The toughest thing about using a system isn’t following a step-by-step plan as most salespeople are great at leveraging those. Instead, the hardest part is having a system to use at all. When salespeople and their leaders think about creating systems, it can become overwhelming. Where to start? With pipeline stages? Outreach campaigns? Call scripts? Discovery questions? As we explained in Bulletproof Selling, there isn’t a place where systems can’t be used across a sales cycle. However, creating a system has to start where salespeople are struggling or where someone is succeeding and others on the team want to model…

Salespeople spend a lot of time generating conversations, discussing value and developing relationships – but how much time do they spend looking at how well they’re doing all these things? That’s the question we asked with Ian Selbie, a sales trainer who began his career with Apple and holds the title as one of their top salespeople. Today, he assists sales teams with understanding not only what to do to sell more, but also helps them understand why. If you don’t know where every one of your prospects is on their way to becoming a customer, it’s time to stand…

As a salesperson, you’re likely trying sell more, close deals faster, and deliver more value than competitors. And you’re not alone – which is why so many salespeople try to win on price.It’s a strategy that works – until it doesn’t. We’ve all experienced the pain that comes when a prospect pays more for the same product or service we offer.We sat down with Stephen Krines, a sales leader who has a different approach to improving the conversations his team has with their prospects. Instead of simply focusing on winning the sale faster, his team takes the time to plan…

“Whoever is first to the field will be fresh for the fight.” – Sun Tzu Ever waited on the phone to ring or emails to come in and wondered why sales were in a slump? You’re not alone. Every salesperson, at one time or another, realizes that running a referral-based business puts our success in the hands of other people. Eventually, salespeople realize they have to make contact with new leads who may not know them or trust them – yet. That means days filled with calls, emails, sending letters and commenting on social media. But what if there was…

It’s the unicorn of sales outreach – closing prospects on the first call. A sales leader who has a stellar record of this is Bob Bolton, a man whose career in advertising sales put him at the top of his field. We sat down with Bob and discussed how salespeople could achieve a one-call-close, or at the very least, shorten their sales cycle by leaps and bounds across all their prospects. Before we attempt to achieve the impossible, Bob said it’s critical to begin with what happens before you’re ear to ear or face to face with your prospect. And…

The more we’re in front of our prospects, the easier it is to stay top of mind and increases the chance they’ll think of us when they’re ready to purchase from us. For years, this has meant salespeople have to make the time to research their prospects, get them on the phone and provide value. Unfortunately, that outreach model limits the amount of prospects a salesperson can be in front of. Instead, systems-based salespeople are taking the time to download the ways their product or service benefits the lives of their customers and not waiting for a prospect to call…