Issue #106 Why Does Jim Have Loads of Chips and Mike Has No Chips? Rolled Throughput Yield Of Course! Why “90% Effective” Sales Teams Still Miss Target I was called in to work with a sales team who couldn’t understand why they were missing revenue targets. On paper, they looked solid. Every stage of their process was working at 90–95% efficiency. Prospects were being qualified, meetings booked, discovery calls held, proposals sent, and deals negotiated. No one area looked broken. Yet results...
11 days ago • 4 min read
Issue #105 Who left the lion lying on the line? You did... When the Past Trips the Sale Enterprise sales looks like a straight line when you see it in a training deck. Prospect. Discover. Engage stakeholders. Negotiate. Sign. Easy, right? Except it never runs in a straight line. And half the time, the detours aren’t coming from the client at all. They’re coming from you. It's easy when you draw a nice diagram, isn't it? I’m not talking about skill gaps or lack of product knowledge. I’m...
18 days ago • 4 min read
Issue #104 If Mike was as brave about his authority issues as he was about his foot... Don’t Let Old Scars Stop New Deals A few years back, I worked with an account manager who could win over any room. Julie was sharp, warm but tough when she needed to be, meticulous in her work. But she stalled every time, at the point where a deal needed her to ask for something significant. Proposals sat in draft, awaiting client data validation. “Just checking one more thing,” she would say, while the...
25 days ago • 4 min read
Issue #103 If hard work was enough then horses would rule the Earth The Route to Sales VP - What They Don't Tell You We all know that most Sales VPs (and CROs) didn’t get the job because they were the best salesperson. Great salespeople are goal focused, not people focused, which is a problem if you want to lead a team. No, they got the gig because they looked the part, spoke the language and could present to the board without sweating through their shirt. Image is important too They knew how...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Issue #102 Make Yourself The Obvious Choice... Positioning: Why Your Pitch Falls Flat If your buyer can’t place you, they can’t pick you. And if they don’t get it, then that is down to you, not them. Sales success depends on clarity before persuasion. Before you get clever with pitch decks, demo flows, and ROI calculators, you need to fix the basics: What are you? Who is this for? Why should anyone care? I’ve coached dozens of founders and salespeople who struggled to convert solid leads. Not...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Issue #101 It's Not Just Marketing, It's What You Care About Buyers Don’t Want Your Product How I helped a clueless (about sales) founder land a £60k enterprise win. When Jake first emailed me, he was a brilliant tech founder who thought he could never learn to sell. Ready to learn how to sell YOUR way, Jake? All those cold calls and demos and not a single order to show for it. He was in no doubt about the problem, “I'm just not a natural at sales.” Being aware of your short comings is the...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue #100 He spotted the bin, it was rubbish... Grown-Ups Don’t Want Sexy Bins I ran the supply chain of a hospital group for a while before fate saved me (that’s a story for another week). One of my departments was procurement. Having been in sales for such a long time, I expected being on the other side to be easy. It wasn’t. Finding anyone who was willing to actually sell me something was hard. They just rang up, got the tender details and then emailed a price list. I got fed up with that...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue #99 How To Get Out Of Your Head Safely and Legally Rewiring the Voice in Your Head: A Seller’s Guide Your brain has a built-in storyteller. Scientists call it the Default Mode Network (DMN). When you’re not glued to a spreadsheet or delivering a pitch, this network takes over. Don't confuse your DMN with Jean Claude van Damme It lights up when you’re daydreaming, recalling memories, imagining the future, or wondering if that prospect thinks you’re an idiot because you misspelled their...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue #98 "If You Look Closer, It's Easy To Trace The Tracks of My Tears...." Change Your Mind, Change Your Life Human beings are mostly just a collection of reflexive behaviours, wrapped in skin. Most of our identity is created out of learned responses from our formative years, almost exclusively focused on keeping you safe. Read that again - they keep you safe, not successful, not rich, just out of trouble and alive. We like to think we’re in charge, but we’re just observers as we run on...
2 months ago • 4 min read