The most difficult lessons aren't the ones we learn the hard way. They are the ones we re-learn the hard way. I know, I've done it. Years ago, I managed a sales team who sold a product that could have a dramatic impact on our customer's workflow. It was a disruptive technology. Our biggest challenge was that to take advantage of the benefits of the instrument, it required re-engineering the entire process. Our customers needed to improve their process before and after our pro

Last week, my good friend Scott Sorrell, "Mr. Charge Higher Prices", and I had the opportunity to discussed a problem we often find in companies who fail to meet their growth goals. By growth goal, I am not referring to sales goals. I mean something more far reaching than that. I am referring to company growth goals. I am referring to the company that has been stuck at $10MM a year and unable to reach the level leadership had envisioned. I wrote about this last year and since

When I hear people speak of change, what they are typically referring to is improvement. What they don't realize is change ≠ improvement. Improvement is a subset of change and a smaller subset than you might think. When I hear people speak of change, I laugh to myself. It reminds me of the lines from the song Damn it Janet in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. There's three ways that love can grow. That's good, bad, or mediocre. Well, there are three ways that change can go; good

As many Americans vote in today's mid-term elections, I can't help but think back to November of 2016. Most memorable to me is the almost unanimous failure in predicting the eventual outcome. The level of incompetence among mainstream media outlets is staggering. If any of us in business had missed the mark as badly as they did, we would have been handed our walking papers. To prevent this from happening to our companies, we need to understand why these polls were so wrong. W

What makes an organization successful? The same things that make an individual a success, good habits. It's doing things the right way repeatedly over time. For the individual, it comes down to holding oneself accountable to the best demonstrated practices. In the organization, it also includes holding others accountable. This is how good habits are formed. Within a company, a team, or a group, we call collective good habits culture. While establishing a culture of success re

Earlier this week, I had a great conversation with an executive consultant. He told me about one of his clients. The booming economy is being very good to this business owner. His company is actually selling more than they can handle. He asked me if I could help his client and if so, how? I told him I could and it all comes down to a simple equation with two variables. Simply put, the number of sales closed is equal to the product of the number of qualified opportunities and

I hear people say, "Work smart, not hard." I don't know what these people do, but it isn't sales. In my 25 plus years in sales, I have learned the correct word isn't not. It's and. I was given great hiring advice many years ago. At the time, I was a sales manager who was in the process of building a new sales team. I had many positions that needed to be filled. One of our sales directors gave me the following advice. There are three things I look for when hiring a new sales r

If you know about Sales Sigma Consulting, you already know about our commitment to the Triple Bottom Line (People-Planet-Profits). But, have you ever thought about the negative environmental impact of an inefficient sales process? Because we are a Southern California based company, I often see how many cars are out on the road. I sometimes wonder how many are sales reps on their way to an ineffective sales call? How many are going to make sales calls that don't move the sales

As a dive master, I have had the pleasure of taking many divers on adventures they had only dreamed about. My favorites were wreck dives. In San Diego, we have quite a few. It is safe, but for someone who has few deep dives under their dive belt, no experience diving the California coast, and no experience diving a wreck, it can be overwhelming. The stated reason for them hiring me was to get the most out of the dives. The underlying unstated reason was they were paying me to

In my years as a sales leader, I have traveled with more sales reps than I can count. The mix goes from the very effective to the struggling. The difference between the two is how well they plan. To assist my reps who needed help, I gave them 3 things they should always know before every meeting or phone call with a prospect or customer. This planning worked every time it was followed. The 3 steps are simple: Identify your ideal outcome. This is the best thing the prospect ca

There was a time when people thought heavier objects fell to the Earth faster than lighter objects. It is easy to see why. A rock does fall faster than a feather, but a big rock doesn't fall faster than a pebble. Today, we know all objects fall at the same rate. We even know the rate of acceleration. We know more about gravity today because we have measured it. We have even measured the effects of gravity on light. Lord Kelvin said it well: "I often say that when you can meas

Over the last couple of days, I have come across several articles written by sales consultants describing why other sales consultants have fallen short in delivering improvements to their clients. Their answers to the problem were all over the place. What they had in common is that every solution was an "off the rack" generic recommendation. I have been on too many sales calls with too many sales reps for a variety of companies to believe generic answers work. The truth is, a

When IBM developed BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Time) as part of their sales system, they were selling the best solution. The saying, "No one has ever been fired for buying an IBM." was common place in many businesses. But, that was years before we were even using the 286 (a.k.a. Intel 286). If you don't remember this technology dinosaur, you may be able to find one in a museum somewhere. Just as the 286 is not sufficient for today's computing needs, neither is BANT for sal

Over 2,300 years ago, Euclid wrote Elements. Today, the principles he wrote are still taught in every high school in America. You might remember them from geometry class, Euclidean geometry. It’s amazing when you think of it. One class that hasn’t changed since 300 BC. Everything Euclid wrote is still applicable today. So, the question is, “How can a subject remain unchanged for so long?” The answer lies in his methodology and math. Euclid approach geometry through definition