Articles that will change your game
Reinforcement is the most overlooked step in sales training. It determines whether new skills are applied or forgotten. Without daily inspection and reinforcement, reps return to old habits and pipeline...
Sales training is the process of improving how reps execute in live sales situations. It focuses on building the skills required to run effective discovery, qualify opportunities accurately, and close deals...
Deal scoring is a method for evaluating the health and quality of sales opportunities using defined inputs. It’s used to assess which deals are real, which ones are at risk, and which are unlikely to close. A...
Forecasting is a core part of sales leadership and one of the easiest places for bad data to hide(only 45% of sales organizations trust their forecast according to Gartner). Many teams rely on close dates,...
Your pipeline isn’t broken because your team isn’t working hard enough. It’s broken because there’s no system in place telling them which deals are worth working. Most reps are willing to chase anything with a...
“Our pipeline looks strong.”“We’re tracking to plan.”“Q4 is going to be big.” If you’ve been in the CRO seat for more than a quarter, you’ve heard these words—and felt your gut say “…I hope they’re right.”...
Your sales team isn’t struggling because they’re lazy. They’re struggling because they were never taught how to sell the right way. Too often, reps are handed a quota and a product deck but not the skills...
Struggling to predict revenue? You’re not alone. In fact, 79% of sales teams miss their forecasts by more than 10%, leaving leaders with inconsistent performance and missed targets. These challenges often stem...
More Pipeline Doesn’t Mean More Revenue When revenue slows, the default reaction is predictable: “Double the pipeline.” “Fill the funnel.” “Get more leads.” It’s a familiar play, but one that rarely produces a...
B2B sales in 2025 isn’t what it used to be. The old playbook, the one that relied on volume outreach, rigid qualification frameworks, and product led sales, doesn’t work anymore. Buying cycles are stretching...
Most sales growth plans don’t work. They look good on paper, more pipeline, more activity, more revenue. But, they’re typically built on inflated forecasts, bad qualification, and deals that will never close....
Pipeline reviews are a mess. They’ve been around forever, yet most sales leaders still run them like status updates. Reps show up unprepared, managers ask ‘when is this deal closing?’ and everyone pretends the...
Sales leaders love quota attainment. It’s the default scoreboard for performance. Reps live and die by their number. Hit it, and you’re a rockstar. Miss it, and you’re a problem. Sound about right? But, quota...
Most B2B sales training programs don’t work. Companies pour millions in training, yet win rates stay low, sales cycles drag, and reps still struggle to close. Why? Because most programs focus on the...
Your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is out of control, and it’s killing your margins. Every dollar wasted on inefficient sales and marketing is a dollar that isn’t fueling growth. You don’t have a marketing...
Long sales cycles are one of the most persistent and costly problems in B2B sales. When deals drag on, they strain resources, create forecast uncertainty, and reduce overall revenue efficiency. Despite this,...
8 minute abs. 30 day transformations. Instant quota attainment. Sales is starting to look at lot like the fitness industry. Fast results with minimal effort. No struggle, no real work, just hacks, tools and...
Why Your Sales Team is Losing and You Don’t Even Know it Most sales teams are broken, and the people running them have no clue. They drown in activity, chase bad deals, and celebrate pipeline volume like it’s...
Low close rates are a symptom, not the disease. Too often, sales leader misdiagnose the problem, blaming reps for lack of follow-up, weak negotiation skills, or simply not hustling enough. It’s an easy...
Google “sales discovery” and you’ll be hit with an avalanche of advice. Hundred of blogs, videos, and downloadable PDFs all promising to transform your pipeline with magical lists and foolproof scripts. Titles...
Sales teams aren’t losing deals because of bad pitches or tough competition — they’re losing because buyers and sellers aren’t on the same page about the real problem. 48% of buyers say they’ve bought the...
Why are sales forecasts so damn unreliable? If you’re leading a sales team or running revenue operations, you’ve probably been burned by forecasts that looked solid on paper but fell apart by the end of the...
Salespeople don’t lose deals because of price. They lose because they fail to make buyers care about the value. Shaving a few bucks off the bottom is not what wins a deal. What wins is when a salesperson can...
It’s that time of year again. The deals you thought were dead suddenly come back to life. Buyers who ghosted for months resurface and sales floors are buzzing with that familiar, frantic energy. Your sales...
Whether we like it or not, buyer-seller relationships are built on trust, yet, many of the behaviors observed in modern sellers erode that trust. Buyers are looking for someone who is credible. They couldn’t...
Let me be straight: most companies are approaching their Sales Kickoffs with misguided enthusiasm. Significant budgets have been allocated to speakers, venues, and team activities. But, is this temporary...
Salespeople are missing a crucial opportunity. Buyers enter the sales process looking for help – guidance in understanding their challenges, clarity on their goals, and insight into potential solutions. Yet,...
Winning sales isn’t about being the market leader or offering the lowest price – it’s about how you position your solution to align with the prospect’s needs and priorities. Many salespeople lose deals because...
If more activity guaranteed better sales, every team would crush their numbers. But here we are – sales leaders piling on activity KPIs, and reps running harder on the hamster wheel without making progress....
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
Deals get stuck because the buyer doesn’t believe your solution is worth the effort, time, or money right now. It’s not because your product doesn’t work or your service doesn’t solve a problem. The buyer...
Sales managers bridge a crucial gap between sales leadership and front-line salespeople. They execute strategies, support teams, and enable sales organizations success. Yet, many companies fail to give sales...
When was the last time you analyzed the deals in your sales pipeline? Have you ever taken a look and thought, “This looks like fluff?” Deals that could look promising on paper but you know they’ll never close,...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
If 2024 has taught me anything, it’s that product buying is killing sales organizations from the inside out – especially when it comes to sales training and enablement. Product buying means investing in...
Effective discovery calls should focus on the buyer, their problems, and their desired outcomes. However, there’s a disconnect between what buyers want and what they’re getting from salespeople in these early...
Tesla’s Model Y costs about $20,000 more than comparable electric SUVs, yet they delivered over 1.2 million units in 2023. Competitors have slashed prices and offered incentives while Tesla maintains the...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
Scroll through LinkedIn, every post and comment sounds almost identical. Imagine being on the receiving end of messages like that, hundreds of them, each one varying slightly from the same template, each one...
It’s pretty simple, most buyers just won’t respond to cold outreach. But why? In ASG’s recent comprehensive buyer survey, buyer’s were pretty clear: they will respond, but only if the approach focuses on them...
I recently revisited an episode of RadioLab called “Cut and Run.” For those unfamiliar, RabioLab is known for exploring the boundaries between science, philosophy, and human experience. This particular episode...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
Man, is knowing if a deal will close important to the sales world. It’s the center of every pipeline meeting and every executive conversation at the end of the quarter. Knowing if a deal is going to close is...
Salespeople have long operated under a set of assumptions about what buyers want and need during the sales process. A Sales Growth Company decided to test those assumptions. We conducted a survey of over 1,200...
Thanks Jen, I have received the information, I just haven’t had the time to take a look at it yet. Do you mind calling back next week?” “Thanks for setting us up on the demo, we’ll play with it and get back to...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
Every time I ask a V.P. of Sales/CSO or even a sales manager if they have coaching methodology in place, I always get a similar answer; “Yes, we do them once or twice a year.” I then ask, are...
Half of all B2B purchases fail to solve the intended business problem. This widespread issue stems from a critical gap – buyers often don’t fully grasp the problem they’re trying to address, leading them to...
This is a follow up to the 11 Things Great Salespeople Don’t Do. There are two sides to sales. The salespeople and the those that lead them. Each of them has a distinct and different role. Salespeople go...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
I rarely make purchases on behalf of the company. I have the opportunity to make plenty of them but it rarely happens. Why? Firstly, because I’m afraid. It’s not my money that I’m spending but I am entirely...
So you’re thinking about offering a discount. Maybe sales are slow or you think a big client might balk at the pricing structure. Whatever the reason, you’re here because you’re considering taking a chunk out...
Your CRM is a tool. That’s all. And, like most tools, you have to us it correctly if want get the most out of it. Learning to Use Tools Correctly Have you ever seen a little kid use a hammer for...
Quota, quota, quota. Ever feel like that’s the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing on your mind before bed? It’s a big one. What’s the secret to killing sales quota? It’s not more...
Your sales managers are the most important pieces of your sales organization. Not your reps, not your “visionary” VP, it’s the sales managers. Don’t believe me? Who is in the trenches day in and day out? Who...
There’s a whole bunch of stuff that goes into a CRM. Sometimes it’s useful, others it’s as useful as a screen door on a submarine. I don’t care what your CRM currently looks like or what requirements your...
I feel pretty confident in saying one of the most frustrating parts of a seller’s life is dealing with a cold prospect. You’ve just had a dope call, the prospect is nodding along, seemingly salivating over...
I’m going to cut straight to the chase. The absolute worst leadership type – the good person who turns into an asshole as soon as they are promoted to a leadership role. Before you come for me, I know, a lot...
One of the hardest tasks for revenue leadership is finding the right salespeople. Great sellers are the lifeblood of a successful business and not everyone has that edge. In this post, I want to zero in on the...
Not all sales training is created equal. We’ve all been there, stuck in a half day session that feels like it’s never going to end, your to-do list continues to grow, and you can’t wait to check your email to...
It looks like a client of mine is about to lose a massive deal. A serious sales failure is unfolding and the root of the problem? The seller has no fucking clue what they’re selling. When I say that, I don’t...
When I ask a server what they think about a dish, if they say it’s excellent, I say great and I then ask about another menu item. If they say that one is good too, I then ask about another. If the server...
Let’s talk about the qualifying process. Qualifying prospects is an essential part of a fluid sales process for a couple of reasons. One, we don’t want to spend too much time on unqualified leads or...
With football season coming back, I was reminded of a blunder from the 2005 San Diego Chargers. It’s a story not about football, but about leadership. The Drew Brees Trade For those of you who are not...
“No we’re all set.” “We’re happy with what we have.” “We’re not looking to change at this time.” How often have you heard any of these from potential clients? They’re words that stop most sales professionals...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
As a sales leader with decades of experience, I’ve developed a sharp eye for sales tactics – both good and bad. All these years, make me a real tough sell for any seller. Whether it’s a high schooler...
Enablement, sit up and take notice. Replicate Labs just released a new study, and the findings should raise some serious red flags for how your teaching efforts are being perceived. In their study, Replicate...
Change management psychology is as relevant as ever in business conversations. Countless theories exist about the best approach. However, there’s an old saying – “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Let’s take a...
A couple months ago we talked about how salespeople can be their own worst enemy. However, very little in life is black and white. Today, we’re going to talk about how companies can be the root cause of their...
Coaching, especially in sales, is a cornerstone of effective leadership. I’ve long believed that coaching is an indispensable tool for driving success. Whether you’re leading a sales organization or managing...
I’m sitting in a pipeline meeting and ask the rep if the deal will close. He confidently replies, “Yes!” “Great,” I say, “How do you know?” The rep responds, “The prospect told me. She said they’re going with...
Have you ever just watched a hamster on a wheel? Little dude’s hustling, no doubt. He’s working hard, putting in the effort, but, despite all that where is he heading? Absolutely nowhere. This is one of the...
Salespeople are not leveraging their sales data. Don’t believe me? Off the top of your head, can you tell me your close rate for the last quarter? What about your average deal size over the past 6 months? Do...
In spite of, or because of, large buying committees, access to information, and strong referrals, buyers are still struggling to make the right choice in their buying decisions. In today’s hyper...
Getting better at something is hard. Really, really, freaking hard. You can’t do it playing on the surface. You can’t do it without digging deep, challenging yourself, and letting others push you. A couple...
As a buyer, have you been in a sales call where a seller keeps asking you what you want but you realize you’re not totally sure? I found myself in this situation way back when I decided to release the audio...
How many pipeline meetings have you been a part of and heard things like “deal is looking good, waiting for feedback from the demo”, “I think we’ll close soon, they seem interested”? Far too many sales...
When you’re in the business of providing services, the mutual respect between provider and client is everything. At A Sales Growth Company we pride ourselves on being flexible, innovative, nimble, and decisive...
Sales enablement professionals, we see you, we hear you. You’ve been investing resources into training and developing salespeople. Despite your efforts, leadership is demanding evidence that your work is...
Welcome to Mavens of Modern Sales, where we take a deep dive with the sales leaders pulling sales teams in the 21st century to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. This week...
Today’s economic climate is a Darwinian perfect storm designed to rid markets of bad companies, under performing assets and average salespeople. The Chopping Block Today’s market is going to mercilessly...
How many times have you sat in a meeting agreeing with everything everyone else was saying regardless of whether you agreed with what was being said or not? How many times have you gotten dressed, looked in...
Has someone asked you recently what you do and then when you tell them you’re a salesperson they give you an odd look? That bad taste of salespeople still plagues our world. The stereotypical...
In 2023, only 28% of sales professionals expected to hit quota. 62% of sales teams say their sales process needs work. LinkedIn “sales gurus” keep telling us that outbound is dead, cold email is dead, BDRs...
Beyond the Job Title Yes, I know. You’re a sales guy or gal. But who are you? When you attach your name to a salesperson or sales leader, or accountant, or teacher, or plumber or whatever, how does that...
One of the members of this community asked me if I’d do a post on scaling sales teams. I thought his question was a good one. Would love to see you write a post on your thoughts on scaling a sales team that...
Welcome to our new interview series, Mavens of Modern Sales, where we go behind the scenes with top sales executives to get their insights on leadership, strategy, industry trends, and more. In the inaugural...
I see this far too often. Sales management and sales leaders reactively manage their people. They reactively manage because they to manage to results. Results are a trailing indicator in sales. If you...
Sales forecasts suck. They’re constantly inaccurate and consistently a thorn in the side of every sales leader. Despite investments in the latest CRM add-ons, forecast tools, and “new and improved processes”...
Sales enablement, this is for you. Tired of feeling the constant pressure to prove your worth? Find yourself lying awake, wondering if your efforts and investments are moving the needle? Have you been...
Having a consistent coaching cadence for leading and engaging with your sales team is one of, if not, the most important piece of your day to day as a sales leader. A cadence is simply a rhythmic pattern or...
The sales community bid farewell to BANT, which peacefully passed away after decades of ‘guiding’ sales professionals. Born in the golden era of traditional selling, BANT was 72(ish). BANT’s journey began in...
Nearly every salesperson has a horror story about a toxic, incompetent, or downright awful sales manager. These negative experiences often stem from specific managerial behaviors that can serve as clear...
It was only a matter of time before AI took over both sides of the cold email equation. With all the recently launched sales outreach platforms that promised to revolutionize personalized cold emails at scale,...
Now more than ever, with tight spending layoffs, and increasingly difficult sales processes, it’s vital for businesses to have a deep understanding of their target audience. Developing an Ideal Customer...
DENVER, CO – As the year drew to a close, many orgs had something to celebrate. One such celebration was for what may consider a “historically mediocre” milestone: achieving a 50% CRM data input rate by its’...
Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer. You’re looking to buy some new software. One of the potential vendors subscribes to the MEDDIC sales methodology. You schedule a call, and during the call, the sellers...
I’m guessing if you’ve stumbled here, you’ve had the same question I’ve had – what the heck is an NPS score? You’re clearly not alone. This is hopefully the quick and dirty guide to what they are, why they’re...
In an odd twist to the ever-evolving “next best thing” in cold email, some forward-thinking sales orgs are introducing a melodic approach to client engagement: personalized songs. This new initiative, which...
In 2016, during a presentation at DreamForce about coaching, Keenan said something that struck a chord with the leadership in attendance: “Nobody brags about developing somebody.” This observation...
DENVER, CO – Amongst the rhythmic hums of phones and constant clack of keywords, it’s just another day for Dave Reynolds. He’s grabbing a coffee in between sales calls when we caught up with him. He sits back...
We’ve all been there. You’re looking for a new software to streamline a nagging process. You reach out to the industry leaders, expecting high end service, only to find delays, unfulfilled promises, and...
They say even a broken clock is right twice a day, but this scenario was beyond our wildest expectations. For years, sellers have deployed humor as a tool to rekindle conversations that had flatlined. Familiar...
I’m going to cut to the chase, if you’re not coachable, you are a liability. Leaders, do yourselves a favor and remove the uncoachable folks from your team. Coachability is one of, if not the most important...
DENVER, CO – A paradigm shift is shaking the foundations of traditional sales methodologies as the Sales Funnel faces a potential overthrow from its long-standing throne. Sales leaders are steering away...
There’s a mindset that slowly crept it’s way into our day to day sales operations. It’s that buddy who asks to stay on your couch and you let him and then 6 months later he’s still there and you can’t get him...
In a surprising move, sales managers across the country have begun to embrace a practice typically reserved for servers, drivers, and street performers – accepting tips for their coaching services. Inspired by...
A sales discovery call is a pivotal, make or break moment in a sales journey. Sellers have a storied history of making one giant mistake – failing to define every piece of information given, comprehensively....
Leadership is hard. I mean real leadership. Not many people are good at it. I’ve had a number of boss’s in my life, but only a few were actual leaders. I’ve been a boss a number of times and...
Customer Acquisition Cost or CAC is a key marketing and sales KPI that everyone in the space should know like the back of their hand. It is a comprehensive indicator of the effectiveness of your sales and...
If you’re a part of the business of selling and you care about your clients, your personal development, your career, and your company, then I have a message for you. It’s 2024 and we’re still...
There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Sales questions are make or break when you’re on a call with a potential client. There isn’t an expert, trainer, or resource who will argue this. But,...
CRM: More Than Just a Management Tool Yeah, I get it. Most of you think the CRM is a waste of time. Most of you think the CRM just slows you down and that it’s a pain in the ass. You see it as something...
Win rates are one sales metric that may stand alone as the single most important KPI. However, a staggering number of organizations struggle with alarmingly low win rates. Like 15-20%, low. These disappointing...
All change is hard, but developing a routine is key. Today we’re taking a book from a personal running journey, stepping up from an aimless routine, and crafting a killer sales process. Ditch the old...
What is Sales Coaching? Sales coaching is the gap between onboarding and, ideally, ongoing sales training. If you’re not regularly training your teams that’s an entirely separate issue and you need to sort...
Introduction to Sales Training programs Sales training is a necessity for any high performing business. It equips sales teams with critical skills, knowledge, and confidence, fundamentally changing their...
Let’s face it, Requests for Proposals (RFPs) are universally dreaded in the business world and rightfully so. They are bureaucratic tools that create more problems than they solve, complicating the procurement...
Close rates are a pivotal metric when you are assessing the effectiveness of your sales teams and strategies. Understanding your close rate allows sales leadership to quickly diagnose key sales issues. ...
It’s not an uncommon scenario in sales: sales performance starts to slip, revenue begins to slide, and the sales leadership starts to get pressure from the rest of the organization. There’s challenges in...
Growing Effectively: Keys to Scaling a Sales Teams Growth can’t be just a goal in SaaS and tech. It can’t be a maybe, it’s a must. Industry giants like TechCrunch and Mashable will confirm this....
Journey back with me to a time before A Sales Guy became a Sales Growth Company, when we were knee deep in the trenches of sales hiring. Challenges in hiring salespeople Hiring, universally, is fraught...
This week on Gap Sell Keenan, we’re joined by a gamification company, where Steve from Outbound Game steps in to identify and tackle potential issues within our training protocols. This episode serves as...
Salespeople fail all the time. Depending on how you look at it, or who you ask, sellers fail more often than not. They fail for 2 reasons, they fail themselves or the company fails them. This is how you’re...
We live in a constantly evolving world. Self development, professional development, and learning is a never-ending journey without a final chapter. The ability to adapt is non-negotiable. Sales has gone...
The critical link between products and problems Connecting the dots between a product and its relevance to a specific problem is a critical aspect of Gap Selling. Recently, we found ourselves on the...
We’ve done 70 episodes of Gap Sell Keenan and there remains a recurring theme. Sellers still struggle to answer what problems do you solve? This seemingly simple question stumps our guests time and time again....
Acknowledging a weakness is the first step towards improvement. Our society has created a hesitancy, especially among high level professional, to admit when things aren’t going smoothly. The competitive nature...
Gap Selling is more than a new set of tactics for a seller. It is a profound shift in sales mindset that separates the good from the great. Having read the book, following our newsletters, or watching...
Traditional discovery questions are garbage and they’re ruining your sales processes, causing buyer fatigue, and wasting valuable sales leads from the jump. Stop asking these discovery questions For...
You’ve prospected well, you’ve set a meeting, you think it goes well, but the buyer disappears after. What happened? You botched it somewhere. A lot of sellers fail to effectively communicate and...
For those of you who have siblings, follow along (and if you don’t – well, skip this part). Remember when you and your sibling tried to get permission for something cool from your parents? You and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YtZHx–ePY&feature=youtu.be Selling in a competitive market can be a grind. Your prospects have been beaten down time and time again by competitors. They’ve likely chosen...
The success of your business largely hinges on the success and effectiveness of your sales team. An inadequately trained sales team can lead to stagnant growth, plummeting revenue, and missed opportunities....
If you are a problem-centric, buyer-centric, customer-centric, solution-centric, pick a fucking buzzword seller then you need to have a clear grasp of the problems you solve. While you may address numerous...
When I was 24 years old, I moved from Boston to Rome with 4 suitcases, no job lined up, a meager amount in savings, and one friend of a friend to call when I got there. I had recently completed a Master’s...
There’s a theme developing over the last few episodes of Gap Sell Keenan. There’s a lot of telling and not a lot of asking. What separates a good selling from the average? The really good salesperson has the...
There is a daily discussion, dilemma, hot take, whatever you want to call it that plagues salespeople: the challenge of overcoming objections and price negotiations. ‘Should I drop my price to secure a deal?’...
If you’ve watched enough Gap Sell Keenans, you know, one of the top 3 problems salespeople have is not asking the right sales questions. They don’t fully understand where they are trying to carry the...
Sales, you’re not listening. It’s recently become crystal clear to me that a really ugly pattern has managed to sneak it’s way in to most of your sales conversations. Recently is a little misleading....
Success in sales is hard. Sometimes it’s elusive and complicated. Sales people are continuously searching high and low for the secret ingredients, the hidden shortcuts, and the newest sales tips that will...
We can’t say this loud enough, B2B sales is changing. Relentlessly pushing products and hammering prospects with your rehearsed sales pitch is dead. Developing a successful sales approach needs to focus on...
Managing a team effectively is akin to fine-tuning an engine. Every piece must work effectively and in coordination with each other. One of my all-time favorite management tools? The Behaviors vs. Results...
Evaluating Your Q4 Sales Pipeline – The Sales Quota Calculator It’s the first week of October and the first week of Q4. Most of us have put Q3 behind us, good or bad and we’re squarely focused on making...
Whether you’re new in your sales career or in search of fresh content to up your game, picking a solid sales book can be just the thing to get you back on track. Since there are endless options to choose from,...
Most of you are probably too young to remember the start of electronic communication. In those days we’d craft a generic sales email and then blast it out to thousands of contacts hoping for a response. Those...
Lead qualification is the process of evaluating and categorizing leads based on their potential to become paying customers. It’s identifying which leads are genuine fits for your product, show interest,...
Product Demos in the B2B Sales Process Product demos and free trials seem to be the thing these days, particularly in the realm of SaaS (Software as a Service). Everyone’s itching to get their mitts on...
You’re Not Selling a Product Let’s get one thing crystal clear: if you can’t articulate what you’re selling, you might as well be walking blindfolded through a maze. Selling is not a guessing game, it’s...
Not all great salespeople are cut out to be great sales leaders. It’s comparing apples and oranges. In this post, I want to unravel the reasons some people who excel at selling don’t necessarily shine when...
How is King Midas Related to Sales Success? What do you touch that turns to gold? An answer to that simple question is the key to your success in sales, business, relationships and . . . shit let’s just say...
Strategies for Discovery Call Prep Discovery calls are the lifeblood of a sales professional’s success. There’s a reason every guru and influencer hammers on the importance of a discovery. Discovery calls are...
How a Calculated Sales Risk Paid Off One of the top selling Tequilas in the world doesn’t allow the word tequila to be used when referring to it’s product. Yes, it’s on the bottle, but that’s pretty much the...
This is a common mistake I see in the sales world. So many people are constantly searching for others to handle things for them. I’ve always been a firm believer in the power of sales coaching. When I...
The Sales Strategy that Made a Skatepark a Reality This is how my feisty 14 year old self accidentally Gap Sold my town into building a skatepark. Buckle up! Because I’m going to walk you through my...
Sales Training or Sales Education? Sales training, we’ve all been through it. In almost every case it’s about teaching us something new. I’m a fan of sales training because I’m a fan of learning. Anytime I or...
Building and Sustaining Company Culture: Leadership’s Role A company culture starts at the top. I’ve been in companies with phenomenal cultures where I bled the company red and I’ve worked at companies...
A Sales Guide to Gross Margin I talked about the profit and loss statement in an earlier post, but wanted to tackle gross margin today. What is Gross Margin? Gross margin is a part of the P&L statement and...
Why Your Martyr Mindset Hinders Your Team’s Growth In the competitive world of sales, many sales leaders often find themselves shouldering numerous responsibilities, striving to boost sales team...
The Influence of Government Mandates This week, I’m going to talk about government mandates. Mandates are a BIG deal and affect every business in the country. Knowing the mandates that govern your customers...
Put Your Customer First: Embracing a Customer Centric Attitude Customer centricity and problem centricity are the future of sales and marketing. Rather than pushing your products or services, customer centric...
The Ultimate Sales Guide to Inventory Turn and Inventory Velocity I’m gonna take a break from economic indicators this week. Parts 1 through 4 of this series can be found below: Profit and Loss...
Avoiding the Pitfalls of the Product Pitch This happens all the time on sales calls – we’re doing a discovery and we get flustered when the buyer doesn’t have a problem or an apparent “need” for our product....
The Consumer Price Index Sales Guide: Navigating Market Fluctuations I’m kinda enjoying posting on the economic indicators. I’m having fun with this part of the series. I hope you are too. Last week we talked...
Deceptive Sales Tactics Exposed I was a victim of the “lie” sales technique the other day and it pissed me off. I pulled into a gas station to fill up. While I was standing next to my car, a young man about 25...
Consumer Confidence and Sales: How Economic Factors Impact Prospects In this weeks blog, I’m going to cover consumer confidence. I figured I would make this the first of a number of economic indicator posts....
Selling Change Sales is predicated on change. Anyone disagree with me on this? The whole point of selling or buying is change is required or desired. You want a new car, the company needs new design software,...
How Customer Company Culture Can Influence Sales “No companies, vendors, suppliers or anyone wishing to do business with [company] can contact directly or speak to anyone about their products or services, nor...
Understanding Sales Qualified Leads What qualifies as an opportunity and how do you identify a sales qualified lead when it comes along? Decision criteria can be all over the place depending on the individual...
Impact of Capital Expenses and Operating Expenses Over the last three weeks we talked about the 3 key financial statements; the income statement, the balance sheet and the cashflow statement. Today we’re going...
Nurturing a Healthy Sales Organization for Long-Term Success Sales is hard. I say it all the time. In particular, running, leading and building sales teams is hard. But, just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we...
Harnessing the Sales Power of Cash Flow Statements This week we’re going to talk about cash flow statements. I find cash flow statements to be the most confusing and complicated of the three key financial...
Customer-Centric Practices to Reduce Churn – Are you treating your customers like dead beats? Recently, I was working with one of my clients. Their business is a SaaS business. They have recognized that...
Sales training is essential for any business looking to grow and succeed. It empowers sales teams with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to maximize their performance and reach their targets. In this blog...
Decoding Balance Sheets for Sales Growth Last week, we went through the Profit and Loss Statement. This week we’re going to tackle the balance sheet. The balance sheet and the profit and loss statement go...
Assumptions in Sales: Risks, Rewards, and Best Practices Too often people make the assumption, that in sales assumptions are bad. That is a bad assumption. Assumptions are great. We need to make assumptions....
Exploring the Intersection of Sales and Customer Profit and Loss Statements I’m starting a new weekly sales series focusing on business concepts. Business is at the core of sales. B2B sales don’t happen unless...
How do you define hard work? What is Hard Work? Is your definition solely limited to work that is labeled as “hard”? Have you ever considered the intricacies of this idea? I was pondering this...
Unveiling Your Unique Value: What Makes You Different at What You Do? We all wear different hats and bring something different and unique to the table. Whether it’s a salesperson, a teacher, a doctor, a...
Why Focusing on Problems vs Outcomes, Drives Sales Success The Dangers of Outcome Selling If you’ve been tuning in to the Gap Sell Keenans for a while, you’ve surely notice how much Keenan loves to ask,...
Harnessing the Power of Self Growth: Moving from Knowing to Doing Breaking the ‘I Know Cycle’ Every day I have a conversation with someone who isn’t where they want to be in their life or...
The Importance of Sales Tools For any professional, their tools are the heart and soul of their craft, allowing them to executer their work with precision. Sales tools are no different, where the right tools...
Mastering Sales Reporting: Essential Metrics, KPIs, and Reporting Cadence for Business Success The Importance of Sales Reporting in Driving Business Success A good friend of mine once told me that in business,...
Sales Account Strategy: Aligning Your Goals with Your Customer’s Needs The Importance of Strategies in Account Management Strategy and account management provide a clear window in the process of...
Driving account success with an effective sales cadence. You’ve heard the term sales cadence before. But, do you know how to implement a sales cadence that drives results? Many organizations tend to shy...
One of the first things that’s taught to new sellers is the stages of the sales process. Many new hires walk through the door and the first question they’re asked is what are the 7 stages of the...
The value of trust in sales processes cannot be underestimated. Relationships are a key factor in the business world. The sales world has been captivated by the notion of how relationships affect sales success...
Would you like to take a question test that measures your ability to ask questions and improve your chance to win the sale? Can you have a conversation by only asking questions? Do you think you...
So you want to build a winning sales team? Conventional wisdom probably leads you to believe that you need to go find the best salesperson in your industry and steal them from a competitor. But what if I told...
If the account vision is the compass of account management, then sales strategy plans and account plans are the ship. Sales strategy plans are where the execution happens. It’s the engine to successful account...
If you’re going to become successful at Gap Selling you need to start asking why. Getting to the why in sales is a crucial skill of a talented Gap Seller. Why? Kids are great at asking why. They...
The secret to successful account management lies in developing the account, not just selling to it. At the center of that development is account vision. Unlike hunting and territory management, the...
Do you track everything and make adjustments constantly? You should be. Personal and professional growth increases exponentially when you have specific goals you’re working towards. To reach those goals...
We’re going to be running a series for the next couple of weeks, focusing on account governance. I’ve chosen account governance, as it’s the underlying process to account management. I haven’t...
Does your CRM feel like more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to selling? It’s a common issue, but the problem likely isn’t the CRM itself. It’s probable that you and your...
You should never ask the buyers the impact of their problems. Your job as a seller and as a Gap Seller is to find the value or the Gap for your client or prospect. As humans, we naturally want to get to the...
There is no debate that questions are at the core of selling. There isn’t a sales guru, training, blog or sales video channel that doesn’t espouse the importance of questions in managing a sale. That debate...
Personalization, credibility, and value – probably the 3 most common buzzwords in the sales world today. Being a market expert gives you the ability to accomplish all 3. As a sales rep, your success depends on...
Change is at the center of selling — period! No change, no sale. I’m on the record of saying this a thousand times. There will be no sale without a motivation to change. Therefore, to understand selling and to...
Pushing a demo during discovery is dangerous. As sales professionals we get excited about the products we sell. We want to show people how great they are, that’s a natural feeling. But if you push too...
If you’re looking to boost your sales, sell more effectively, and close more deals, the first step is to thoroughly understand your customer’s business. This involves conducting extensive research on their...
At ASG we have a unique company culture and one of the key characteristics of that culture is what we call the Freedom Box. In short, the Freedom Box is allowing our employees to do their job as they see fit....
If you want to learn how to be a better seller, start here: give a shit! This is the story about a salesman who missed one crucial aspect of selling – he put his needs and wants before his clients....
To be a good salesperson, you need to have a great sales mindset. You need to want to be a great salesperson. If you don’t want something you’re unlikely to be good at it. How many times have you heard some...
Now that we understand our ICP, Business Problems, and we understand that features are not going to win in a recession it’s time to place the final puzzle piece. We need to draw our attention to the most...
Part 3 of the 3 sales environments: The prospect doesn’t know they have a problem and don’t know that anything needs to be solved. There are only 3 sales environments. That’s it. All sales,...
The current economic climate has a created a unique set of challenges for businesses and their sales teams. In a recession, cash flow is king. Companies are looking for ways to optimize their operations and...
Part 2 of the 3 sales environments: The prospect knows they have a problem but doesn’t know how to solve it. There are only 3 sales environments. That’s it. All sales, regardless of product or...
Look, selling in a recession is tough. Every salesperson in the world is looking at their quota and trying to figure out how they’re going to hit their numbers when companies are tightening their budgets....
There are only 3 sales environments. That’s it. All sales, regardless of product or complexity, will fall into one of these three environments. Knowing which environment your selling in is critical. This is a...
Selling in a recession is hard. Period. Companies are becoming extra cost conscious, they’re evaluating every aspect of their business for things to cull. Becoming recession proof requires you to stop...
Learning how to sell in a recession is hard. Unfortunately, when it comes to selling during a recession conventional wisdom is failing most salespeople. Much of the advice is hollow and not useful to achieving...
Do you know what problems your customers might have, probably have or most certainly have? When you reach out to a customer or prospect, do you have a good idea what problems they are challenged with BEFORE...
Sales coaching is the most valuable element of a sales team. If you don’t buy into this, you can stop reading. This post is about getting the most out of coaching your people, why sales coaching is important,...
Last week we talked about why it’s vital to not use LinkedIn as a cold selling platform. A bunch of you didn’t agree and wanted more on the right way to use LinkedIn and social selling to further your sales....
Sales coaching has one purpose and that is to make the salesperson better. It’s that simple. Coaching is about analyzing what a salesperson is doing in order to enhance their skills and improve their...
LinkedIn is a powerful tool to engage with your peers and potential customers. Of all the common LinkedIn mistakes this one can kill your credibility, reputation, and make you seem super needy and desperate....
There is nothing more important than sales leadership when it comes to driving revenue and creating successful sales organizations. Sales teams live and die on the strength and ability of their leaders. While...
I want to talk about something I’ve seen a lot of and I want to set the record straight. Discovery fatigue. The other day I was reading a LinkedIn post where someone was talking about you must...
Let’s talk about sales objections. Part 4 of why the sales culture needs to change. Sales objections are the quintessential sign that you sold it wrong. Let that sink in for a second. If you’re getting...
Gap Selling Lessons From Wolf of Wall Street: At this point most, if not all, of us have seen this scene from Wolf of Wall Street. It’s cheesy, sleazy, gross, manipulative, pick an adjective. But, there...
Part 3 of Why the Sales Culture today sucks. Bad discovery questions are ruining your credibility and discounting the entire profession. We’ve become manipulative talking heads. We need to break free....
I’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of sales people and one of the biggest problems I see is rarely, too rarely, do sales people know when a deal is ready to close. Unfortunately, sales people rely on...
Maximize SaaS Sales Revenue: Your existing customer base is gold, right? We’ve all heard it before, the cost of acquiring a new customer far out weighs keeping an existing one. This is even more true in the...
Gap Selling Testimonial: Closing a 7 Million Dollar Gap In 12 Months. What can a 38% Increase in Bookings, 50% Increase in Conversions, and closing a 29% Growth Gap do for a company? Acquisition by a Fortune...
Part 2 of Why the Sales Culture today sucks. There’s a whole bunch of reasons – selfishness, sales professionals being self-absorbed, everything related to the last 50-75 years of shitty sales culture. ...
This one is real simple – Coaches don’t play. Coaches coach, players play. Back in 2011, the New England Patriots and New York Jets were scheduled to meet in the playoffs. In the week...
Listen up we need to change the sales culture. It’s a complete shit show. I had a dude reach out to me the other day and he said something like “I don’t know you but I’ve been following you,...
Problem finders are everywhere. Finding a problem is easy. Your car won’t start. Yup, you found a problem. Revenue is down, yup another problem. Your advertising isn’t working, yup you found another...
I’ve gotta get this shit of my chest. You’re not an entrepreneur. I fucking love all the opportunity that is out there today. It has NEVER been a better time to start a business, to go out on your...
We’ve got work to do. Grab a pen, take notes, and let’s get down to it. Your cold sales emails, cold calls, and outreach suck. Here’s why and here’s how to fix it. This is the...
Recognize and overcome price objections I want to take a second to talk pricing, price objections, dealing with pushback, and dealing with negotiation on price. Listen, you don’t owe your buyer a price....
Quota attainment is not the end all be all when it comes to measuring sales representative performance. Over analyzing all the data we can collect is also inefficient and useless. We need to find the happy...
I often get asked by people – how do I get better at understanding my buyers? How do I become more problem-centric? How do I become more buyer-centric? How do I get the information that helps me do...
Sales leaders – do you let people fail? How comfortable are you letting failure happen? Are you OK letting your sales manager make a mistake? Are you OK letting the sales rep lose a deal? What do you do...
There is one trait that if a salesperson does not have I will not hire under any circumstances, no exceptions. I say the same thing to my clients, do not hire salespeople who don’t have this skill....
There’s a difference between affordability and budget. To be a good salesperson, sales team, or sales leader you must know the difference. af-ford-a-bil-i-ty – noun — the state of being cheap enough that...
Bad discovery questions can be the difference between gaining your client’s trust or destroying your credibility. This 1 question is destroying your credibility and in turn destroying your...
Email is a critical tool in almost every profession today. Sales and marketing emails are one of, if not the most important touchpoint in the business world. 8 Key Elements to Making the Most of Your Email...
Some salespeople lie. They don’t believe they do but they do. Salespeople lie to make a sale. Salespeople lie to get you to buy what they want you to buy. Salespeople lie to promote their agenda, not yours....
Good and great salespeople both know their products, they both understand their customers, and they both make their numbers. The difference between good and great salespeople is HOW they do their job. To...
You must learn to sell a must have product to be successful. Nice to have products are not sustainable products for any company. They have high churn rates, low urgency, and long sales cycles. Must have...
The Best Sales Training or Just Sales Training? Sales training has been around for about 75-100 years. In spite of its longevity, the jury is still out, as many organizations wonder does sales training...
I’m going to share with you why salespeople are losing the deals they’re losing, why the deals get stuck, why they can’t overcome objections, and why they don’t close. I’m going to...
Getting your prospect engaged, getting them on the proverbial hook is critical to selling. Prospecting is the holy grail of sales and it get’s a lot of attention as it should. To most of us, finding and...
Change is hard: how Ryan Cannady increased membership 5X, Convincing a customer to change from a competitor to your product or service is a challenge faced by almost every company at one point or...
To be a Problem-Centric™ seller you need to be able to identify and have a deep understanding of the potential prospect’s problems before anything else. Do you know what problems your customers...
300% increase in SaaS value, 20% increase in win rates, increasing employee satisfaction – How Cart.com created a winning sales culture. (Hint: Invest in your employees) Sales training does not...
3 Benefits of Gap Selling – 1. Improve close rates 2. Eliminate budget discussions 3. Gain insights into client problems you didn’t know existed. Mark Cope, has been through Gap Selling Training with 2...
Stagnated salesforce, Misaligned sales team, sales reps just going through the motions? Stop reading sales scripts, stop reacting, and stop trying to establish a formula to make a sale happen. Enhance your...
Is it possible to double your sales records, double your close rates, and push more deals forward? A tall task for some, but as Alec McCullough, Natalie Harbin, and Jeremy Vujnovich of Limble CMMS will tell...
Increased bookings, higher close rates, beat competitors more consistently – the outcomes Matt Gahr, CRO of Emburse achieved after implementing Gap Selling. Emburse had recently completed a number...
Don’t Get Trapped: Solving Business Problem, Not Technical Problems We’re told to go find our customers problems and solve them. Easy enough, right? Well, not exactly. There are a lot different...
In sales there are order takers and order makers. Order takers are reactive. They listen and respond to customers requests. They respond to RFP’s. They give the customer what they ask for. Order...
Sales myths and catch phrases are thrown around in trainings and casual conversations constantly. If another person marches out the tired old sales myth “people buy from people they like.” I’m going to...
It’s a sales manager’s job to know whether or not a salesperson is going to make quota. Part of that process is understanding what deals are real and will close, and which won’t. Deal reviews...
I’m going to flip the script today. This blog normally helps sales people and sales leaders be better. This post is gonna go a different route. Today, I’m gonna help the buyer be a good buyer....
There is nothing more frustrating to a sales person than when a client goes dark. Your last conversation was killer, you both agreed that your solution made sense. The prospect said they needed to share it...
Salespeople: Where Is It? If you’re a salesperson, take a look at all the opportunities in your CRM. If you’re a sales manager, or the CRO, or even the CEO, go look at the opportunities your...
What do your sales pipeline stages look like? How many do you have? Are they working, and does your pipeline tell you what you need to know? If you’re like most sales organizations, your pipeline stages...
How to Choose the Best Sales Training for Your Team So you’re looking for sales training for your team. There are literally decades of trainings and methodologies to choose from, each with its own argument for...
Do You Have Time to Fill Your Pipeline? When it comes to making quota, there are a number of critical success factors, but the most critical and often undervalued is time. Time is without a doubt one of the...
So many salespeople think there is no difference between booking and revenue. Many may not even have heard the word “bookings.” For most transactions, there is no difference. Bookings and revenue...
Gap Selling Tip #3: Concept: Ensuring decision criteria aligns with solving the problem you discover Why? “The point of (aligning decision criteria & what you learn in discovery) is...
What’s the difference? I get this question a lot. Here’s the answer and I’ll make it as simple and as clear as possible. I think it’s important, very important, that salespeople...
As a sales leader, what do you do when one of your sales people loses a big deal? Do you kick the shit out of them by calling out everything they did wrong? Do you play Monday morning quarterback and point out...
If you’re going to become successful at Gap Selling you need to start asking why. Why? Kids are great at asking why. They accept the fact that they don’t know very much, so they just...
There is a real difference between these two. Too many of us confuse the two, and they are not the same. Experience simply marks the time we’ve been doing something, but it’s a bad gauge of...
Growth is what it’s all about in the world of business, especially in SaaS and technology. But growing effectively is key to successfully scale a sales team. We all want to get big. We all want to...
A lot has changed in the sales world in the last 13 years. Inside sales, inbound, outbound, Account Based Marketing, lead generation, buyers journey, etc. are just a few of the new terms that have penetrated...
Here’s the deal. When you’re prospecting, leads can be demanding, They will ask for a lot, but it doesn’t mean you have to say yes every time. Can you tell your customer or prospect...
There always seems to be lots of ideas and discussion around what great salespeople do. I think it’s just human nature to evaluate success and emulate it. We take inventory of what the successful are...
Cold outreach is hard. But when you utilize problem-centric Gap Selling, things get a lot easier. Welcome to Gap Selling In Practice, Tip #2. Me again, with a simple question – When you think of...
Number 1 Sales Discovery Mistake You don’t define everything. That’s the number one problem during sales discovery calls. Everybody thinks they do a discovery but defining everything is the most...
The Problem with Traditional Sales Training for Cyber Security & Insurance When it comes to problem-centric sales training for cyber security and insurance, traditional sales training methods and companies...
Today, I want to talk to you about is learning. Just to cut to the chase – not enough time is spent on breaking down the skill of learning. Yes, learning is a skill. If you think learning happens...
You are not the customer’s bitch. You are a great sales person. A great sales person isn’t a go-fer, they are keenly in-tune to a customer’s problems and how to solve them. A great...
Hiring “A” players is without a doubt a critical element in building and maintaining successful sales teams. We all want the absolute best talent we can get. However, in the end, our job when...
I love the success stories I get from people who’ve read Gap Selling. It’s a blast to read when people share their own personal success stories about how Gap Selling has changed their career,...
All Sales Training Is the Same, Right? You’ve experienced it. It’s the same old tired approaches to the same old sales challenges, with each company attempting to add their own little...
As a person in sales leadership, do you have the guts to lead from the bottom up? Does your sales team feel safe coming to you with product problems, market concerns, and competitive challenges? Do you...
Continuing Your Gap Selling Journey with Execution In celebration of over 50,000 copies of Gap Selling sold, I wanted to take a moment and highlight other books that influenced my perception or help expand on...
Gap Selling is hard. Like really hard. But when you do it right, it’s extremely powerful. I hear all the time “It’s easy to understand the concepts, but hard to master.” But that’s kind of...
Before any sale begins there’s an early win we need. Our target must engage with us. They have to be willing to have a conversation. Basic concept in theory, one that we all know at this point, but in...
Do You Ever Feel Like You’re Just Another Salesperson? Looking around at the state of the sales industry today, I get the sense that everyone’s methods are exactly the same. I think too many sales...
LinkedIn is a great tool for selling and prospecting, but most salespeople are using it wrong. They’re treating it it’s a phone call or an email and spamming people. We’ve all gotten them...
The ‘If’ Trap: How it’s Sabotaging Your Sales Demos Do you want a telltale sign that your product demos aren’t very good? Listen to how many times you say “if.” Every time...
Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: The Bro Culture Lack of Coaching Too Product-Centric and Not Problem Centric Not enough salespeople understand the game/rules of sales Too much reliance on sales tools....
The Sales world is desperate for an upgrade. We’ve been holding on to way too many outmoded approaches, ideas, tropes, and concepts. It’s time sales let’s go of the tired and ineffective belief systems...
A Sales Guy is the leading 21st Century Sales Management Consulting Company....
As Gap Selling has crossed the milestone of 50,000 copies sold, we are highlighting some of our favorite books to compliment your Gap Selling journey. Today’s book highlight goes to The End of...
The Importance of Effective Sales Discovery Questions Too many salespeople fail at discovery calls, a critical phase in the B2B sales funnel. The discovery call is undeniably the most important part of the...
How is Gap Selling different than Solution Selling? It’s hard to believe that Gap Selling has already been out for a couple of years now. Since it’s release, I’ve had countless conversations...
Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: The Bro Culture Lack of Coaching Too Product-Centric and Not Problem Centric Not enough salespeople understand the game/rules of sales Too much reliance on selling tools....
Lucidchart and A Sales Growth Company teamed up to help layout the Gap Selling process and make it easier to leverage with your sales team. Using Lucidchart’s amazing tool, it’ even easier to...
Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: The Bro Culture Lack of Coaching Too Product-Centric and Not Problem Centric Not enough salespeople understand the game/rules of sales Too much reliance on selling tools....
Selling today and for the majority of the history of sales has been product-centric. In other words, the sales process, our sales conversations, our sales engagement has been focused on the product and what...
Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: Bro Culture Lack of Sales Coaching Product-Centric Selling Not enough salespeople understand the game/rules of sales Too much reliance on selling tools. Not enough...
You’re not Jordan Belfort – enough with the sales bro culture Sales is suffering from 9 brutal ills: The Sales Bro Culture Lack of Coaching Too Product-Centric and Not Problem Centric Not...
Stop being focused on your product (product-centric) and start focusing on solving your customer’s problems (problem-centric). For years, I mean for most of modern-day sales, we have been...
You don’t need to be liked to sell. You don’t need to be liked to have credibility. Watch this talk from INBOUND 2018 and learn why. What really drives customer decisions? Put yourself in the buyer...
It’s not uncommon for sales revenue to slide. It happens to all sales organizations at one time or another. Revenue being down isn’t the most difficult problem. Knowing why revenue is declining, where to look...
![The Element of Intrigue [How to Avoid Being Just Another Salesperson]](https://salesgrowth.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The-Element-of-Intrigue-How-to-Avoid-Being-Just-Another-Salesperson-265x150.jpg)
