday morning and Brett was lying awake in bed, worrying about his upcoming week. Although his business and personal life was running about average so far this year, he had fallen into the habit of replaying past failures in his head, worrying about every little thing on his numerous To Do lists, and allowing a constant stream of negative internal talk. All of this was causing him a lot of anxiety and stress, both before and during many of his business development meetings.
After having been in the same role for over 5 years, Ted was stuck. "What else can I talk about with these people that we haven't gone over all ready?" was the question Ted kept asking himself (with no answer) after he did a review of his clients. He knew he didn't want to be the pesky salesman that just made a meaningless follow up call, or who stopped in to drop off donuts and see what orders might be around to pick up, but he was also very aware that his manager expected him to keep growing the territory and expanding the accounts.
We are pleased to announce our next session of High-Performance Sales Program (HPSP) is currently enrolling. The expanded 24 live virtual sessions will be presented over 12 months and allow for participants to schedule unlimited individual coaching sessions.
Bob was exhausted after seeing over 15 accounts in the past week. He had talked about football, politics, family and even some industry news in order to get the client engaged in a conversation that might give him an opening to pitch his latest and greatest widget. He was convinced that his skills at relationship building would pay off big time when all his new "friends" decided to buy something. When his boss asked how his activity could be so high, yet his results so mediocre, all Bob could say was "Yes, but they really like me!"
It's all too easy to spend a lot of time making "Howdy" calls with people you know and that are willing to talk about anything but business. Professional visitors like Bob don't have a plan to move the sales process forward because they are afraid they might lose a friend that could one day turn into an order. Worse yet, many of Bob's clients are probably too polite to tell him that they don't have time for idle chatter, and that they really wish that he not call on them anymore. Bob could get more production out of every call if he learns some ways to define his objectives and outcomes for every conversation and meeting. Even if he doesn't get an order, he would find his results would improve dramatically if he could just make a "sale of the moment" on every call.
Obviously, there are times when admin or service calls are warranted, but here are just a few ideas to "Name the Meeting" when the objective is to get a sales process going. Below is a mix of our standard meeting names and some expanded ones that still fall into our in the ways, updates and discovery type meetings:
Fact Finding - This is a qualification visit; a discovery meeting where we are looking for Problems/Priorities, Authority, Investment issues and Timeline. Does this account qualify for our time?
Decision - All the decision makers will be in the room with the understanding that at the end of the meeting they will trade your presentation/demo/proposal for a decision.
Fortify - Purpose of the meeting is to fortify our relationship with an existing customer. Preparing them for competition assault. Investing time to get to know upper management and/or support people in case our direct contact leaves.
What do I have to do to lose you? - This would be with existing customers to recommit them to continue their business.
Close the Conversation - The best way to get a stalled deal moving is to gently try to take it away by offering to never, ever bring it up again.
Alignment - Need to make sure we are on the same page. Prospect/Customer is saying one thing but doing another. Assumption is the mother of all mess-ups! The end result is clarification of expectations, agreement and understandings on any aspect of the sales process.
Face the Music - This is a bottom line visit! This is a meeting where the prospect/client is trying to either pull a fast one or take advantage at our expense. We will approach this meeting as an adult, not an angry child. We are calling them on their bad behavior. We will not be a victim. Resist the urge to prove yourself right.
Decision by Committee - Our proposal is being presented to a higher authority. We want to be the one making the presentation. Our fall back position is to do artificial decision making with our inside sales person by rehearsing their presentation. We also suggest being a fly on the wall by sitting outside the door and can be brought in as technical consultant to answer questions.
Let's make a deal - Prospect has committed to do business, but also wants to negotiate. This meeting needs to have the upfront agreement that the prospect is sold and we are just working out details. Never do anything unless we know the next step.
By the way, you might find these meetings go better if you find a way to gently tell the prospect ( or ask permission) the name of the meeting too, so that they have an expectation of where you are going together.
What are the names of the meetings you have most often, and what are the names of the meetings that are the most important? Can you think of a situation where NAMING THE MEETING would have helped in the meeting?
As a leader, you must consistently drive effective communication. Meetings must be deliberate and intentional - your organizational rhythm should value purpose over habit and effectiveness over efficiency. Chris Fussell
The majority of meetings should be discussions that lead to decisions. Patrick Lencioni
LAST WEEK: Update us on how things went last week with your stated Goals and GD Tactics.
THIS WEEK: Please share your Top 3 Goals for this week and the GD tactics you plan to deploy.
Photo by Jonathan Cooper on Unsplash
The pursuit of understanding oneself is at the core of the human experience, and people today are no exception to the desire to self-actualize. Personality psychology is one of the fastest-growing fields of psychology today, and social psychologists have branched out from academia to become a permanent part of the corporate workforce worldwide.
Julie felt conflicted as she listened to the other members of the sales team talk about how they were going to spend the big commissions everyone was earning this quarter. The sales managers created a program that paid bonus dollars to everyone’s comp plan if they sold the base products and three or more add-ons to at least 50% of their customers for this quarter. The payoffs added potentially 50% to the average commission for anyone that made the extra effort. Julie was not troubled by the amount of money on the table, but she was troubled by the way a few of the top producers were willing to take advantage of some of their customers to qualify for the extra pay. It seemed to Julie that these people were crossing the line, and to her that was greedy and perhaps unethical. Of course, she wanted the extra money, but Julie felt like life was good and that the incentive was nice, but not all that motivating.
Ruben was excited about the call he just finished with the Facilities Manager at a school in his territory. The situation was a perfect fit for his company's new line of industrial faucets. Plus, the Facilities Manager told him the hardware needed to be installed ASAP or the school would face a fine from the local building inspector. Ruben couldn't help but feel this was one of those sales that all salespeople dream about, a prospect that had to buy right now and they had to buy a product Ruben could deliver. And when the timeline was ASAP, Ruben thought this was going to be a quick and painless sale. So, six weeks later, why was he still wondering when the PO was going to show up in his inbox?
“The weather is changing; flowers and trees are popping out and I am exactly the same” thought Sam. Sam has been in sales for her entire career. She knows she does well enough as she has climbed the ranks through various companies, but she tends to plateau with medium accounts. Sam has yet to earn some of the major accounts and or territories that make salespeople’s careers. She has always been one to read all the top business books, listen to podcasts every chance she got, attends conferences, and even enrolled in a few training classes that promised to help her reach the next level, but nothing ever changed, despite putting all the things she learned into practice immediately. Sam felt ready to make some significant life changes on her own and earning more commissions would make it all possible. Now, she really wanted to see if it was her turn to be one of the big-time players.
How many accountants do you know that can offer to take a few hours out of their day to be a guest on a podcast? That should tell you a little bit about our guest Corey Talone on this episode of Charlie & Company Talk Business, Life and Everything else.
Forget desperate housewives. What really scares buyers are desperate salespeople. How many times have you run into a salesperson that is not in sales for the love of the game, or to be the best at what they do? They act as if they need a sale to pay their bookie by Friday! Buyers have come to loathe this fast talking, pushy pitchman stereotype.
On Monday, my kids went back to school full time. Normal school, or well, as normal as school can be when everyone is still masked up, spaced out and limited interaction with friends.
“Here we go again,” Jim thought as he walked into his last call of the day. He always scheduled this monthly call to be the last of his day as it left him annoyed, angry, and confused when he walked out the door. Jim just could not create the type of relationship with this business owner that he felt was key to his success with other clients. There were never issues with products, pricing, or communications from Jim, his agency, or the manufacturers, but these monthly update and prospecting meetings always ended up making Jim feel like a complete failure. Jim’s positive, enthusiastic, and lighthearted approach obviously missed the mark with this client, and Jim was sure the client disliked the meetings as much as he did.
The article below comes from our Objective Management Group Partner Dave Kurlan. If you have any questions about OMG and the assessment and evaluation tools utilize through them please contact us talk about your questions.
Donna hated feeling like this. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t figure out what she was supposed to do when she got back to the office after being out for a couple of days making calls on new prospects and checking up on some existing clients. Her to do list had a bunch of things scribbled on it, but Donna didn’t know which items were most important or when the people she had been talking to were expecting her to follow up.
In the second episode of Charlie & Company Talk Business, Life and Everything In Between Charlie Hauck and Sarah Waple host Supply Link Inc. Founder and President Debbie Arndorfer.
I was looking for some inspiration to be able to sit down and write a new blog post. We haven't posted as many as we normally do as Growth Dynamics has been very, very busy. It's a great busy. A busy that we can feel building some momentum and we are excited to see where this momentum take us this year. Is the same happening for you?
Bill and Pat were returning from their monthly poker game and while riding back in the car they both agreed they had witnessed a situation that they could apply as a "lesson learned" to their business careers. Everything had started out very similar to an everyday business meeting or sales call with socializing and normal banter between participants, but about half way through the event something had gone bad.
A simple mistake had been made that resulted in some subtle and not so subtle accusations leading to lines being drawn about who was right and who was wrong. All of a sudden everyone was very uncomfortable with the tone in the room.
The "accused" had snapped back with a defense based on fairness and leniency (not results) that almost guaranteed a confrontation between the two sides. The emotions ranged from excuse making to embarrassment to anger and then to withdrawal and alienation as the aggressors piled on the wrong-doers. When the game broke up early, everyone knew it had been caused by too much bad behavior.
James was feeling discouraged and wasn't sure how he could make it through another week like he had last week. A new prospect had made him wait over 30 minutes before he would see him, and then asked James to sell to him at his cost. Another client had told him he was backing out of a deal they had just made 2 days before, and that the reasons for the change were none of his business. This wasn't the first time that people had treated him this way and he was beginning to wonder just how much he had to grovel before he could do business with folks like this.
The time has come for Growth Dynamics to expand our podcast offering. After two years of me recording the weekly coaching session of Monday Morning Manager Charlie has entered the picture with his own podcast, Charlie & Company: Business, Life & Everything In Between.
Amanda was working through her list of live opportunities after putting her pipeline through a “kill it or close it” exercise. She set up appointments to move her sales process along with several of the live opportunities. She was steadfast in naming her meetings, sending homework, and even let some her more notorious feet draggers know these were decision meetings. She was ready to do what she had to do to start meeting her sales goals for the quarter. The week went by and she collected some yeses, found out some opportunities were not the right fit and still had two clients that could only utter the words, “sounds great. I need some more time.” No matter how much she tried to find the deal breakers, they would not budge. In fact, these last two holdouts had been in her pipeline for months. She just was not sure if anything was ever going to change.
