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Pain isn't enough anymore. In sales (especially if you speak MEDDPICC), we're taught to uncover and implicate pain to find sales opportunities.

Ever had a prospect say: “We already have a solution.” Does that typically close the conversation down?

You have a great product. It has lots of great features which bring fantastic benefits.

GTM engineer was a role that hardly existed a few years ago. Today, it has become a leading buzzword in the sales world.

Hiring is one of the most important things we do in business.

In Sales in particular, there are fantastic opportunities for self-led coaching for BDRs and AEs, and for anybody involved in sales calls. Which, given the context is brilliant:

I have previously the need to engage the Decision Makers/Economic Buyer early in the process. It massively increases the win rate.

That’s truly wonderful, mazal tov to all of you!

No one cares about your product: although from everything I see, it seems that the sales team really care about the product. Which is slightly odd, surely they should care about the client, the deal and the revenue (in…

Any time that a new prospect chooses to speak with you, there is a reason. It doesn’t matter if you cold called them and set up the more in-depth conversation.

I am a strong advocate of the MEDDPICC framework for deal qualification, but I've noticed a crucial gap when it comes to engaging with various individuals involved in the process.

I’ve had this conversation with too many founders: Series A raised, 20m ($, €, £) in the bank to scale the business. 24 months later, an expensive GTM expansion has delivered disappointing growth, cash out is 6-9…

Selling to enterprise is difficult — but not impossible. You just need to know the pitfalls.

A very successful 3x founder told me his biggest problem is an inability in his team to look at the same numbers and come to the same conclusion.

Trials are often necessary (although not always – see later **). When they are necessary, they are often resource hungry for both the vendor and the prospect.

Too many Sellers are poor at Discovery, but there are easy steps to improve.

{{First_name} I stole that quote from Ebsta’s latest GTM Benchmarks report . No discount ➡️ less negotiation time ➡️ faster deals.

Here are the tactics to get Discovery right every time - PDF cheat-sheet attached.

(Feel free to comment…

In sales, we often talk about the compelling event – the time-bounded driving motivation for the customer to act. Sometimes, there is a very clear compelling event: some new acquisition, development, or other activity…

I recently ran an event with revenue leaders discussing whether pipeline is filled with ICP. I’ve previously commented that most is not, and research shows it’s around 18%.

We all want to sell, and we want to sell to everyone who engages us. But quite often, prospects do not act as if they want to buy.

Short answer, forever!!! Longer answer… (Feel free to comment…

Prediction: Sellers & leaders who do not lean into AI will find become irrelevant faster than you imagine.

One of the most consistent patterns I see in early-stage companies: Founders can sell — often better than trained AEs.

For many companies, positioning does not match ICP. It should:

If you’re involved in enterprise or large midmarket sales, you will frequently have been introduced to the dreaded procurement team. This can be a challenging experience.

“What?” You might be thinking. Yes, do it, show your sales process .

Every sales leader — and every seller — wants to know one thing: “When will this deal close?”

It’s well-known and it's true. The longer a deal drifts, the more the chance the prospect will focus elsewhere, find an alternative, reorganise or change personnel, …

(Feel free to comment…

The last in the series of key questions to ask your Champion. (Next week: try firing your prospect!)

Or Economic Buyer if you prefer MEDDPICC language. One of the challenges I repeatedly discuss with salespeople, both new and experienced, is getting in front of the Economic Buyer or Decision-maker.

In any sales team, and in fact I would argue in almost any team, a regular 1-1 is necessary - but too many sales leaders don't make this a structure priority. In sales, it’s almost certainly weekly, although you might…

I often see sellers and sales teams lacking control of deals: simply accepting that if the customer is not in a rush, or doesn’t focus on the deal, it will take its sweet time until they are ready. With the predictable…

If you have followed my blog much, you will know I’m going to make an assumption: you don’t have meaningful enough executive sponsorship. I only say that because I see it time and time again.

Almost everybody understands the concept in midmarket/enterprise selling that there will be a decision-maker or Economic Buyer who you need to engage with. However, I see two key issues, time and time again.

I spend a lot of time working with founders on interactions with their Boards. There are two main challenges:

There are some consistent issues I see in sales teams. One of those is multithreading – or rather, the lack of it.

I can’t imagine that anyone speaking to customers is going to suggest they don’t know what they are selling. After all, what have you been doing for the last several months and years?

Don’t worry, I know the answer is yes! I can’t solve the problem for you in one blog post, but I do have a couple of key ideas below.

ICP = Ideal Customer Profile – the companies most likely to purchase from you, that will get the best value and remain with you. Everyone should be clear what their ICP is (and acknowledge that it will change with time).

The more engagement with my posts, the more I am noticed! Please click…

Is your sales team overprotective with pricing? Trying to keep it close to their chests until the deal is well progressed and they have demonstrated sufficient value?

Since Andy Whyte published the original MEDDICC book, and probably well before that, MEDDICC in all its acronym varieties has become very popular. I should of course say that other qualification frameworks exist – and…

During the sales process, your prospects ask questions. On any number of topics.

In the ideal world, you do not need to sell your product to your prospects. Instead, they will sell it to themselves and to their colleagues.

In the past week three clients have complained about lack of coordination between Sales and Marketing. In one case, it was the general grumble that Sales are not getting enough quality leads.

Every business under the sun wants recurring revenue. Note that I didn’t say SaaS subscriptions – while that is one of the most effective forms of recurring revenue, even if you are selling services or devices or…

A constant complaint from sales managers is that the CRM is not up-to-date. And if sales managers are not complaining, then it’s the CEO or CFO grumbling that the data is not useful and they can’t see what’s happening.

In conversation with many salespeople, whether they are junior BDRs, experienced AEs or senior leaders, I often come across the sense that sellers consider themselves to be supplicants, begging for time and support…

There is any number of sales processes and new sales strategies available to B2B salespeople. Back in the day everyone was interested in Miller Heiman or Sandler or SPIN (many still are).

Instead, I will address some of the challenges which I often hear.

Most people who have involvement in sales have an understanding that there is a concept of Discovery – where we attempt to understand if the customer has a problem we can solve. Sellers who do this really well (whether…

As I mentioned when I started this recent series of blogs, I’m spending a few weeks focusing on the cadence for the sales team. So far, I have covered Pipeline Reviews and Deal Reviews.

No, I don’t mean do you talk enough! Most of us do that – me especially.

In my last post I wrote about pipeline reviews, weekly touch bases on deal status to spot key next steps and provide input to forecasting.

Starting with the definition: BDR = business development rep (or SDR = sales development rep). These are typically people early in their career – often straight out of university – who generate leads for the sales…

Consider a company or team that has a small number of high-value deals. Maybe 10-15 that need to be reviewed each week.

When working with start-ups, I’m frequently asked questions like “should we target market X or Y?”, or “which is the best marketing channel to engage with persona Z?” or “should we build a BDR team or outsource?”. On…

Okay, I can’t really make it easy. But you can make it more reliable.

(If you want to jump ahead, the BEST question is highlighted below. But why don’t you stick with me for a couple of paragraphs first?) How often have you heard an AE say “I’m feeling really confident about this deal”.

1. Do they need to have experience in my industry?

Here’s my question to you: what is the very best Discovery question? Especially the first time you meet somebody.

* ICP = Ideal Customer Profile is the FIRST thing you must get right. And note that it changes as your business evolves.

It's been a while since I've posted, so hopefully you have not forgotten me. Of course, please tell me if you would like to avoid these messages in your inbox.

Having mentored over 50 start-ups in the last four years, I am amazed how frequently companies have hired AEs (account execs, sellers) who are not a good fit. Often, they have attractive CVs showing, but somehow full…

I have lost track of the number of occasions where somebody has said to me “my contact is ghosting me, what can I do to get them to re-engage?”. Quite frankly, if they are ghosting you, it’s probably too late.