Barry Trailer: Seller’s Challenge
How to Make “Relationship Selling” Effective with Today’s Empowered Buyers
"Relationship Selling" is a term that has been bandied about for decades and means, as is so often the case with sales terms, different things to different people. It also has meant different things at different periods. Many things about this have remained the...
First Line Sales Managers are the Fulcrum for Improved Performance, No Matter What “Lever”...
“If I Had a Lever Long Enough…” — Archimedes A question that often comes up from sales leaders during workshops or advisory services is: “What’s the most effective lever for me to improve my organization’s performance?” Too often, individuals want to skip ahead to that...
B2B Buyer Preferences Study: How Effective Are Sales Reps in a Virtual Environment?
The more things change … My last column talked about the many changes wrought by Covid, primarily from in-person to virtual sales calls, and the implications this had for sellers and sales enablement. Without revisiting the entire column, the short version is sellers and their...
The Rise of Virtual Selling and Implications for Sales Enablement
Nobody needs to be told what a strange, challenging, and difficult year 2020 turned out to be. At the start of a new decade, everyone had their own version of a “bright new day,” on New Year’s Eve 2019. Indeed, the year was off...
A Sales Enablement Conundrum: Who’s Coaching the Coach?
The room (and the online meetings) always become very quiet when we ask this question. Everyone knows the value of coaching, whether they’ve consciously thought about it or not. How many Olympic athletes have a coach, or even more than one? Now that the...
Ignite Your Sales Performance at the Intersection of Purpose and Passion
My articles earlier this year addressed equality and fairness but, admittedly, these were aimed mostly at gender neutrality. Since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th, there has been both a national, and a global, wake-up call. A call for justice...
Until the Sun Shines Again, Stay Close to Your Customers and Do Right by...
Clearly, these are unprecedented times with broad-scale statewide stay-at-home orders, and economic shutdowns across all non-essential businesses. Ten weeks after the first San Francisco Bay Area counties ordered residents to “Shelter in Place,” and 7 weeks after all but 9 states did the same,...
Building a Sales Culture of Respect and Fairness: Gender Neutrality is Trickier than Expected
My earlier article on this topic looked at specific actions individuals and managers could take to ensure a level playing field for both men and women on their sales teams. Without rehashing all of it, the high points, especially for female reps, were: a morning...
Disband the Sales “Boys Club” — 3 Ways to Improve Equality, Parity, and a...
MedReps, a Jackson Healthcare company, specializing in staffing for the medical industry, recently released a study of 750 sales reps with the provocative title, “The State of the Sales Industry: ‘Boys Club’ in 2019.” In their 9th annual salary survey, they found that the...
How the New AI — Authentic Intelligence — Can Improve Sales Productivity
During the past two years, Sales Mastery, Inc. (SMI) has been studying and cataloging the various artificial intelligence (AI) applications aimed at increasing sales rep productivity. With categories like: Appointment Setting; Automatic CRM Record Creation/Updating; Buyer Intent Analysis; Forecast Management; Guided Selling; and Prospect...
Building a Career in Sales: Hacks vs. Honing Skills for the Long Haul
"Sales hack" refers to any trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method that increases productivity and efficiency, in pursuit of a sale (or sales career) (Adapted from Wikipedia. Thinking about and, more importantly, actively pursuing a career in sales, it's sensible to ask: What's the best...
Why Now is the Perfect Time to be a Sales Professional… Even for Millennials
In the previous column, I introduced the notion of Sales as a Profession (SaaP) and some of the steps that have been cataloged toward professionalism (full-time occupation, training school, university programs, etc.). While many salesmen and saleswomen today are full-time and considered successful, it...
Sales as a Profession: Perceptions, Misconceptions, and the Way Forward
You’ve been in sales for several years, are a solid performer, and considered to be a real pro. You’re happy with your employer, confident in the products/services you represent, and satisfied with your station in life (house, car, family situation, etc.). It’s great to...
Seller’s Challenge: Financial, Spiritual and Social
The Happy New Year is now a month old and, if you can believe the New York Times, most resolutions are abandoned by January 8th. My own resolution to participate in “Dryuary” (no alcohol for the month) has held fast, primarily due to my...
A Progress Report on My Seller’s Challenge
Having outlined my intention to “Balance my Wheel,” starting with my Professional segment, last month I declared I would limit my work week to 36 hours and keep track of weekly objectives to stay focused. I also invited you to comment on what I’m...
Good Intentions Are Not Enough: My Improvement Plan as a Sales Professional
Last month was the kickoff of the Seller’s Challenge to commit to doing things that work on a continuing basis, not just part-time, not just sometimes. In other words, to keep on keeping on, and not fall off the wagon (i.e., become complacent). I presented...
The First Step Towards Sales Mastery: A Public Commitment
Decades ago when I was teaching Miller Heiman programs, I was asked back a year later to give a key note. Before my presentation, a guy came up to me and said, “You know,...