Sales

Selling@Zero Distance What Happens When You Manage the Score Last weekend, a salesman I know lost half his pipeline. He sells ice cream machines and frying equipment to restaurants. He had spent months on those deals. Visits, demos, quotes, follow-ups. He did everything right. Then the riots hit Lyon and a dozen other French cities. […]

Selling@Zero Distance What If Your Sales Results Aren’t Your Performance? Published on the day of my keynote at the Global Marketing Summit, Istanbul. For those who were in the room, and for those who weren’t. Scotland, 1983. Cup final. Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen has just won. Trophy in hand. Cameras rolling. And Ferguson is furious. Not […]

Selling@Zero Distance Your Salespeople Aren’t Resisting. They’re Reporting. The CEO had found the problem. His salespeople were too technical. They didn’t like selling. They didn’t want to be salespeople. So he did what any serious leader does. He added a KPI. Visits per week. Then calls per day. Then new customers per quarter. Each new […]

Selling@Zero Distance Commercial Excellence Isn’t What You’re Measuring. Every sales leader wants the same meeting. The customer talks. The rep listens. The deal moves forward, and nobody in the room feels pushed. Almost everything we do to get that meeting makes it less likely. I learned this from a salesperson who had just lost a […]

Selling@Zero Distance You Didn’t Hire a Sales Director. You Hired a Forecast. Every Friday, same room, same hour, same meeting. Years ago I was on a sales team that met its director every Friday morning. The agenda never changed. What’s the forecast. What are the risks on the forecast. What are the potential upsides. Then, […]

Selling@Zero Distance Hiring a Sales Director? You’re About to Answer a Question You Haven’t Asked. You already have a sales system. You just didn’t design it. A few years ago I worked with Laurent, a CEO who ran his sales team directly. Halfway through the quarter, the numbers weren’t going to land. He called me […]

Selling@Zero Distance You Can’t Teach Curiosity Every sales leader I meet wants the same thing. Almost none of them can tell me how to get it. “I need my people to be more curious. Listen to the customer. Stop talking so much.” I get it. If I had to keep one skill for selling and […]

Whether you own your own business or you are operating in a large organization in a sales leadership role — VP, Sales Director, even CEO — the moment you are accountable for sales results, you are a sales leader. And you feel the pressure. The pressure from numbers. From general management. From investors. From financial […]

A few months ago, I decided to record myself playing tennis. Not to show anyone. Not to post on LinkedIn. To understand why, after months of practice, my serve wasn’t getting any better. I had done everything right. YouTube tutorials. Technical articles. Studying the pros. Regular training. Everything. Nothing changed. So I filmed myself. And […]