There are two articles that I post each and every December.  This is the first - the top articles of the year - and later this month I will post my annual Nutcracker edition which I have been doing since 2011.

There are several criteria for choosing the top articles of the year, including, but not limited to:

• Views (Article)
• Popularity (likes on LinkedIn and Twitter)
• Engagement (comments to the article, via email, and on LinkedIn)
• Personal (my favorites) 
• Value (insights for the community)

Some of the criteria is subjective and some is measurable.  I believe value is most important, although it might not be reflected in views or likes, and then engagement.  I think views are less significant because people could read the article but not like it.  Popularity is a good barometer but not everyone sees what is posted on LinkedIn and Twitter and the time of day influences that.  So with all that said, here are the top 5 Sales Articles and the Top 5 Sales Leadership articles of the year.

Top 5 Sales Articles (in no particular order)

1. 2 Questions That Will End Every Request for a Better Price
2. Salespeople Will Close 50% More Business By Changing This One Thing They Do!
3. Crappy Salespeople and Lack of Urgency Alignment  - The Bob Chronicles Part 4
4. 31 Conditions That Predict Your Sales Opportunity is in Trouble  
5. Data - Top Salespeople are 631% More Effective at This Than Weak Salespeople (Bob Chronicles - Part 3) 
   
   

Top 5 Sales Leadership Articles (in no particular order)

1. How to Use Buckets to Improve Sales Performance and Coaching
2. How Pitchers Fielding Practice is Exactly the Same as Salespeople Role-Playing 
3. Startups Almost Always Get The Sales Thing Wrong 
4. Why I Believe We Should Blow up the Business Development Rep (BDR) Role in Sales  
5. MUST READ: Are Assessments as Evil as the Persona Movie Suggests? 

The Most Viewed and Commented article was "Salespeople will close 50% More..."

My personal selection was a tie between my favorite for pure fun - Pitchers Fielding Practice - and for insights - the article on Evil Assessments.

There you have it - the top ten articles from 2021.  Which one is your favorite?

Image copyright 123RF

As 2017 comes to a close and we prepare for 2018, there are two things I do each year that have been very popular.  The first is to list the most popular articles of the year which I'll share below.  And the second is to republish the popular Nutcracker/Sales article for those who haven't read it and those who find value in a reread.  I'll republish the Nutcracker article early next week.  Now, the most popular articles of 2017 presented by most read (1pt ea), most engagement/commented (2 pts ea), most excitement/shares (5 pts ea), and my favorites that weren't listed in the other categories.

Top 5 Articles of 2017

1. New Analysis Shows the 5 Biggest Gaps Between Top and Bottom Sales Performers  
2. Top 10 Tips to Help You Sell More And Get More Done Than Anyone Else This Year Part 1  
3. How Your Salespeople Measure Up in the 21 Most Crucial Sales Competencies for Modern Selling  
4. 7 Reasons Why Salespeople Underperform and How Sales Leaders Can Coach Them Up 
5. Predict the Weather but Control the Sales Forecast and Revenue  

My favorites that don't appear above:

1. More Fake News in Sales Organizations Than on TV Networks!  
2. Why You Should Care That Sales Motivation Data Correlates Perfectly With Sales Effectiveness  
3. 21,000 People Agree That These are the Top 5 Traits of the Best Salespeople  
4. Sales Excellence: How to Close Anything and Everything in Any Vertical     
5. What B2B Companies Must Learn from the 10 Reasons Amazon is Destroying Retailers  

Image Copyright iStock Photos

Image Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

I reviewed the 88 articles I wrote in 2016 (nearly 1,600 articles on the Blog) and was surprised to discover what I wrote about the most.  It wasn't about sales force evaluations, sales candidate assessments or attacks on the Harvard Business Review.  It wasn't about sales recruiting and selection, sales pipeline or Baseline Selling.  It wasn't any of things I expected to write about most often.   Because my topics are driven by the conversations I have with clients and prospective clients, my articles are a reflection of what CEO's and Sales Leaders care about.  I really think you'll be surprised to find out what they cared most about this year.

I listed the top 5 topics sorted by how frequently I wrote about them.  Then I listed and linked to the 3 most read, most shared and most commented articles.  I listed the reader favorite and finally, my 4 favorite articles of 2016.  You'll notice that they are different from all of the articles that were most read, shared and commented.  Why 4?  Why not?  Here we go!

Topics

• Sales Strategy/Tactics (20)
• Sales Success (10)
• Sales Process (6)
• Sales Data (6)
• Sales Management - Coaching and Accountability (6)

What were the most popular articles of 2016?  As I do each year in December, I'll break it down this way:

Most Read

Breaking News - More Salespeople Suck Than Ever Before

Must Read - This Email Proves How Poorly the Bottom 74% of Salespeople Perform

The 5 Questions That Get People to Buy So That You don't Have to Sell

Most Shared

Breaking News - More Salespeople Suck Than Ever Before

Tech Buyer Explains Why He Has No Use for Salespeople

Must Read - This Email Proves How Poorly the Bottom 74% of Salespeople Perform

Most Comments

Tech Buyer Explains Why He Has No Use for Salespeople

The Biggest Secret to My Sales Success

The Crucial Selling Skill Nobody Talks About

Reader Favorite

Breaking News - More Salespeople Suck Than Ever Before

My Favorites

Remembering the Most Powerful Lesson of My Sales Career

Most Salespeople are Wrong about the Concept of Being Willing to Walk

Why a Customized Sales Process is Like Buying Shoes

Why Uncovering Pain Doesn't Close the Sale with the CEO

Are these popular articles trends for 2017?  While they could be, they probably aren't.  Most of these articles are timeless. Thanks for being a loyal reader this year.  Have a great holiday and a Happy New Year and I'll be back with more new articles in 2017.

Copyright: zimmytws / 123RF Stock Photo

As we approach the end of the year, do you pass judgement on the personal contributions you made to your wallet, family, friends, co-workers, customers, community, industry, religion, and the world during the past year?

How did you do?

If you're like me, you did really well in some areas, and in others, not very good.

In today's article, I'll look back on the 100 articles I wrote in the past year and pass judgement.  I have included links to the most popular, most discussed, most shared, and my personal favorites from this year.  These are the most important issues for salespeople, sales managers and sales leaders, as well as their CEOs as we head into 2015.

As I click on the links to these articles, they are truly the best of 2014, a treasure trove of sales, sales management, and sales leadership content.  Please Enjoy!

Let's start with topics:

The 5 topics I wrote about most often were:

1. Sales Selection and Recruiting 18%
2. Social Selling, Inbound and Inside Sales 12%
3. Sales Management and Sales Leadership 9%
4. Pipeline, Forecasts and CRM 8%
5. Finding New Business 7% 

The 5 most popular articles were:

1. Top 10 Mistakes Salespeople Make on the Phone (Funny Read) a finalist for Top Sales Blog Post of 2014
2. The Best Top 10 Lists for Sales and Sales Management (links to 50 great articles)
3. Are Inside Sales and Consultative Selling Mutually Exclusive?
4. Can These 5 Keys Determine the Fate of Cold Calling? another finalist for Top Sales Blog Post of 2014
5. Could it Really be The Death of SPIN Selling?

The 5 articles that were shared most often on LinkedIn were:

1. Leads are Making Salespeople Lazier Than Old Golden Retrievers

2. Top 10 Mistakes Salespeople Make on the Phone (Funny Read)

3. This is the One Thing Missing from the New Way of Selling

4. The Sales Epidemic That is Neutralizing Salespeople Everywhere

5. What the Sales World Can Learn from Marathon Participants

1. The One Sales Question I've Been Wrong About for Years
2. Could it Really be The Death of SPIN Selling?
3. The 21 New Sales Core Competencies for Modern Selling
4. The Biggest Secret of Salespeople that Rock
5. Top 5 Mistakes Salespeople Make When Under Pressure

And finally, my top 10 (in no particular order) personal favorites from 2014

1. Top 5 Sales Issues Leaders Should Not Focus On
2. The Biggest Secret of Salespeople that Rock
3. Why My Golfing May be Just Like Your Sales Recruiting
4. Sales Managers are Sometimes Like Cashiers
5. Why There is No Value When You Provide Value Via Special Pricing
6. Baseball, Sales Cycles, and the Quest for Shorter
7. How Stealing 2nd Base is Today's Secret to Success in Sales
8. The Sales Epidemic That is Neutralizing Salespeople Everywhere
9. Is This an Example of Succeeding or Failing at Inside Sales?
10. Are You Any Good at Evaluating Sales Talent?

Enjoy my Blog?  Please support my free content by voting for:

• Understanding the Sales Force as the Top Sales & Marketing Blog of 2014
• Increase in Social Selling Yields No Increase in KPI for best Sales & Marketing Article of 2014
• Objective Management Group (OMG) for Top Sales Assessment Tool
• Top 10 Mistakes Salespeople Make on the Phone for Top Sales & Marketing Blog Post of 2014
• Modern Science Behind Sales Force Excellence as Top eBook or White Paper of 2014
• Secrets to Becoming a Master at Sales Coaching as Top Webinar of 2014
• What Does it Mean for a Salesperson to Have SOB Quality for Top Video of 2014