Just because you think your product is awesome doesn’t mean your customers will. I have learned that lesson many times. The customer’s opinion is the only one that matters. As I reflected on our deepening partnership with Salesforce, as announced by Neeracha Taychakoonavudh at Dreamforce, I was reminded of a time when we missed the…
Frontline sales managers have the toughest job in sales. They are the last link between the company and the sales team’s interaction with the customer. For a company to be successful, the sales management function must perform. But sales managers are pulled in so many different directions, by so many people, it can be hard…
I started my first business back in 1986 when I was in my early-twenties. It was a typical software start-up. We didn’t have any money, so had to go about business the old-fashioned way – making profits from the outset. When I say ‘we’ I use that in the royal sense. Really there was only…
Salespeople operate in constantly shifting environments. Every day they contend with new situations and changing information. No two customers are the same. To remain in control, companies deploy a CRM as their system of record, or “single source of truth”. They ask the sellers to keep the system up to date – if it’s not in Salesforce…
I believe that there has never been a time in business where smart productive people mattered more. We’re entering a period of massive change, turmoil and opportunity, and the catalysts of progress will undoubtedly be the 9s – the star performers – in your organization. Ever since I got a piece of advice from an…
I want to revisit a topic that I wrote about a few years ago about a very dangerous sales forecasting practice, that at its worst can be a terminal illness for a sales person or a sales manager. This disease is still as commonplace as it was when I first wrote about it, but with…
