Your sales motivation is most at risk — and most needed — when you’re dealing with the really tough customer. Don’t let the tough customer take away your sales motivation. In fact, use the tough customer to help you build it. One way to do this is to break the sales call down into small [...]

You will always have 10% of your customers who are not profitable. No matter how much you think you need their business, they’re hurting your top-line and bottom-line. Save yourself some money and gain some time by firing them. Whenever I mention this to people, they always freak out because they soon see how serious [...]

We’re barely into the New Year and already people are blowing off their 2010 goals. Nothing can and will destroy your sales motivation faster than kidding yourself about why you haven’t taken your goals seriously. When you try to justify to yourself as to why you can’t get around to something you know you have [...]

The customer who won’t give you eye contact when asking for a price concession is not serious about their request. Nothing speaks more than the eyes. When I’m with professional buyers, I always tell them to watch the eyes of the salesperson when they’re quoting prices or trying to close. If there is any hesitation [...]

Top performing salespeople are salespeople who take full responsibility for anything and everything that both goes right and goes wrong with their customers. When you fail to take responsibility, you’re telling your customer you’re not a leader and you’re not doing anything to increase the level of confidence your customers have with you. Being responsible [...]