Interviews are an awkward but necessary part of the job application process that most people hate. I get it. You’re in a high-stakes situation, sitting across the table from a panel of people who have the power to give you your next opportunity, asking you to describe yourself in a…...
15 Communication Skills That Are Crucial to Sales Success
Good communication is crucial to sales success. Sounds obvious, right? You can’t make a sale unless you’ve demonstrated value to a prospect. You can’t do that unless you’ve understood their problems and devised a strategy to solve them. In turn, you can’t do that until you get your prospect to tell you…...
No One Will Try to Stop Your Success
One of the primary differences between those who are successful and those who struggle to create the results they profess to want in their life is their view of who and what prevents them. The first group, those who create success for themselves, believe that the only person capable of preventing them…...
Lead Your Sales Team Through Uncertain Times
My first tour of duty as a VP of sales coincided with the onset of the 2001 recession. Often referred to as the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the recession worsened after the 9/11 attacks, and while the economy technically recovered in the fourth quarter of that year, unemployment continued…...
5 Tactics To Create Accountability for Remote Sales Teams
Well before the age of coronavirus — it seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? — we were seeing a steady, rapid increase in sales teams who were transitioning to remote work. And for good reason: It can benefit everyone. Employees, especially millennials, appreciate the flexibility to work from anywhere, and…...
Selling During Covid. 5 Ways to Get your Team Back in the Game!
As the country starts to open up again, sales teams around the country are tentatively reaching out to customers to test their receptiveness. The art of selling products/services involves building a connection with potential buyers. Whether it’s a salesperson on a shopping floor, or sales executive on the brink…...
Top 8 Ways to Sabotage Your Sales Interview
As we’ve mentioned in an earlier post – scaling your sales team is a big responsibility as a Stretch VP of Sales. Recruiting, hiring and on-boarding Managers, Account Executives, SDRs, Sales Engineers and even Sales Enablement is a full time gig – especially as a Stretch VP, since you likely don’t have…...
6 Sales Skills You Can’t Coach
As your company grows, you will inevitably need to add sales people to your team. You'll create the job ad, get tons of applications, screen lots of resumes, and start interviewing. But now, the big question is, "what are you looking for in a sales candidate?" There are a multitude…...
The Only Three Skills That Will Matter In 2020 And Onward
Recently, I was speaking with a group of students at Columbia University. One brilliant student asked a simple question: “What are the most important skills for anyone to learn to have a great career in 2020 and onward?” I struggled for a short while and then summarized them as…...
Emotional Intelligence Matters in Sales
Emotional intelligence is a valuable skill in any career, but even more so in sales. Emotional intelligence is the ability to manage and monitor your emotions, and influence and understand the emotions of others. Someone with high emotional intelligence does not allow their emotions to dictate their decisions or actions;…...
Building a Sales Team That Stays: Recruiting and Retaining Millennials
If you're a B2B sales manager, you're always concerned with filling your open sales representative positions. We hear you, and we feel for you. Last year, we received countless questions from customers and partners seeking our advice on how to attract and retain sales representatives, particularly Millennials. So we…...
What Is A Successful Sales Personality?
How do you rank above your competition if you have the same education, willingness, and resources provided to you as every other sales representative applicant? The personality traits of top salespeople may have a significant impact on their success. Personality traits among salespeople, such as being trustworthy, friendly, and modest,…...
3 Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team — Without Stressing Them Out
It’s widely accepted that if you are in sales, you will have a quota. Achieve your quota, good job. Miss your quota, bad job. Miss your quota by a lot or miss it multiple times: no job. This creates stress for individual sellers and the sales organization as a whole.…...
7 Tips to Skyrocket Performance In Small Sales Teams
You don’t need a big sales team to make a lot of money. Small sales teams can perform incredibly well if you get the right balance of skills, motivation, and resources. But how can you go about that? How can you inspire your sales team to go above and beyond?…...
Hiring Sales Reps: 3 Tips for Better, Faster Sales Hires
What’s your approach when hiring sales reps? Companies often hire sales reps who have knowledge of, or even a passion for, the brand’s product or industry — which is great because it gives you a team of “walking brochures” who can spout off all the benefits of your product.…...
Public Image: What Agencies Must Do to Attract and Retain Talent
A now all-too-familiar narrative in the insurance industry is that attracting and retaining talent will continue to be a challenge. Why? There are a range of reasons that boil down to, in part, perception. Simply put, the public’s perception of insurance does not meet reality. Time and time…...
