I was talking with 2 CEOs of marketing agencies yesterday. Both of them are trying to grow sales and have hired me to help them. I've helped them evaluate their sales capabilities as well as their team's current sales competencies. I've helped them adjust their sales processes and procedures. I've helped identify and recruit better salespeople. I've helped them manage, coach and grow their existing people.

Here's my question...

Should they do for their clients what I have done for them?

So, yesterday, I got a message with the subject line, "He clearly doesn't know what he's talking about" and a link to

Let's face it. A million dollars isn't what it used to be. So, if a million dollars isn't what it used to be, why even talk about it?

• 1.7 million Americans became millionaires in 2020 (during the pandemic).
• Almost 92% of us are not and most don't have a plan to get there.
• You will probably earn a million dollars during your lifetime, but if you don't earn a million dollars more than you spend, you will never be a millionaire.

If a million dollars isn't what it used to be, why are there so few millionaires?

(One side note: The US has 39% of the world's millionaires, but only 4% of the world's population.)

If you've been following along, on 9/16, I promised 10 New Articles on Selling Competencies. I published the last one yesterday. If you missed any, you can read them all here.

At the end of the last article, I promised a special offer. Here it is.

I'm sitting in the service department at 9:17 on September 28, 2021. This exchange actually started with the same service department at 9:42 on September 20, 2019. Two years ago. Spooky coincidence.

Sorry. That's a serious question. As you may know, I've worked with a few salespeople. Often. Very often. Most often, the more closely that management monitors how well the reps follow the process, the more it hurts them.

An old story and a new story...

Look at this.

Here's the scary part. This rep is not in the bottom 10%. He's in the middle of the over 2 million that we've evaluated.

   ...but not the kind that blows up in your face.

I just Googled "closing tactics". 34,800,000 results in less than a second. My favorite close is, "What should we do now?" The typical reply is, "How do we get started?" If it doesn't sound like that, it's not time to close. I missed something and I either have to go back and fix it, or I walk away. So, how do I set up my question?