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What An MBA Didn’t Teach You About Sales

The sales profession is challenging. You need to work hard at it to succeed. You need to learn from the best. You need to improve your skills continuously. If you think you can sell since you are a hit at parties and have a lot of friends, you may soon find that you are a failure as a salesperson. Blunt truth:

because the sales profession is so hard, you have to focus on doing everything in sales very well, or you will be considered a failure.

I call this blog, Skinned Knees because I try to relate all of the learning that I have done over the past 4+ decades (while skinning my knees in the learning process).

I hope that you learn from my mistakes so that your business will grow!

How Small Businesses Can Compete with Larger Competitors Using the Fragment Sales Strategy

Small businesses often find themselves at a disadvantage when competing with larger, well-established companies. However, they can still succeed. It requires them to think creatively and strategically and to develop unique approaches to win customers over. One approach small businesses can take is implementing the Fragment Sales Strategy. This approach is advantageous when small companies find themselves in David vs. Goliath-type sales campaigns, going up against larger competitors with more resources, references, and success stories.… How Small Businesses Can Compete with Larger Competitors Using the Fragment Sales Strategy

March Madness Teaches Us Great Coaching Techniques

March Madness teaches us great coaching techniques Posts Subscribe March Madness teaches us great coaching techniques Published: Tue, 03/14/23 I hope that you enjoy my latest newsletter View the online version of this email. It is time for March Madness! I hope that your favorite team wins. In addition to doing a bracket pick, you may want to consider supporting a charity. Two of my adult children do a squares-based (i.e., total luck – no… March Madness Teaches Us Great Coaching Techniques

Are You A Player, Or A Coach?

March brings March Madness. March Madness is the college basketball tournament where the 64 teams battle to find out who is the best college basketball team of the season.

While you are watching your team this year, I would like you to learn a lesson that every basketball coach has had to learn. The easiest way to learn this lesson is to do a little analysis. I would like you to count the number of times where the game is tight, one team is on the free-throw line, and the coach makes a substitution – himself.

Yes, count the number of times the coach doesn’t trust the player he has been coaching all season and puts himself on the line to make that winning shot.

I can already tell you the number: zero.

During a game, the coach can rant, rave, coach, and cajole but he cannot play the game. He has to trust that the athletes that he has coached all season will take his instruction, remember the skills that they have practiced, and execute those plays as they were taught.

This doesn’t happen in sales. It is almost commonplace for the coach (the sales manager) to step in and drive the conversation. He puts his athlete, whom he has been coaching perhaps for years, on the bench. 

So, let’s explore what would happen if suddenly you were required to stay on the sidelines while you watched your salespeople sell and it was impossible for you to take over the sale.

Read the rest of the article…