The following is an excerpt from my 2018 Wall Street Journal bestseller, Selling Boldly. It’s about making phone calls to customers and prospects who know you. Not cold calls, but calls to friendlies. I was interviewing a salesperson for one of my clients, and he brought up a customer of his who he was having […]

Over the last 10 years, I have worked with thousands of sales people at manufacturing, distribution and service companies. I’ve come to believe that there is a single, powerful characteristic that separates that most successful salespeople from everyone else. It is at once the most important characteristic salespeople can have, and it is also the […]

Among the many amazing achievements we got to watch in the recently concluded Winter Olympics, two stand out in my mind for the deep lessons they can teach us as salespeople. The American Chris Mazdzer won a stunning silver medal in luge. And yet, here’s what he posted on social media just three weeks ago: […]

Knowing what to do is different than actually doing it. Which is why I always ask: What will you do? What keeps us from doing the things we know we should do? It’s almost always our fear and our discomfort. We know, for example, that the best selling happens on the telephone or face-to-face. And […]

There’s nothing in this article that you don’t already know. Now, please continue reading anyway, because I promise that it will be worth your while. You’re a professional salesperson. Or manager. Or owner. You don’t need me to tell you, for example, that testimonials and referrals are among the best ways we have to grow […]

We live in good and interesting times. If you reside in America, you’re living in the most entrepreneurial country on the planet, where the amount of money you make is determined entirely by your effort and your perseverance. Effort means doing the work, which is the opposite of avoiding, procrastinating, and perfecting. Perfection kills revenue. […]

The election is over. The holidays approach… and the new year is just around the corner. Let’s talk about your plan to grow sales in 2017. Do you have one? How much time have you spent thinking about how you’ll grow your revenue next year? Because here’s the thing about revenue growth: It’s a proactive […]

You deserve more revenue. Because you do great work. You help your customers a great deal. They’re very happy. That’s why they’ve been coming to you for years, and sometimes decades. Sure, sometimes they’re upset, but that’s life. If you zoom out from the individual problem, your customers are thrilled with you. You save them […]

My work with clients creates dramatic revenue growth by making some basic organizational changes. But change can also be implementing new marketing, using a new customer relationship management (CRM) system, altering your hiring process, or simply introducing new product lines. In all of these changes, we want managers and staff to do something new. The […]

So much of sales has to do with attitude and mindset. Want to grow? What do you believe about your products and services? How do you perceive your work? Are you selling products or improving lives and companies? Are you offering great value to your customers when you call, or do you fear bothering them? […]

Why Don’t You Ask For Referrals? I’ve asked thousands of audience members and client staffers that question. Here are the most common answers: We’re afraid of rejection. What if they don’t like me as much as I think — or hope — they do? We don’t think to do it. We don’t want to impose. Customers […]

There are different kinds of buyers for transmission shops: consumers, moms, dads. But, as I learned while speaking at ATRA’s Expo last October, some of you sell business-to-business. In that world there are also different buyers: logistics managers, for example. But one kind of customer can buy more than any other: executive buyers. I’m talking […]

Sometimes people tell me that revenue growth cannot be as easy as I teach it to be. Here’s the good news: It is precisely as easy as I say. I’ve implemented this approach for dozens of clients, from the publicly traded, to the multi-generational family business, to startups. If you want to grow your company’s […]

There are two basic ways to grow your company: expanding business with existing customers, or bringing on brand new customers. This piece focuses on bringing in large numbers of new customers. My next column will focus on selling more to your current customers. When I ask clients and audience members how much of their business […]