A term that is little-known in the world of sales is ‘Up Armor.’ However, hidden in that term is a way to turn around just about any sales problem we can encounter. In combat, troops learn quickly if their armor can take what their opponents are throwing at them. If their armor is too weak, they will ‘up-armor’ and change things until they are safe from whatever weapons systems they’re likely to encounter. Salespeople, unfortunately, rarely up-armor themselves when they run into problems. For instance, if a sales team is falling behind their forecast, a sales leader will usually wait…

Salespeople are paid on results – and that is a double-edged sword. Companies need sales to stay in business, but that often leads to salespeople trying to sell as quickly as possible and losing prospects in the process. There has to be a happy medium; moving prospects through a sales process and doing it in a way that ensures a steady flow of sales. It’s that solution we sat down to discuss with Eric Martin, a sales leader who’s spent his career in an industry that relies on systems. In the franchise world, Eric’s relied on systems to not only…

With sales systems, we have to be willing to take a step back to move forward. Any time I hear a sales manager tell their team about a new requirement, I hear audible groans. Salespeople are attracted to sales because of the freedom it offers, yet managers have to be able to scale success if they hope to grow their organizations. And that means implementing sales systems. So how do we roll out a new sales system with a team that may be averse to any change? That’s the question we brought to Jason Cutter, a sales architect who has…

‘Coffee is for closers.’ The hard-sell philosophy might have worked when folks were selling swampland in Florida, but in lengthy sales cycles or those with multiple decision makers it just doesn’t work. The alternative is a lengthy sales cycle and that means plenty of opportunity for a stalled sale. To systemize moving prospects through a sales process, it’s better to let prospects be in the driver’s seat. But how do we do that while still maintaining control of the sale? That’s what we sat down with Red Boswell to learn. He’s in the franchise industry, which is a very consultative…

In today’s world, salespeople are expected to be more than great talkers – they also have to understand how their products work and be able to explain that to potential customers. That’s why salespeople with technical backgrounds are so appealing, but they often come without any background in sales, communication or relationship-building. Salespeople with technical backgrounds may lack the natural gift of gab, but they are strong in other areas, such as research, measuring and evaluating. Each of those is critical to removing hope from a sales strategy. To ensure you can leverage your technical background or that of your…

Cold calling is one of the most feared events in a salesperson’s day, and even in their career. The chance of connecting is low, and the opportunity for rejection is high. Why is that? After studying more than 10,000 sales calls ourselves, we noticed that most salespeople make the call about them – ‘Let me explain what we do to you.’ ‘Let’s meet so I can show you how our product/service works.’ Or the ubiquitous, ‘Use this link and get 15 minutes on my calendar so we can see if I’m a good fit.’ The reason messages like that meet…