This Should Be Your Theme For Your Next Sales Conference

Each year, sales leaders invest heavily in their annual kickoff or sales conference.  Presumably, it’s purpose is to motivate the troops, introduce new products and services and solidify messaging for the market.  But that’s only thinking tactically.  Winning sales leaders use their kickoff conferences to drive behavior, set tone and build culture. That’s why the selection …

Details about my next book and the future of Sanders Says

After a writing journey that took almost three years, I’m excited to announce my next book, Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon That Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges. Penguin Portfolio will publish it on Feb 23, 2016.  It marks my return to talking about my days at Yahoo as a sales executive and introduces research and …

The End of Empowerment & The Return of Prescription

Yesterday I attended the first day of CEB’s annual Sales & Marketing Summit.  It’s a must-attend for all B2B sales and marketing leaders, offering the most current view into the buyer’s world and the best practices that come from following hard data.  The opening keynote by CEB’s Brent Adamson blew my mind as he revealed …

Making the Leap From Disrupted to Adaptive

Regardless of what business you are in, likely, you will face business model disruption in the coming years. According to authors Robert Tercek, Jay Samit or Bill Jensen, digital technology and the ongoing expansion of the World Wide Web are driving new value propositions and annihilating legacy companies. Over the last 20 years, I’ve witnessed …

Three Great Fall Business Reads

It’s that time of year when publishers release copious amounts of business books.  You’ve probably seen them popping up in the airport book shops.  As a voracious reader and blurb-giving-author, I have the opportunity to review dozens of them between July and September.  My interests range from sales & marketing to leadership to futurism to …

Turn This Up To 11 To Boost Your Leadership Performance

There are many ways we can improve our ability to drive employee engagement and loyalty.  We can pay people more (that doesn’t scale), let them off easy (that’s bad for business) or play tough-coach with them (that’s bad for your employership brand.) During the course of my career, I’ve found a better way to manage …

Is Your Culture Built On the Right Foundation?

Ask a strategic consultant about the value of a strong organizational culture and she’ll likely remark: “Culture eats strategy for lunch!” Her reasoning is usually based on the consistency of behavior that strong culture creates – enabling every associate to make “the right decision” even when the leader is not around.  The name of the …

Clear These Three Hurdles To Be A Great Leader

Napoleon Bonaparte believed that the leader’s role is “to define reality, then give hope.” Within this prescription lies a formidable challenge to leaders.  How can you focus on the challenges and opportunities of today and, at the same time, maintain the spirit and effectiveness to lead your team forward? In today’s business environment, there are …