"My Champion Loves Us" Is Not a Forecast
A client wanted to move her renewals close rate from 33% to 38%. Those five points were not a round number she liked, they were worth an exact amount. Here is the calculation she ran and the two part deal review that got her there.
How 5 Points Became $600,000
A client wanted to move her renewals close rate from 33% to 38%. Those five points were not a round number she liked, they were worth an exact amount. Here is the calculation she ran and the two part deal review that got her there.
Garbage In, Garbage Stays
Bad data does not leave your pipeline. It follows you into your reporting, into your coaching, and into the decisions leadership makes about your year. Here is why clean pipeline data is a closing tool and not an admin chore.
The Sales Topic You're Too Scared to Raise
Tariffs, supply chain, trade rules, the environment. Most sellers dodge all of it the way you dodge politics at the dinner table. The best closers raise these on purpose, as business issues, and they do it with one kind of question that keeps the conversation out of the ditch.
The Red Flags That Say Your Customer Is Leaving
Customers almost never announce that they're leaving. They signal it for months, and most sellers read those signals as a quiet quarter. Here are the warning signs worth watching on every account you own.
That Rolodex Is Worth Less Than You Think
A rep joins from the competition with a full contact list. A buyer you love lands at the account you've chased for years. Both feel like free pipeline, and both hide the same fallacy. Here's what to check before you forecast any of it.
One Is the Most Dangerous Number in Sales
If you are the only person at your company who can call your best customer, you are not protecting that account. You are the single biggest risk to it.
4 Habits That Feel Productive and Close Nothing
In our Closing Room sessions I watch sellers confuse efficiency with effectiveness in the same four ways. Every one of them feels like progress, and not one of them moves a deal.
Your Past Deals Are Lying to You
A seller was certain his plant manager contact could sign an $800,000 order, because that contact had signed every deal before it. Here's the question I asked him in the deal review, and why account history can quietly work against you.
Stuck Deal? Stop Working It Alone.
Most sellers work a stuck account solo. You have a roster of people inside your own company who can open doors you can't, and here's how to put them to work on the deals that matter most.
Your Stakeholder Is Ghosting You…Now What?
Sellers keep telling me the same thing: we can't get in front of the stakeholder. Here's why calling almost anyone else in that building beats sending one more email.
The One Buyer You're Not Talking To
Stakeholders, buyers, influencers. You've mapped them all, and you're still missing the one person who actually moves the deal.
Deals Aren't Won in Negotiation
If you keep getting beaten up on price, the problem started long before the negotiation. Here's why deals are really won or lost in early qualification.
The Questions to Ask After You Lose a Deal
Nobody likes reopening a deal they lost. But the post-mortem is one of the fastest ways to lift your conversion rate.
Your Gut is Telling You Something. Listen.
I hear the same three words in deal reviews all the time: “This one's different.” It almost never is. Here's the tell most sellers talk themselves right past.
The Real Reason You Won't Walk Away
I see it in almost every deal review I run: a seller white-knuckling a deal everyone else in the room can tell is a loser. There's one reason they hang on...
Your Training Didn't Fail. Your Follow-Up Did.
Your closing rates are stuck and it isn't a skills problem. It's what you're not doing after the workshop ends.
Navigating Iceberg Objections
Don’t let your promising deals get sunk by invisible, avoidable hazards! Much like an iceberg, hidden internal politics and shadowy elements lurk beneath the surface of every deal.
You Don't Need More Training. You Need This.
I see it all the time. Sharp teams with every tool and every skill they need, and the number still won't budge. There's one gap nobody is funding.
You're Using Proof Too Late in the Sale
There's a reason "I can save you time, I can save you money" makes prospects tune out. And this small fix that makes them believe you instead.