If you run a small or mid-sized business, the government shutdown impact on SMB sales is not a theory. It shows up in slower decisions, delayed funding, jittery customers, and a pipeline that starts slipping to “next month.” You cannot control Washington. You can control your leadership, your sales process, and how your team executes […]
Overcoming Sales Obstacles: How to Fix “No Need, No Money, No Hurry, No Desire, No Trust” Deals don’t usually die at the close. They die quietly and early, when your process leaves gaps you don’t see until the end of the quarter. Zig Ziglar named the five killers: no need, no money, no hurry, no
The 5 Sales Obstacles Killing Your Deals (and How to Beat Each One) Read More »
Eight years ago, I started cooking as a hobby. Like many, I gravitated toward Gordon Ramsay. He wasn’t just a chef; he was a force of nature. Watching Hell’s Kitchen drew me in because it wasn’t only about food, it was about leadership under pressure. Over time, I realized the parallels between a high-stakes kitchen
Hell’s Kitchen and the Reality of Sales Team Management Read More »
If everything is “hot,” nothing is. That’s the problem inside most SMB sales teams: reps chase noise, managers triage by gut feel, and the forecast bloats with activity that will never convert. Lead triage fixes that. Try this ER playbook, fast intake, clear severity, hard response times and you’ll protect your attention for the leads
ER-Style Lead Triage: A Simple Lead Triage Framework That Saves Time Read More »
What a CRM really is (and what it isn’t) A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform is the operating system for your revenue team. At its best, it centralizes contacts, accounts, activities, opportunities, and forecasts so leadership can see the truth, managers can coach, and reps can sell with focus. At its worst, it’s a bloated
CRM Adoption: Turning your CRM from a chore into a growth engine Read More »
What sales pipeline management actually means Sales pipeline management is the discipline of how opportunities move from first contact to closed revenue. It is not just a list of deals. It is a system that defines the stages, the exit criteria for each stage, who owns what at each step, and how progress is measured,
Sales Pipeline Management: The SMB growth lever most leaders underuse Read More »
You don’t control every bounce in sales. You control how many chips you drop, where you release them from, and whether you learn from the patterns. That’s Plinko…and that’s your daily sales activities. Daily sales activities behave like Plinko chip drops…consistent, intentional activity creates more predictable outcomes. This isn’t just a clever metaphor. It’s a
Daily Sales Activities: Managing the Bounces Like Plinko to Win More Deals Read More »
What really hurts sales performance isn’t a bad month, it’s unpredictability. When results swing wildly, forecasting is guesswork, morale dips, and good opportunities slip through the cracks. The good news: inconsistency isn’t random. It comes from a small set of fixable issues. Why Sales Teams Struggle with Consistency 1) No documented, enforced sales process If
The Struggles with Sales Team Consistency (and How to Fix It) Read More »
If your sales forecast is off, your plans are fiction. Hiring, inventory, cash, investor updates. All of it. Most SMBs are making decisions on numbers that are half true at best. Let’s fix that. The 7 Ways Forecasts Go Wrong Hope disguised as pipeline Deals sit in late stages because someone “feels good” about them.
Why Your Sales Forecast Is Lying to You (and What to Do About It) Read More »
Few words stop a salesperson faster than these: “We do not have the budget.” It feels like a dead end, but most of the time it is not. “No budget” is rarely the truth. It is a placeholder for hesitation, misalignment, or competing priorities. Top performing teams do not walk away. They reframe the conversation.
Selling in a No Budget Environment: How to Win When Prospects Say “No Budget” Read More »
