Stupid Sales Stuff

Is there any rational B2B salesperson who believes their performance, revenue generation will be “amplified” with another CRM extension, another sales ops system, or now, “revenue amplification?” Really? Like who? There were days, long ago, when a salesperson had a territory, lived in it for years, knew all the influencers, the competitors, the prospective customers, […]

Pick your number – 70% of sales reps in B2B enterprise technology sales do not make quota. Some say 80% – whatever it is, it’s the majority. Everyone is familiar with the common excuses – customers find what they need on the internet. Companies have all the technology they need, so new stuff doesn’t get

Some concepts sound good until you think about them a bit. Hiring a “digital native” salesperson living on social media is one of those things. It is absolute nonsense if you think it through. Let’s experiment. You go first. You are the buyer of a critical product. It will, if properly implemented, deliver a significant

Current B2B sales is an industry where sales teams and the prospects they seek, are locked in a spiraling arms race of advanced technology. Sales managers buy AI or machine learning platforms to get to elusive prospects.  Prospects employ those technologies to protect emails and cell phones from these swarming pests. There is no B2B

Cold calling just sucks.  Everyone hates it. Yet, there are still companies our there who push it!   Meet SalesLoft.com!  They enable cold calling scams! This week, some guy in his basement made national headlines successfully suing a company who cold called him again and again. The bigger story was how his story went viral. Particularly

For those who live in the world of bringing disruptive technologies to market, it has long been apparent the B2B transaction sales force model is dead, has been dead for 6 or more years. You know the stats: half of B2B reps do not make quota. Turnover is very high and if you talk to

We live in an enterprise sales world where everything easy is mechanized. Everything hard and effective is out of reach because it cannot be measured by brain-dead transaction sales managers hired by VC-backed companies desperate for a sales pop so they can unload. DiscoverOrg, RainKing and the host of other list services just prove the

The first parallel is you would not want your child to be either one.  Certainly being a stripper is more exploitative than a cold caller, but they do have some common traits. Both hate doing what they are doing.  In way too many cases, those doing these occupations are people with no other place to

  Direct B2B Sales Forces Are Obsolete — Do Not Invest In Direct Sales   People just expect a B2B company to sell direct, but people once expected a Blockbuster Movie site in every shopping mall. Now, even shopping malls are on the way out. One wonders how long it took for such obsolete models