Sometimes, you have to know when it’s time to cut bait and run.It’s a lesson fishing boat captains who make their living catching crab on the Bering Sea know all too well. In the most recent episode of the hit TV show Deadliest Catch, Sig...
Shift happens – or so they say. A significant shift occurred earlier this year when Tim Houlihan, a vice president at BI WORLDWIDE, a global engagement company, left that position to launch his own consulting business. Tim is a creative thinker and has been a...
As a 20-year-old college graduate (many years ago), my first job was as an account representative in the advertising industry. My father had a very successful career in sales that led to senior leadership positions, and he encouraged me to stay on the sales path,...
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 20-plus years in the sales profession it’s this: I don’t have all the answers. And I’ve learned how to be comfortable saying, “I don’t know.”When I finally learned this lesson, it was liberating. I learned to realize...
My journey into sales and, eventually into sales enablement, was really the road less traveled, to borrow a phrase from Robert Frost. Sales was always seemed a bit suspicious to me. My father had his own engineering firm but I never heard him talk about...
Sales enablement should always be a cross-functional discipline that encompasses more than sales and marketing. In fact, it should encompass your entire organization.What does that mean: Let’s say you’re bringing a product or solution to market. You’ve done the research, developed a unique solution that...
For crab boat captains on the Bering Sea, crab fishing season is officially half over as depicted on the hit TV show Deadliest Catch. They officially reached the half-way point when king crab season came to an end. Next up, catching the elusive opilio crab.In...
Sales enablement may be a fast growing discipline, but still only 33 percent of organizations have a formal sales enablement program or function in place, according to data from CSO Insights. While that’s a big improvement from 2013 (19.3 percent of organizations had one) just...
Remember when sales professionals were the “special” ones whose compensation included an upside? The pay-for-performance trend emerged in popularity several years ago, and is showing no indication of losing steam. In fact, Mercer reports 89 percent of companies link performance and pay.Pick up virtually any...
By now, most of us are familiar with the stereotypes of the millennial generation – at least we think we are. I’ve heard numerous generalizations, such as:They’re not into owning cars, houses or getting married. They are overburdened by massive student loans. They’re totally...