The Linear Sales World is Dying: Embrace the 6 Steps of the Sales Matrix

I got my start in the sales world as a representative for Cutco Cutlery.  It was a direct, in-home sales gig.  The only challenge: I had never had a formal sales job before.  And I wasn't the only one in the situation.  Of the thousands of college students that work with the company every year, most don't have any sales experience.  Heck, for many it's their first job. The way that the company became one of the top cutlery companies in North America was by teaching a simple, step-by-step sales process to all of these rookies.  It had 7 steps and it was gospel for us, starting with "Number 1 - Building Rapport" and finishing with "Number 7 … [Read more...]

Can You Dial for Dollars When There Are No Dials?

I saw a meme that pointed out that the "dial" button on a cell phone has no bearing on actually dialing the phone.  If you haven't seen a rotary phone in use (and most people under 30 probably haven't), you've actually never seen a phone get "dialed".  Yet we still use the terminology because as phones evolved, the term just morphed to cover pushing buttons with numbers, and then eventually just scrolling to someone's name. Our lives are full of unexamined pieces that are there because of inertia.  For example: I remember one of the first handouts I got at a sales meeting when I first started selling Cutco Cutlery over 20 years ago.  … [Read more...]

How to be Your Own Sales Manager in the Hyper-Connected World

A version of this article originally appeared on the Salesforce Sales Blog. When you think “sales manager”, do you think of Alec Baldwin in Glengarry, Glenross or Ben Affleck in Boiler Room. Do you think of someone pushing you and exhorting you to sell more and more? It’s time to take the power back. Be Your Own Sales Manager The best sales manager you are ever going to have is yourself.  No one is going to care about your career success as much as you will.  And the one person who you can’t lie to, or inflate your numbers for, is you. But it can be challenging to decide how to manage your activities in a sales world that’s in … [Read more...]

3 Unexpected Abilities that Will Separate the Top Sales Performers

Salespeople tend to be an infinitely practical lot.  Over two decades of coaching and training has made me realize that usually sales professional want to know the fastest ways to be successful, and what they should do to learn those skills.  "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it!" is a common refrain. If you're always looking for ways to improve your game, there's no reason to change the habit.  What does have to change is what you are learning.  In the past, salespeople would look for the "magic bullet".  They wanted to learn that one sales close, objection-handling statement, or discovery question that would create instant results.  … [Read more...]

Hyper-Connected Selling

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David is an internationally-recognized keynote speaker, sales trainer, and business coach.  He focuses on bringing the human-to-human back into sales, social media, networking, and entrepreneurship.

He is the best-selling author of 12 books on sales, networking, social media, and entrepreneurship.  And he is also a prolific contributor to blogs in the sales and marketing space.

His goal is simple: help people become RockStars in their professional lives so that they can have a positive impact on those around them.