Posted on December 2nd, 2009 by Dave Stein
Dave Brock wrote a terrific post about sales process. It sparked me to write about an issue that has been troubling me. I’m not going to put forward any more arguments on the subject of whether or not process important in selling. There is enough research out there—from ESR, from other research firms, and a [...]
Filed under: Methodology, Opportunity Management, Research, sales process, Sales Training Companies | 11 Comments »
Posted on October 9th, 2009 by Dave Stein
I thought I’d bring you up to speed on a few things going on. First, several new books on selling have recently been published: Smart Selling on the Phone and Online by Josiane Chriqui Feignon. Josiane gets it. I normally don’t endorse books like this, but because inside salespeople so often don’t have the skills, [...]
Filed under: Book Recommendation, Industry Analyst, Presentations, Research, Sales Training Companies | 3 Comments »
Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Dave Stein
Fortunately, it’s a busy time for us at ESR. Right now, we’re providing advice and guidance to a number of companies that are actively evaluating strategies and solutions for sales performance improvement, but based on the economy, the state of the sales training industry, and the mistakes they’ve made in the past, have to finally [...]
Filed under: Economy, Leadership, Marketing, Methodology, Research, Sales 2.0, sales process, Sales Training Companies, social media | 7 Comments »
Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Dave Stein
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 »
Posted on April 10th, 2009 by Dave Stein
Update: This conference is sold out. I’m delighted to be both presenting and participating in a panel discussion at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston on May 21st. Using recent research from ESR’s Sales Training Vendor Guide, I’ll talk specifically about technology-enabled learning—how technology is changing learning and why today, effective sales learning requires technology. [...]
Filed under: Research, Sales 2.0, Sales Training Companies | 1 Comment »
Posted on April 8th, 2009 by Dave Stein
ESR’s Sales Training Vendor Guide: Third Edition was published this morning. The Guide analyzes, compares, and contrasts 23 leading sales training providers across many areas including: Solutions Range Range of Target Companies Range of Target Audiences Range of Training Programs Adaptability Range of Instructional Aids & Tools Quality of Instructional Design Measurement Programs Post-training Reinforcement [...]
Filed under: Book Recommendation, Buyers, Methodology, Research, Sales 2.0, sales process, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, Technology | No Comments »
Posted on March 26th, 2009 by Dave Stein
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 process, Sales Strategy, Technology | 5 Comments »
Posted on March 23rd, 2009 by Dave Stein
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 [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Competition, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Research, sales process | 12 Comments »
Posted on March 18th, 2009 by Dave Stein
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: [...]
Filed under: Dave Stein, Interview, Marketing, Methodology, On the Road, Presentations, Research, sales training | No Comments »
Posted on March 12th, 2009 by Dave Stein
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 [...]
Filed under: Economy, Hiring, Measurement, Methodology, Research, Sales Training Companies | 5 Comments »
