Andy Paul
B2B Sales Strategist
Steps To Dramatically Improve Your Sales Hiring How would you respond to the question: What’s your sales type? I recently read that the cost of a bad sales hire is 7 times (7x) the annual salary of that position. You would think that such a stiff penalty would provide sufficient incentive for hiring managers to do a much better job of specifying their requirements for an open sales slot, …
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Relationships with Customers Are Like My Relationship with Riley, My Golden Retriever Like any good golden retriever, my buddy Riley is serenely uncomplicated and ecumenical with his affections. He loves anybody who plies him with kibble twice a day, patiently tosses him his ball, consents to be dragged along on the high-speed outings we still call walks, and tells him what a good boy he …
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Is it time to stop relying on quota achievement as a measure of sales productivity? Annual research findings from CSO Insights have documented a steady year over year erosion in the percentage of B2B sales reps that attain quota. If less than 50% of sales reps are hitting quota, does it still have any value as a measure of productivity? Goodhart’s Law In 1975 Charles Goodhart, a …
Buyers choose to do business with you. Not your product. Your product is nice. I’m sure. However, your product doesn’t win orders. You do. I realize that this doesn’t come as revealed wisdom for most of you. The whole idea of customers “buying you” has been around forever. However, increasingly I see B2B sellers lured by the false promise of a future in which AI-driven sales tech and …
Everyone feels the constant push-pull in sales. You want to make the big deal happen. However, the buyer isn't yours to control. You want to push. You have to be patient. Pushy? Patient? You gotta be both. Being pushy is the ability to create forward momentum in a deal. To be pushy is to identify opportunities to deliver needed value and win commitments to next steps in exchange. The problem for …
In his great essay, Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “My giant goes with me wherever I go.” We all have giants that tail behind us. Emerson was referring to our giants as the embodiment of our self-doubts, insecurities, timidity and weaknesses. Our giants represent the sum of our vulnerabilities. We feel the burden of these vulnerabilities. We think they limit our …
