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I am shopping for additional disability insurance, and the local agency I work with here had me talk to their disability insurance specialist. For the first 10 minutes of the call, this guy talked without interruption. He would ask me questions and then answer them himself. He would take guesses about my situation without actually…

As the new year begins, let us resolve to sell proactively in 2020. Let us resolve to not only answer the incoming phone calls of complaining customers but to also proactively call happy customers who we do not hear from frequently. Let us resolve to not only jump through the hoops placed in front of us…

I have two quick questions for you on this last Monday of 2019: Which of your selling approaches, ideas or techniques worked particularly well this year (and how can you double up on them next year)? And which of your approaches didn’t generate particularly good results this year (and should you think about eliminating —…

As the year winds down, and we head towards the finish line, don’t slow down. Keep going. In fact, accelerate if you can. Make the extra call. Offer the additional product of service. Ask for the sale an extra time. Finish the year strong, so you can maintain your momentum into next year. With momentum,…

Just because a customer wants to buy from you, doesn’t mean they are the right customer for you. So many of my clients’ salespeople get “beaten up” on price and problems every day. That’s when customers call, right? When there is a problem. But there are different ways to communicate displeasure: with respect, and without it.…

It’s hard to think or plan in terms of decades, but the next one is less than a month away. How do you plan for a decade?  Since it’s such a long period of time, I think the best approach to begin by thinking in terms of the big picture: Where do you want to…

On this Thanksgiving week, here is an excerpt from my WSJ bestseller, Selling Boldly, on the power of gratitude in sales:  Gratitude is a feeling of conscious appreciation for what we have (in sales, customers), what we get to try to get (prospects), and even what we do not have (customers who are not yet…

I love U.S. history. I study it and collect it, with a focus on the founding of America. I am fascinated that a group of motivated, ambitious, very young men created the principles, laws, and documents that became (and remain!) the foundation of the United States. Jefferson was 33 years old in 1776. He wrote the…

I am so grateful to live and work in the United States. My family left communist Soviet Union in 1978 when I was two years old to chase the American Dream here. As a result, I’ve spent my life enjoying the freedoms and opportunities our amazing country offers. It’s a place where we can make…

Most of us salespeople spend most of our time with current customers. They call us. They place orders. (Bless them.) They also bring us problems and issues and urgencies all day long. And we must address them. We must resolve them. We must make them happy. There is no choice. We have to do this…