Latest Articles
Latest Articles
If the Phone Were Invented After Email
In a review for my new book, Pick Up The Phone and Sell, a reviewer named Sean wrote one of the most fascinating ideas I’ve read all year: “If the phone were invented after email, we would claim it was a technological marvel that would revolutionize sales.” My...
Let’s Focus on What We Can Control
Late last week, we learned that my brand new book, Pick Up The Phone & Sell, hit the WSJ bestseller list list in its first week of publication. This is tremendous news, and I very much appreciate your support in making this happen. Thank you! To commemorate this...
The Lost Art of Proactive Calling in the Sales Profession
This is an excerpt from my new book, Pick Up The Phone & Sell, which published on Wednesday. It is the full text of Chapter 1. As I send you this, there are now 23 reviews posted on Amazon. They are from salespeople, managers, executives and business owners. Go...
Proactive Calls As The Tip of Your Selling Spear
In my new book, Pick Up The Phone & Sell, I argue that you should make proactive calls the tip of your selling spear. That is, lead with the phone. Make it the first activity in your communications process, not the one you lead up to with other (electronic)...
Be An Island of Dependability for Your Customers In These Stressful Times
I’ve been traveling again to conference speeches, client workshops, and meetings with prospective clients. In the last week, I’ve had three different flights cancelled. Two others have been delayed by more than three hours. Last night at O’Hare a glance at the flight...
The Power of Proactive Selling
About 95% of companies -- your competition -- sell reactively. That is, they await incoming inquiries, orders, and requests, and fill the orders. That's because these inquiries, requests, and orders (and problems) come in all day long, and unless you quickly plan and...
The Many Selling Lessons Giant Pumpkins Teach
I've kept a large vegetable garden for about 20 years, but the last couple of years I've engaged in a related but all-encompassing hobby: growing giant pumpkins. As I write this, my two giants are estimated to be 800 pounds and 707 pounds (pic of the larger one...
The Four Mindsets for Sales Growth
We salespeople worry about offending our customers and prospects. We are fearful about overstepping, over-communicating. We are timid, because we don’t want to annoy. So we stay quiet, out of the way, because “if they need me, they will call me.” But that’s not how to...
Nobody Fails More Than Salespeople
Sure, sales is a tough profession. Nobody gets rejected more than us. Nobody experiences failure after expending significant focused effort more than us. In baseball, you're one of the best who has ever played if you fail 70% of the time. In sales, we fail more than...
As Supply Constraints Ease, An Extraordinary Opportunity To Permanently Grow Sales
Manufacturers and distributors make up about 80% of my clients. They are in sexy industries like lumber, chemicals, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and other industries that make the world go around. The vast majority of my clients are currently supply constrained. That...