Colleen Stanley

Bob Flexon, CEO of Dynegy, is on a mission to change the culture at his company. He arrived at Dynegy four months before they filed for bankruptcy.  Under his leadership, Mr. Flexon started putting changes in place to change the culture. His belief: change the culture and you will change revenues and achieve long term success.

Of the many changes he made, one really caught my attention, his focus on being present and in the moment. Dynegy employees are banned from checking email and phones during meetings.  What a concept.  People actually paying attention to each other and what is being said during a meeting.  He installed ‘culture champions’ that reinforce the message. When they see a colleague checking their phone, they call out the behavior and announce, “Jennifer, be here now.” 

This message is one that sales professional should...

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook has recently published a new book, Lean In – Women, Work And The Will To Lead.  In the book, she discusses the lack of women leaders at the top of large organizations and why it is occurring. 

As I was reading the book, I couldn’t help but think of how similar the challenges faced by women leaders are similar to challenges faced by sales professionals, both men and women. 

For example, in Chapter Two, Sheryl talks about ‘getting a seat at the table.’  She shares the story of where she gave a talk to a few hundred employees at Facebook on gender issues.  As she walked back to her desk, one of her young female employees told her that she learned a lesson from her talk.  However, the lesson wasn’t one that Sheryl expected to hear.  The young woman said, “I learned...

Today is the day of love.   Florist shops are busy sending flowers.  Restaurants are booked with romantic dinners for two.  And Hallmark is selling a lot of cards. 

On this day of love, it might be a good time to ask yourself this question, “Do you love sales?”   If you don’t have a love affair going on with the profession of sales, this is one tough career path.    People that don’t love sales settle for being average and usually don’t put in the time and energy to be great.  Here’s a suggestion.  Do yourself, your company and your customers a favor---break up.  They deserve a person that loves sales! 

Here are three easy ways to spot a ‘sales lover.’

#1:  They love what they sell.   I can teach effective tactical and strategic selling skills to open and close business.  However, the greatest door opener is the conviction a salesperson brings to the meeting.  A salesperson that is convicted radiates this message:  If you do business with me, I...

The recent movie release, ‘Hope Springs’ has an interesting message in it for sales professionals.  Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep play a couple that are struggling to re-ignite their relationship.  They go to a town, Hope Springs, for intensive couple’s therapy to work with a renowned psychologist in hope of saving their marriage.  At one point in the film, the psychologist meets with Jones and asks a thought provoking question, “Have you done everything, I mean everything, you can to make this marriage work?”  The question stops Jones in his tracks as he ponders on the question. 

It’s a good question to ask yourself as you kick-off 2013.  Are you doing everything, I mean everything, to be successful in sales.  Here are a number of questions that will help you get to the answer.