I met up with a friend on Friday. He also had “no social media except for LinkedIn”. We were talking about how this came about, and both of our experiences:
I met up with a friend on Friday. He also had “no social media except for LinkedIn”. We were talking about how this came about, and both of our experiences:
The other week I was talking with a VP of Sales who told me most SMB sales roles will be replaced by AI and a CSM within 6 months. Maybe his timeline is fast, but we can all agree the direction is inevitable. Microsoft already cut 9,000 salespeople.
In March of 2024, a guy popped into Rick's inbox. I’ll skip the small talk. He had earned over $1M in 2023. He’d been following Rick for well over a year and wanted to hire him to help make a change in his life. It worked. We’ve all stayed in touch.
Before someone books a call with Rick and me, it’s not unusual for them to have read My 5 Decades in Sales.
There’s endless information out there. You can YouTube, podcast, or book yourself to death. In sales, it’s worse. Every rep, manager, and new training program is forced on you too.
Most salespeople are underperforming. Here are 9 suggestions to help you turn your results around, take control of your life and prosper without having to hire a coach.
A client asked me this week, “How do I get a reference or a referral from a customer?”
How many salespeople start with a clear vision for success? Success for your customers, colleagues, partners, family. Maybe even a chance to make the world a little better! BAAAAAAH. You stumbled in to it?
I had a conversation on LinkedIn with a sales rep at a startup. I asked him, “Are you carrying the company on your back?” He said, “Trying.” His team has six reps. Three are trying but useless. One is untouchable, has been there the longest, and sells 60 percent of the revenue.
You work hard right? Doesn’t every salesperson think they’re working hard?
I spoke with one ambitious leader who said something like: “I know I have to have a hard conversation with him”, 1 week after he said: “I know I have to have a hard conversation with him” talking about an underperformer.
Sales activity has never been higher. Reps are making 200 automated touches or 80 manual touches a day, yet half or more are “OK” missing quota.
We live in an age of infinite information. I was on the bus watching people. Scroll. Listen. Scroll. Are salespeople immune from the media's claw? Every scroll, podcast, and LinkedIn post gets scoured for the “trick” that’ll change results and lives? Did you know the average person now consumes 34 gigabytes of information a day? And yet, I still hear sales reps say something like, “I don’t know what to trust. I consume a lot but don’t improve much.”
Did you know that less than half of young adults believe they control the direction of their own lives (Cigna, 2023)? And in sales, it’s even more miserable: only 28-39% of reps are expected to hit quota (Salesforce, RepVue). The company quota, not their personal goal!