I wrote and posted exactly 100 new articles since my final article of 2012 when I announced your favorite all-time Kurlan article.  I've chosen 10 from this year's articles that were either very popular, contained many comments, or thought-provoking.  It's very difficult to narrow it down to 10, never mind to 1, but I went through 100 to pick the 10, and with all the votes that you were asked to cast last week, I decided to not ask you to vote again.  Also, I did not include the article that was awarded a Gold Medal for Top Sales & Marketing Article of 2013 earlier this week.

Here they are in no particular order - My Top 10 Articles of 2013:

SALES

Top Four Reasons Why Salespeople Struggle to Reach Decision Makers 

The Key to Powerful Sales Conversations 

Inc. Magazine Gets it Wrong on Consultative Selling

SALES MANAGEMENT

Actual Coaching Call - Use it to Coach Your Salespeople to Success

The Doctor, The Drug Dealer, and the User 

The Monumental Effort Required to Grow Sales in 2014 

SALES LEADERSHIP

Opinion - Why Sales Win Rates Have Reached an All-Time Low - this article led to quite a discussion on some of the other sites where it was republished.

We're Going Back to AIDA and You Should be Scared

The Challenge of the Challenger Sales Model - Just the Facts 

Get Sales Compensation Right to Recruit Winning Salespeople  

Which one is your favorite? 

Which one gets you upset?

Which one gives you an idea?

Which one resonates the most?

Please leave your comments below.

This is my last article of 2013 - Have a great holiday and we'll get back together here in January.

I recently published, Increase in Social Selling Yields No Improvement in KPI's.  In addition to my blog, this article appeared on at least 5 other websites leading to many interesting comments and very strong opinions.  The discussions, comments and opinions, especially at CustomerThink.com, helped me realize why so many experts are arguing - not only about the future of selling, but about what's taking place today, right now.  Among the things being debated are:

• The migration from outside to inside sales - Yes, it's happening and it's good; but, it won't happen in every company, to every salesperson or necessarily soon.
• The rise of inbound marketing - Yes, it's happening, and yes, it helps generate leads; but, it's not the be-all, end-all that inbound marketing folks make it out to be.  Salespeople are not being replaced.
• The integration of social selling tools (the topic of the aforementioned article) - Yes, it's happening and it's helpful; but, it hasn't changed the results  - no measurable change in KPI's at all.
• The death of selling - Yes, marketing people are predictably predicting this; and no, it's not going to happen.
• The change in how selling will be conducted - Yes, it's changing; but, some of that change is for the wrong reasons and could be change for the sake of inbound marketing.

I wrote the following response to 12 conflicting comments on my article on CustomerThink.com:

Thank you all for contributing to the discussion and in both challenging and adding your own results and evidence for and against. I'm sure we're not done yet...

It's clear that everyone is approaching this from their own perspective, using their own experience, anecdotal evidence, surveys, studies, clients and subscribers, in the industries in which they work and the marketing and/or sales teams with whom they communicate.

I'll repeat the essence of the article because it already seems to be getting lost or twisted.

The data I used was a selection of around 10,000 Objective Management Group sales assessments (not a survey) completed in the month of June 2013. The results show us that usage of these tools is way up. The companies that these salespeople worked for were reporting no change, or worsening of KPI's. The conclusion is what you had the problem with: Lack of correlation between use of the tools and key sales metrics. That's it - nothing more and nothing less. How could you conclude anything else from this particular set of data?

The 10,000 assessments were taken in a cross-section of industries (companies in more than 200 industries use our assessments) so that is part of the problem. Most of you who are surprised with these results are working with companies and industries that are more likely to see results than the overall population of 15 million plus salespeople.

To summarize, most of the disagreements, arguments, challenges, and strong opinions occur when experts feel threatened by an opposing viewpoint or simply aren't in a position to have a similar viewpoint.  Many of the viewpoints, that are in opposition to what I write about, are from people who just don't have as broad a vantage point .  I am very fortunate to have unique access to data, science and business that isn't available to anyone else:

• 200 Industries!  That's industries, not companies.  Most of the survey data being used out there is extremely limited by comparison.  Only big companies, only small companies, only SaaS companies, only companies that use inbound marketing, only marketing people responding, etc.
• 700,000 salespeople!  That's a huge sample size and I can mine it for anything I need to find.  Not only that; but, the population has grown over the years so we can track changes to the data.
• Salespeople!  We only look at three roles - sales, sales management and sales leadership.  Our data is validated, relevant and impressive.
• Companies with sales organizations!  Due to the way we go to market, I have access, through our partners, to almost any company, anywhere; and as such, trends across those 200 industries, not just the companies I might personally be working with.
• Manufacturing!  My colleagues, that limit themselves to technology companies or financial institutions or insurance companies, don't know what they're missing.  When I work with the executives of manufacturing companies, I get to see things before they happen.  Manufacturers are the first to experience increases, decreases and even global spending freezes (these occurred prior to November 2008), allowing me to see the trends before they happen.  These are forward-looking indicators and when the same things happen to multiple companies at the same time, we can predict shifts and changes in the economy.
• Evaluations and Assessments!  Not surveys.  Anyone can use SurveyMonkey to ask questions, populate drop-down lists and incorporate radio buttons, send the survey to some companies and collect the data.  Surveys are typically a collection of questions and answers gathering opinions, aren't validated, and typically aren't representative of all people reading the results.  The data, that comes from our evaluations and assessments, is always based on science.  Validated.  Accurate.  Predictive.

Today there are a tremendous number of blogs on sales.  There are 85 of them featured on AllTop.com.  TopSalesWorld.com lists the top 50 sales blogs.  I counted 240 different people writing on the subject of sales at EvanCarmichael.com.  You should always consider the author's context, industry, background, experience and bias when reading their sales articles.  Ask yourself, "For this author to have this opinion, are they pushing an agenda, reporting on a trend within a particular industry, expressing an opinion formed only from their personal experience, selling something (I'm sometimes guilty of this), sharing the results of a skewed survey, talking about something that isn't globally applicable, suggesting something that isn't scalable, promoting something that isn't duplicable, talking about something that isn't even sound?"  Some would suggest that if someone causes someone to adopt something so outdated and ineffective in today's world, that they should be found guilty of malpractice.  And finally, the best of all; the experts that only post-attack comments on other experts' blogs.  Do I love them...

As with any industry, ours has some pretty smart, forward-thinking experts who can help any company with any challenge.  I know most of them.  Some of them partner with Objective Management Group.  But the number of really good ones is not 240 or 85 or even 50. Remember, that was the top 50 blogs - not the top 50 sales experts.  Some of the really good experts are included there and some aren't.  Some of the really good blogs are written by people you may not want helping you.  A blog does not make the top 50 list because the author is a brilliant sales mind.  Most of those rankings are based on number of posts, consistency in their posting, and number of readers.  I know a few great sales minds that don't have blogs and vice versa.

I've gone a bit off the track and probably pissed off a lot of people.  But what else is new?  I apologize.

Good things are happening in the world of sales and some of those things are coming your way.  Just keep both eyes open, your nose to the ground and your antenna up.  You'll intuitively know whether or not what you are reading is a bunch of bunk or the real deal.

I just returned from a speaking engagement in Athens and had to stop at passport control several times during this trip. They always ask, "What kind of business?" and over the years I've used them all: consulting, speaking, training, business adviser, author, coaching, etc.  I've learned that if I want to be interrogated, "speaker" would be the answer of choice.  If I simply want to answer a few questions, "consultant" will do the trick.  But to elicit the desired yawn from the officers, I only need to say "attend a conference."  Words make a huge difference and if you like scripts, you'll be disappointed.  But a well-chosen word or phrase at just the right time can be the difference between a resistant prospect and an intrigued one.  Do you pay enough attention to the things you do and say as well as how you say them just before a prospect becomes resistant or more engaged?  Well, you should!

Selling is about having a conversation.  Not just any conversation, but one where a prospect recognizes that you are different from everyone else.  You ask better questions.  You aren't afraid of difficult topics.  You can gently push back and challenge.  You know your stuff as evidenced by the questions you're asking.  Make no mistake.  It's a conversation, not 50 questions.  And it's a good conversation, with you encouraging your prospect to share their opportunities, issues and feelings until you've identified something compelling, something that will create urgency, something that would cause them to not only spend their money, but spend it with you. 

When we train sales organizations, there may be only 6 times in the entire sales process when we want salespeople to use specific words or phrases, but they occur at times when the use of less desirable words simply won't obtain the desired result:

1. The positioning statement and examples you provide to a cold prospect to get them engaged,
2. Quantifying and justifying questions,
3. The powerful price-busting question that gets your prospect to buy from you even when your competition has lower prices,
4. The powerful timeline question that shortens your sales cycle,
5. The navigation question that short circuits the decision making process, and
6. The comfortable close where it isn't obvious to your prospect that you are closing them.

On your next sales call, pay more attention to what engages, encourages and comforts your prospects, along with what causes them to clam up, become resistant and lose interest.  That can be very effective self-training.

This past summer, the Boston Red Sox celebrated their 100th Anniversary.  Every living player and manager who wore the uniform was invited and many came to participate.  Those veterans included National Baseball Hall of Fame members Carlton Fisk, Jim Rice and Carl Yastrzemski.  The veterans are loved and cherished by the fan base.  Their appearances provided opportunities to coach current players.  It helped grow the business of Red Sox baseball.

For companies who want to grow revenue, veteran salespeople cause more problems than any other factor.  After all, if you have a young, energetic group, there's nowhere to go but up and everyone knows that they need to improve.  On the other hand, veteran salespeople believe that they know everything and everyone and probably could lead the sales training class.  But their arrogance, defiance and inflated sense of accomplishment aren't really the problem.  The real problem is that the CEO's, Presidents, Owners, Sales VP's, Sales Directors and Sales Managers to whom these veteran salespeople report are simply afraid of them.  Here are the top 10 things which I've heard about veteran salespeople in the past 27 years of sales development consulting and training:

1. I don't want to upset the apple cart.
2. If they don't buy in, then nobody will.
3. They are too set in their ways - nobody can get through to them.
4. I'll be wasting my money on them.
5. If we make them participate, they'll quit and take their customers with them.
6. They'll give you trouble - it won't be worth it for you.
7. They're complacent - I don't know what to do with them.
8. You'll never get them to find new business.
9. They're holding us back - no question - but I can't do anything about it.
10. They're holding me hostage - I have no options.

I'm not saying that these issues don't exist.  I'm saying that you can't raise expectations, grow revenue, increase profits, improve morale and sustain it if you don't address these issues.  Most executives (who've grown their companies to a profitable, respectable level)  simply don't have the appetite to face this problem head on.

The reality is that the right sales development specialist can turn a group of veteran salespeople around on a dime.  Sure, it's not without some initial griping, but it happens much more easily and quickly than if the executives tried to accomplish it on their own.

The Sales Force evaluation process gets the ball rolling (as surprising as the results may be to some veteran salespeople).  Through that process, veteran salespeople develop, perhaps for the first time ever, an awareness of what their true, sales skills gaps are and how much that's costing them.  They don't have to agree with everything, but they finally get the sense that they don't know it all.  They may not like it, but you didn't have to tell them.  They may be angry, but they're really angry with themselves or us this time, not you.

When sales management has been trained and coached to provide meaningful, business-generating coaching (rather than technical, pricing or sales support), they begin getting more value out of sales management.

Then the formal sales process is introduced.  That's when they realize that until that very day, they'd never actually been selling.  Instead, they realize that what they'd been doing all this time was presenting, conducting demos, acting as product experts, writing proposals, sending quotes and chasing decisions with mixed results.  They also realize just how much selling has changed, not just since they started in the 60's, 70's or 80's, but even in the past 5 years!

Somewhere betwen the sales process introduction and 4 follow-up sessions later, the light bulb turns on and they get it, embrace it and buy into it hook, line and sinker.  Then 10 things begin to occur as they:

• Enjoy selling again, 
• Successfully turn around prospects who weren't interested, 
• Add more new opportunities to the pipeline than ever before,
• Have more productive sales calls, 
• Stop wasting time on unqualified opportunities, 
• Shorten their sales cycle,
• Improve their closing percentage,
• Increase sales,
• Increase margins and
• Increase their income.

It's my way, of course.

And your way.

And everyone's way.

The biggest issue affecting salespeople, sales managers, sales leaders and even Presidents and CEO's is this:  For most of them, the way they know, the way they do it today, the way they have always done it, is the "best way".  They simply don't know what they don't know.  Of course, some are worse than that.  They know that they know it all.

It's a lot like our eyesight.  Most people don't realize that they need glasses until they can't see anything clearly, and by then, they seriously need a prescription.  After all, they thought that their eyesight was every bit as good as it was yesterday...

This doesn't apply to you.  If it did, you wouldn't be reading this article.  But it does apply to 74% of all salespeople and 82% of all sales managers.

What are they missing out on?  Aside from the best way to manage or sell, it boils down to:

• Efficiency, 
• Effectiveness, and
• Significant increases to revenue and profit.  

What do they get to keep?  All of it.  Including:

• Frustration, 
• Long sales cycles, 
• Stalls, 
• Put-offs, 
• Delays, 
• Excuses, 
• Missed numbers, 
• Lack of traction, 
• Under-achievers, 
• and much, much more.

One of the symptoms of this problem is the wonderfully suspicious plan for 2013.  Ready for this?  

Me:  How much do you need to grow this year?

Them: Our plan for 2013 is to maintain revenue where it is.

Really?  That's a plan?  Very strategic if you ask me.  And what happens if you fall short of zero growth?  When you aren't taking business away from your competition, doesn't that empower them?  When salespeople aren't increasing sales and commissions, don't they become discouraged?  Even if the industry is shrinking, maintaining revenue isn't exactly a win.  How did everyone feel in 2009 when revenue tanked?  Can you imagine how much a company's revenue would have slipped that year if the plan was for zero growth?  Yikes!

I promise that you won't hear my Boston Red Sox, who in 2012 had the worst year since I was 10 years-old, say that they would like to maintain their current performance...

For those who don't know what they don't know, or who don't know why they aren't growing more quickly, a sales force evaluation will do the trick.  Then they'll be almost as smart as the people who know that they "know it all"!

$100,000 is a ton of money.

$100,000 is peanuts.

Your perspective makes all the difference.

Suppose I told you that I could double your revenue and my fee would be $100,000?

Now is $100,000 a lot of money?

It would depend on several factors, wouldn't it?

The first would be your current revenue.  Look at the table below:

Clearly, if your revenue is below $1,000,000, then $100,000, even to double revenue to $200,000 is of little value.

But if your revenue is $10,000,000 or more, then $100,000 to double revenue to $20,000,000 or more has tremendous value and the value and return increases exponentially from there.

The next factor is the length of your sales cycle.  If you have a short sales cycle, say less than 3 months, you'll realize your return much more quickly, within the first year.  Given the short time frame, there is even great value with the current revenue at $1,000,000 - a 10x return in one year!  However, if your sales cycle is long, say 12 months or more, the return may be 24 months away, making the $100,000 investment to go from one to two million less appealing.

Finally, there is a reality check factor.  Look at the next table which simply adds a third column titled Realistic.  It weighs how realistic it is for the current revenue to actually be doubled.

As you can see, once you hit $100,000,000, it becomes extremely unlikely that you, even with my help, could double revenue in that short time frame.  While $100,000 is not a lot of money to double revenue, the credibility factor would factor in because the offer isn't believable.  So the proposition must change as the revenue increases.  At $100,000,000, a 10% boost results in a $10,000,000 gain - a great return on $100,000 - and much more realistic.

With those three factors understood, we can return to the original question which was, "Is $100,000 a lot of money?" 

No, $100,000 is not a lot of money, as long as your current revenue is $1,000,000 or more with a fairly short sales cycle, less than $20,000,000 with a longer sales cycle, or up to several hundred million dollars with a reduced proposition for return.

And yes, it is a ton of money if the revenue in question is less than $1,000,000.

Lesson: Your salespeople must be able to understand the value proposition of their offering from every possible angle in order to make it fit their prospects' and customers' different worlds.  Do they?

By the way, I would be happy to help you determine what kind of increase is possible at your company.  Our sales force evaluation includes a determination of who can be trained/coached/saved, what will be required, and what the return will be from developing them....