A while back messaging and branding expert Maureen Blandford asked me to lend an endorsement to what was then her new book, Branding Doesn’t Work in Business to Business. I had not met Maureen. I was skeptical. By the time I got through with the book, I was a Maureen Blandford fan. Why? Maureen provides [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Marketing, Sales Strategy | No Comments »
I’ve been involved in a number of posts on The Customer Collective where there have been some personal attacks by a few social media zealots against some of us that have a more balanced view of the capabilities and tools required for effective B2B selling going forward in this new(est) economy. Jonathan Farrington1, Dave Brock, [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Economy, Professionalism, Relationships, Research, Sales Strategy, Technology, sales process | 5 Comments »
After seven days on a bike tour through Northern Thailand, my wife and I wound up at the Anantara Resort at the Golden Triangle. She was ready to sit by the pool for the day. I was ready for one more ride. Last day. Only 25 miles.
I got used to the left-side-of-the-road traffic the very [...]
Filed under: On the Road, Sales Strategy | 1 Comment »
A few weeks ago the folks at Kadient briefed me on their approach and their sales performance improvement tools. As you would expect, I posed the chicken-and-egg question with respect to what order a company should implement Kadient’s tools versus installing and implementing a sales methodology. I liked their answers.
I picked up a tweet from [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Competition, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Research, sales process | 10 Comments »
One of my most-used words these days is “scrutinize.” Merriam-Webster says it means “to examine closely and minutely.”
At ESR, we find ourselves using the word fairly often:
VPs have been asking us about how to determine which sales reps to keep and which to redeploy. In this current economic situation some of what salesreps depended on [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Leadership, Marketing, Measurement, Sales 2.0, sales training | 1 Comment »
I was recently interviewed by Lori Champion from SMT (The Professional Society for Sales & Marketing Training) as part of the ramp-up for their annual conference in Orlando October 14 – 16, 2009. I’ll be keynoting at the event. The topic will be Sales Excellence 2012: Overcoming Tough Obstacles, Achieving Measurable Results.
Lori’s interview begins:
What do [...]
Filed under: Dave Stein, Interview, Marketing, Methodology, On the Road, Presentations, Research, sales training | No Comments »
You may have noticed that I’ve been posting less frequently during the past two weeks. ESR is in the midst of a number of projects and new initiatives. In addition, I’ve been on an increasing number of phone calls with clients, prospects, vendors, sales training associations’ leadership, and business associates.
I wrote Here’s What’s Going On [...]
Filed under: Economy, Hiring, Measurement, Methodology, Research, Sales Training Companies | 5 Comments »
As ESR is completing our Sales Training Vendor Guide we are updating a number of our models. Here is a presentation of our sales training approach model that we deliver to project teams tasked with finding, evaluating, and selecting sales training companies. The content is based upon work we’ve done with clients during the [...]
Filed under: Measurement, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Presentations, Research, Sales Training Companies, Technology | No Comments »
Sales training is more than 100 years old. With few exceptions, it’s not very sexy. Many salespeople believe (PDF) they’ve been through enough of it to last a lifetime. For many reasons, most of their managers don’t see any value, so they take a tactical, event-based approach just to check the “trained my people this [...]
Filed under: Buyers, CRM, Economy, Hiring, Methodology | 15 Comments »
As ESR continues to assess our clients’ sales challenges, we maintain that having the wrong people in the sales jobs is, in many cases, the biggest inhibitor to the success of a training intervention. My interview with Todd Harris of PI Worldwide highlighted one of the tools available for sales leaders to get an objective [...]
Filed under: Economy, Hiring, Interview, Measurement, Professionalism | No Comments »
ESR publishes independent evaluations and comparisons of sales training companies and their programs and services. (Think Consumer Reports, JD Powers, or Gartner.)
I'm proud that ESR is recognized as the leading authority on sales training programs and sales performance improvement.
For the past twenty years I've focused my career on the area of sales performance improvement, sales effectiveness and especially sales training.
I can be reached at
+1 (508) 313-9585 Ext 706
