Dave Stein's Blog: An Independent Perspective on Sales Training and Sales Effectiveness

Happy New Year.

You know how, at this time of year, all the media review the past year (or in this case, decade) and talk about advancing into the next one?  Here’s one for you:  I may have the attribution wrong, but I believe it was Confucius who said,

The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago.  The second best time is now.

What makes that resounding message relevant is ESR’s business outlook for 2010.  I’m certain that the increase in upcoming projects is partially a result of ESR’s brand getting broader and wider recognition—we’ve been in business now for four years.  And I know that some of that uptick can be attributed to an apparent dose of business optimism here in the U.S. and in some other parts of the world.  Companies are willing to spend money on sales performance improvement.

What is really encouraging is what the sales stakeholders in our current and new client companies are telling us.  They’ve had it with the recurring cycle of missing sales targets, getting some tactical training, and seeing no improvement.  They are taking action.  They’re planting the tree now.  Who cares about what they didn’t do ten years ago.

I don’t think you want to see another list of excuses that sales leaders use to justify not taking the right action.  (For those of you who are new to this blog and are curious, you can look here.)  So on the positive side, for many of you, changing your approach to selling—even in what might be relatively minor ways—can have an impact on performance this year.  As long as you do the right things in the right order.

I’d love to have you join me in a virtual toast on December 31^st, 2010 and share with me what you did during 2010 to change your team’s situation—what trees you planted during 2010.

My wish for you is health and success in 2010—however you define it.

Filed under: Methodology, sales process