INSIGHTS

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Securing an initial conversation with decision makers is tougher than ever. When you do finally get someone's attention or time, the first 60 seconds of your interaction are critical. Which is precisely why it's so important to think before you speak. To get the results you want, you must be intentional about how you engineer the first minute of your conversation. Read the blog to learn more.
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Business anxiety is high. Geopolitics. Trade. Cyber security. Uncertainty reigns. One former White House economist suggests we're living in an "age of anxiety." Ready-aim-fire approaches to addressing the disruptive changes ahead won't work. Instead, businesses need to be proactive. How? Equip your people with the skills needed to create clarity from chaos and decisiveness from uncertainty. Learn why clearer thinking and speaking is the antidote to business anxiety and what 3 skills your talent needs to not only survive this new era, but to thrive in it.
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Could your salespeople be eroding profit margins through excessive discounting? Or through unnecessary product, service, or contractual give-aways? Margin erosion usually stems from the failure to establish differentiated value early in the sales process. Here are 3 tips you can use to turn margin erosion into margin generation.
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Death by PowerPoint is real. I hear it all the time from executives and B2B buyers: “PowerPoint presentations do more harm than good.” Could your sales team's poor use of slides be killing your sales? Here are three things you can do to avoid "Death by PowerPoint" and deliver more powerful, precise, and persuasive sales presentations.
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When prospective buyers ask sales reps to justify ROI, it's typically NOT because of a lack of data or information about your products and services. Rather, it's because they haven't quite fully bought into your sales messaging or your messenger. Read on to learn what customers are really thinking when they ask for ROI justification, and what your reps can do differently.
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You've probably heard the expression, "Content is king." And, it's likely your company has spent a lot of money creating content that supports successful selling. But even the world's greatest message or content will fail to persuade if your sales reps can't deliver it effectively. When it comes to sales performance, here's why content delivery is king.
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Executive time is a scarce commodity. Why do meetings squander it? Because, too often, they fail to focus on the strategic issues that are most important to executives. They fail to drive progress on the decisions that need to be made in order to move your business forward. Here are 3 things you can do to change that and to insure your executives' time is well-spent.
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What do business meeting attendees have in common with parole board officers? Both suffer from decision fatigue. The consequences? Productivity plummets. Decisions get delayed. Bad choices get made. Outcomes can be disastrous. How can you improve decision quality and productivity? Help your meeting leaders and attendees overcome decision fatigue with these three proven approaches.
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Is your organization stuck running mediocre meetings that fail to move the needle on important projects and business goals? You're not alone. Distraction and disengagement have reached epidemic proportions and it's killing the "Return on Meeting Time" of companies everywhere. What's the antidote? A common meeting communications framework. Here's why...
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The decision makers whose attention you're trying to get are too distracted to hear a word you're saying. The implication: having a great business idea is no longer enough. You’ve got to be able to present it in a way that GRABS attention and KEEPS it. Your ability to do that boils down to whether you can accomplish these 3 things quickly…
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If you think about it, your organization’s performance depends on its best ideas being turned into profitable innovations. Yet, 87% of executives believe major unexploited opportunities, ones that could make their companies market leaders, are overlooked. Why are so many companies struggling to innovate? (Hint: It's not a creativity problem!)
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Your company, like most, probably invests in sales training that helps team members become more consultative, insight-driven, assertive, and challenging in their approach. But, none of that training addresses a leading cause of pipeline mortality. This week, find out what could be causing your sales opportunities to die prematurely and what you can do about it.
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Clients often ask, “What’s the best metric for measuring training?” It can be difficult to tie communication skills training directly to cost savings or performance gains. Difficult, but not impossible. You just have to use the right metric. And, that means taking an honest look at how much of your training is going to waste.
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Executives today are making or influencing more and more buying decisions (especially when it comes to technology). Is your sales team ready to engage executives in conversations about the business challenges that keep them up at night? This is where traditional sales training fails. Here’s how you can fix it.
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It's just business - nothing personal." How often have you heard someone use that phrase to justify a decision based on the bottom line, even when that decision created pain and problems for employees or customers? It's called the "It's just business trap," and it can sabotage your organizations ability to succeed. Here's how to avoid it.
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While customer-driven dialogue should be the goal of every sales meeting, make no mistake: there are key “moments of presentation” during these conversations that can determine your success or failure. The best sales people know when they need to shift gears and jump into presentation mode, and they do it well because it's a skill they've practiced.
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