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SALES PERFORMANCE AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INSIGHTS FROM AMY FRANKO
How to Use Sales Enablement to Boost Selling Results
One of the most enjoyable parts of researching my upcoming book, The Modern Seller, has been my interviews with industry sales leaders I know and respect. They’ve been thought-provoking and energizing. The Modern Seller will be available in early 2018; in the meantime, I’d like to share some of that wisdom with you. This interview features Pete McChrystal, president and CEO of Accent Technologies, a cloud-based sales enablement company. In this conversation, Pete and I share insights on sales enablement, including some practical advice for how you can improve it within your organization.
Sales Webcast: 5 Modern Sales Skills for a High-Value Advantage
The sales landscape evolved. Has your sales organization? Join Amy Franko and ATD for a free, on-demand webcast: Cultivating 5 Modern Sales Skills for a High-Value Advantage. You will learn how to apply modern selling trends to your decision making when developing sales strategy, designing skill building programs, and assessing skill gaps.
3 Tips to Enable Learning Agility In Sales Organization
Learning agility is something that wasn’t even on the radar in the business sector as little as two decades ago. What this means for sales enablement leaders is that learning agility isn’t likely something we’ve been training our team to harness. But it’s one of several key traits that every modern seller now needs to have.
In a new article for the Association for Talent Development (ATD), I delve into strategies to empower your team to better serve modern customers and create more business value. Consider these four, practical ways you can help build learning agility within your sales force.
Top Sales Tips and Takeaways from the Sales 3.0 Conference
I just returned from Sales 3.0 in Las Vegas. It was a whirlwind of fresh insights, learning development, and strategic networking! As I look back on my time at the conference, I focus on eight highlights and takeaways.
Inspire Sales Success with these 6 TED Talks
In my upcoming book, The Modern Seller, I’m reflecting on skillsets like learning agility, entrepreneurialism, and being holistic – why they matter to your sales success, and how you can develop them.
I’m always looking for inspiration and practical ways to improve my own skills – one place I turn to is TED Talks. Take a listen to these six to be inspired to up your potential as a modern seller.
Here’s How Not to Follow Up with Your Sales Leads
As someone who loves to learn stay current on sales and leadership, I’m usually immersing myself in an ebook, white paper, or webcast. In today’s world of content marketing, thought leaders publish these pieces to stay in the forefront of our minds and establish their credibility. Of course, lead generation is another benefit of content marketing. Every time we download content, we add ourselves to that company’s lead-gen list. What happens next requires a delicate balance. Not too long ago, I wrote about lack of follow up and what it can do to the sales process. I think we can all agree no follow up leads to no sales. But over-aggressive and poorly-timed follow up doesn’t reflect well upon you or your business either. Recently, a member of my team downloaded a free ebook. It was her first contact with the company. Within hours, before she even had a chance to open the ebook, she received a call about...
How You Can Become a Strategic Advisor to Your Clients
Growing up, I remember watching the television commercials for the financial firm EF Hutton. “When EF Hutton talks, people listen,” the famous tagline proclaimed. (I may have just dated myself a bit with that memory.)As I’m researching for my upcoming book, The Modern Seller, that phrase comes to mind. How can we, as modern sellers, ensure that our clients and prospects will stop to listen to us in this busy world with a million messages and distractions a minute? Even more, how can we influence them to take action toward a different result?One way is to elevate beyond a typical sales person and “order taker,” transitioning to a strategic advisor.As the title indicates, a sales pro who is a strategic advisor is strong on strategy. They know their solutions, of course, but their knowledge extends well beyond to include the latest industry and business trends. They’re strong listeners who seek to solve...
6 Tips for Being a Better Leader from Successful CEOs
The latest Columbus Chamber CEO Insights event featured Yaromir Steiner, founder and CEO of Steiner & Associates, and Denny Gerdeman, chair and founder of Chute Gerdeman. These two seasoned retail leaders shared their experiences in the industry, how Columbus has grown into a retail mecca of talent and innovation, and what the future might hold for retail. As I was listening to them, it occurred to me that these lessons are also very relevant to modern sellers and leaders in any industry. While a few of them are tried and true, some may surprise you. Your reputation will be remembered. You never know where your connections and work quality may lead, or come full circle. For example, Yaromir was part of the 1990 CocoWalk design – think of it as an early version of...
A Modern Seller’s Response for Success
I live in the heart of Buckeye Country, and it's a bit of a given to watch and learn from all things Ohio State. (I promise, only one football reference.) Since he arrived in Columbus, Head Football Coach Urban Meyer has set himself and his team apart. In fact, one of the essential focus areas of his program is leadership development for the team. Meyer will frequently mention the formula they share with the players: E + R = O. Or "Event + Response = Outcome." This is a philosophy developed by leadership expert Tim Kight. The basics of E + R = O means that while I can't always influence an Event or an Outcome, I'm in total control of my Response. I get to choose how I show up. This same concept can be applied in sales, as well as on the field. As a Modern Seller, what does the way you respond say about you? And how does it affect your sales performance? In any given day, we have hundreds of interactions....
The Top Three Blog Posts on Selling
I’ve been involved in B2B sales in a corporate environment and as an entrepreneur for my entire career, and I’ve started blogging on this topic a little more recently. In that time, I’ve shared my sales performance strategies here, as well as with ATD, Training Industry, and Selling Power. A few weeks ago, I shared the most visited leadership blogs on our site. Today, let’s look at the top three Impact blogs on selling. Six Strategies to Maximize Sales Results Last fall, I teamed up with two other sales thought leaders to create this six-part series. We cover critical strategies like developing a growth mindset, improving your pipeline, and selling to the C-suite. We also packaged this into an ebook – make sure to pick up your copy. For Lead Generation, the Magic is in the Follow Up When you launch a lead generation campaign, do you have plans in place for follow up? In this post, I discuss a recent sales...
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