CEO Sales Guide
Helpful resource for Presidents, CEOs, and Business Owners to understand the people, systems and strategies that impact sales and business growth
Leadership & Management
leadership-management
The 90-Day Sales Manager Playbook: How to Start Strong and Succeed
As a new sales manager, your first 90 days will either set you up for success—or create challenges that you will need to fix down the road. Whether ...
Handling Sales Objections with “Yes and…” Instead Of “Yes but…”
How often do you respond to a prospect’s objection with “Yes, but…” and turn an intelligent conversation into a defensive debate? Prospect: “We’re ...
Living Above The Line
As I was rereading Bradley Sugars book, “Instant Systems" I revisited a topic that often gets pushed under the table. You can't control what happens, ...
How Much To Budget For Sales Training
If you’re on a calendar year, your VP of Sales is probably preparing their budget for next year. How much will they put in for sales training? How ...
How Great Sales Managers Develop Future Leaders
As a sales manager, your legacy isn't defined by your personal numbers, the deals you helped close, or ...
Sales Hiring as a Growth Strategy
Hiring great salespeople has never been more critical—or more challenging. The stakes are high. A single ...
How to Build a High-Performing Sales Team
Every CEO dreams of a sales team that delivers results seamlessly—hitting targets, closing deals, and ...
No-Excuse Culture: How to Foster Accountability on Your Sales Team
In sales, the difference between good and great often comes down to one crucial factor: accountability. ...
The 90-Day Sales Manager Playbook: How to Start Strong and Succeed
As a new sales manager, your first 90 days will either set you up for success—or create challenges that ...
Coaching to Reach Decision Makers
It is obvious that more sales will happen if your team starts the conversation with people who have the ...
Remote Selling In Era of 'Social Distancing'
Here are two videos I posted on LinkedIn as the coronavirus forced salespeople to work remotely. The ...
Is the MVP of Your Sales Team like Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Who is the MVP of your sales team? Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where our office is headquartered, happens to ...
Self Limiting Beliefs in Sales and How to Coach Through Them
One of the common stumbling blocks we see holding salespeople back is self-limiting beliefs that prevent ...
Coaching Ruts and How to Get Out of Them
Every sales manager we talk to says, "I coach my team all the time." But their idea of coaching often ...
Goals-Based Coaching
Do your sales leaders keep it simple when it comes to setting goals for their team? One of the common ...
What Makes Your Sales Team Likable, Knowledgeable, and Memorable
Salespeople and sales leaders often ask us: "What can I do to stand out?" This is particularly important ...
Creating a Healthy Coaching Environment in Sales
One of the barriers sales leaders encounter when trying to establish a consistent coaching rhythm with ...
Wanted – Humble Sales People
One of the challenges when you're hiring salespeople (or coaching them) is the dichotomy between being ...
Two Great Sales Lessons From the Film Free Solo
A few weeks ago I was flying across the country, and was able to watch the Oscar-winning film Free Solo. ...
Leveraging Sales Enablement Practices that Drive Performance
How much focus do your sales managers put on conversation speed and tonality when they coach their ...
How to Retain High Performing Sales People
Over the years you may have noticed a difficulty in keeping your highest performing sales people on your ...
Building Your Virtual Bench
As we head into the fourth quarter you should have a pretty clear line of sight on how things are ...
Building a Culture of Sales Accountability
When we talk with CEOs about sales accountability at their companies, we usually hear stories about ...
Getting Ready for the Final Sales Push of 2016
In early August I wrote an article titled the Dog Days of Summer where I focused on how difficult it is ...
10 Activities Sales Managers Should Focus On
When I talk with CEOs, I often hear them complaining about how their sales managers are always busy, but ...
What Should CEOs Worry About When Hiring a New Sales Manager?
In last week’s post we talked about growing your company to the point where it makes sense to hire a ...
Top 5 Mistakes New Sales Managers Make
Is it time to provide some “adult supervision” for your sales people? Has your revenue grown to the ...
Why Sales Managers Suck at Hiring Sales People
Are your sales managers using sales recruiting as a growth strategy for your company? Are they ...
Are Your Sales Managers Having the Right Coaching Conversations?
Most sales managers believe they’re already having coaching conversations, but when we dig a little ...
Is Your Hiring Process Stuck in 2014?
Two years ago there were more candidates available than positions available. It was fun! Hiring managers ...
Driving Growth through Goals-Based Coaching
How much do your managers know about the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of every member on their team? ...
Is This Sales Blind Spot Impacting Your High Performers?
Busy, highly-productive sales people move at a different pace. They generate more activity. They have ...
What UNC Coach Dean Smith Taught Us About Sales Metrics
Legendary University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith died on Saturday. Sales managers ...
Coaching Rhythm and Texting While Driving
My last post talked about the challenges of teaching my middle daughter, who recently got her learners ...
How Much To Budget For Sales Training
If you’re on a calendar year, your VP of Sales is probably preparing their budget for next year. How ...
Qualities Of An Over-Achieving Sales Team
With so many business issues and challenges beyond your control, Presidents, CEOs, and business owners ...
Using Sales Role Play To Spot Trends
One of the areas we focus on during our sales development programs is skills improvement through the ...
Right Revenue vs. Wrong Revenue - Do Your Sales People Know The Difference?
Not all revenue is created equal. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as “bad revenue” and it can ...
How To Get Sales And Operations To Get Along
How many “customer facing” team members do you have in your company?
Why Managers Struggle When Holding People Accountable
Creating a “Culture of Accountability” is the cornerstone of building an over-achieving sales team. And ...
Improve Results By Investing A Day To Plan
This week the Intelligent Conversations team is taking a full day out of the office to evaluate our one ...
When Sales People Give Up Too Early or Celebrate Too Soon
The beauty of having an effective sales process is that it creates a level of consistency and discipline ...
High Performing Sales People - How to Identify And Keep Them
High performing sales people are customer centric and have the ability to execute and produce positive ...
Slowing Down May Help Increase Revenue and Deal Velocity
In this fast paced world, a lot of sales teams have a high-speed mentality. But it turns out that being ...
Planning For 2014: 5 Things CEOs Must Focus On To Improve Sales
It’s the time of year when we take stock of where we are, and make plans for where we want to go. What ...
6 Questions Your Sales Managers Hope You Won't Ask...
...About Their Sales Forecasts and Pipeline Reports Many CEOs we work with either don't pay close ...
Coaching Drives Greater "Sales-Awareness" and Stronger Results
"What would happen to your revenue and profit margin if your sales organization became a ...
Building a Profitable Sales Process - Qualify the Opportunity
Here's a radical idea - let's have your sales team qualify opportunities before you prepare a quote! Too ...
Building a Profitable Sales Process - Make Every Appointment Count
All of the work your sales people are doing at the front of the sales process (identifying the right ...
Building a Profitable Sales Process - Making Initial Contact
Continuing our series on 10 Steps to Building a Profitable Sales Process, this post will address steps ...
Building a Profitable Sales Process - Know Your Target
The first step in building a profitable sales process is to decide where to focus the prospecting ...
5 Difficult Questions You Need to Ask About Your Sales Team
If you had the opportunity to really study your sales organization - to take a very diagnostic look at ...
Are Your Boring Sales Meetings Driving Growth and Change?
How effective are your sales managers at running a good sales meeting? How engaged are your top ...
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