I was recently a guest presenter, along with Greg Brush of InsideView, on a webinar hosted by The TAS Group. I talked about ESR’s predictions for 2011. There are a lot of predictions floating around the sales blogs these days. I don’t feel a need to repeat what others have said, so you might find [...]
Filed under: Buyers, coaching, Sales 2.0 | 2 Comments »
Getting sales leaders to understand the importance of a strategic approach to sales performance improvement is often an uphill battle. So, when I get in front of a group of sales leaders, one of the things that I say to grab the participants’ attention is, “Somewhere in another building on the other side of town, there [...]
Filed under: Buyers | 2 Comments »
A while back a well-known and well-respected company approached ESR about us assisting them in an upcoming sales training provider evaluation and selection process. Right up our alley! We asked about their requirements definition. Mary (not her real name), from the corporate training department, was managing the project. She told me that a boutique consulting [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Sales Training Companies | 1 Comment »
ESR’s approach to evaluating sales training providers enables our clients to select training partners who will most positively impact their sales performance. ESR’s core buy-side service is our evaluation process for selecting sales training providers. We are almost always called in by a senior sales executive from a client’s company. Occasionally it’s the learning or [...]
Filed under: Buyers, RFP, Sales Training Companies | No Comments »
That’s a question I’ve been asked again and again by journalists, sales leaders, sales training company CEOs, corporate training departments, consultants, and our clients, when they first contact us. When I tell them that’s not a question I can easily answer, many offer to pay me just for providing them with “just one name.” If [...]
Filed under: Buyers, sales process, Sales Training Companies | 12 Comments »
For those of you new to this blog, my firm, ES Research Group, evaluates sales training companies. We deliver our findings in the form of reports, which we sell on our website, and through consultations with companies evaluating sales training providers. First a bit of background. For us, gathering data about sales training companies falls [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Buyers, Industry Analyst, Methodology, RFP, Sales Training Companies | 2 Comments »
For those of you who read Part 1 of this series and asked for more, thanks for your feedback, and here it is. Sales trainers and sales training firms have a big challenge over the next year: many customer training budgets have shrunk or been eliminated entirely; the trainers’ own revenues are significantly down—there has [...]
Filed under: Buyers, coaching, Economy, Hiring, Measurement, Methodology, sales process, Sales Training Companies, Technology | 9 Comments »
I finally got around to meeting my telephone and e-mail colleague, Tom Martin, face-to-face a few weeks ago. Tom is someone I hold in high regard for his experience, integrity and deep understanding of the sales training industry. Tom is a 20-year veteran of the sales methodology and training industry, with a diverse set of [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Interview, Methodology, Opportunity Management, sales process, Sales Training Companies | 15 Comments »
As ESR continues to dig into the sales-related challenges of our clients’ companies, we often see a lack of understanding around the issue of relationships between sellers and buyers—often referred to as relationship selling. Here are some points to consider or debate (with me or among your team): Beginning in 2000, I heard sales leader [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Relationships, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies | 6 Comments »
What’s going on here? Sales training has been around for more than 100 years. Yet every year, new approaches appear with the promise of being “The Silver Bullet.” Old approaches—even those that are relevant to fixing the proble—are labeled “old-school,” and rejected. On Amazon.com there are 29, 469 books under the category of “How to [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Buyers, Economy, Industry Analyst, Professionalism, Research, Technology | 26 Comments »
Geoffrey James, former BNET Sales Machine blogger and now Inc. Magazine columnist, refers to me as "the world's top expert on sales training," a designation I'm proud to accept.
ESR publishes independent evaluations and comparisons of sales training companies and their programs and services. (Think Consumer Reports, JD Powers, or Gartner.)
We also coach CEOs of leading sales training firms as well as individual sales trainers on how to grow their businesses and be selected more often in opportunities where they meet customer requirements.
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.
Presently I write the regular sales training column for Sales and Marketing Management magazine.
I can be reached at
+1 (508) 313-9585 Ext 706
