There are certain "Laws" of the universe which successful people often leverage, and today's' sales people must learn to embrace some of these important laws to ensure future sales success.

If you are still performing 20th century outreach tactics like "cold calling" then you are not just destroying your own career, but you are also destroying your employers brand and therefore their business.

We must stop teaching sales people how to ‘push’ buyers, and instead start training and coaching them on how to become highly specialised teachers.

When you teach sales people how to ‘push’ buyers through a sales playbook you are teaching them how to destroy your business reputation.

What is the profile of a modern sales person? This article was written by Graham Hawkins and it first appeared on the Salesforce Blog in July 2018:

B2B sales has now changed so dramatically that it's a "profession" that is barely recognisable to the role that both Tony Hughes and Graham Hawkins began about 30 years ago - respectively.

Vendors are now being forced to give the buyer the buying experience that they now demand, and that means ceasing & desisting with the outdated vendor-PUSH sales tactics.

The change that we are now witnessing in buyer tastes and preferences means a big swing from outbound sales activities to INBOUND, and that requires vendors to remove any misalignment that may exist between your sales execution approach and what buyers now want from the buying experience.

Deloitte Sales Effectiveness is headed up by Mr Brandon Kulik (Principal Sales Effectiveness), and in this conversation I ask Brandon about sales related challenges that Deloitte is now helping their clients with. From educated buyers and the changing tech landscape, we are seeing more and more change in the traditional sales role. The be a solution provider you have to have a solution - and assembled solution.

A crimes is now being committed against sales people, and enough is enough.

Everyone knows that cash-flow is the ‘life-blood’ of every business.....as they say, “revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king”.

The sales leader role is not only the most important, but it's also the most difficult role in every business. Sadly most sales leaders are having a horrible time right now

So much of the sales role is still lived in a fog of automatic and habitual behaviour due largely to outdated leadership that has failed to recognise this new customer-led era that we now live in.

Sales quotas and commission payments drive self-centered behaviors and this is why there has always been the embedded distrust of sales people. Lots of vendors are now waking up and moving towards buyer aligned measurements and rewards...and not before time.

If you still measure and manage B2B sales people around sales quotas, commissions and a steadfast focus on top-line revenue attainment, then you are being surpassed by the savvy vendors whom have already woken up to the new reality.

If you currently work in B2B sales, then you need to begin thinking differently about your career direction and begin to plan appropriately for all of the change that is coming.

It has always been important to go, and be, where your customers are... physically and online.

Sales people simply don't spend enough time selling.

People buy from people that they "know, like and trust"​ right? Not any more!

Buyers need to do more business with fewer vendors…meaning that your marketing is shrinking.

Sales people who embrace working with bots and leverage advanced technology will be well positioned to survive the big cull that his now coming.

"There is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everyone in the company, simply by spending his money somewhere else"

Are you a memorable sales person?

Why sales people MUST stop focusing on 'net new' customers.

Why we must drop the word “sales” from all business dialogue.

Sales people must stop pushing…..and start using honey!

Stop listening to sales guru's and just ask your customers how they want to buy?

The 5 Forces of 'change' for Sales People

Kevin Bacon is helping to kill cold calling…..hallelujah!

Sales Prospecting – are you just digging up dirt?

Is you sales leader the most important, or the most dangerous person in your business?.

Will your role survive in a digitally enabled sales force?

Sales people (and vendor organisations) need to transform radically to survive a tsunami of change that is coming.

It's hardly surprising that the ‘generalists’ are now routinely being viewed by their customers as “adding no value”.

Sellers need to be business improvement specialists!

Sales is no longer about the sales process!

Is your sales department a Wholesaler or Retailer?

Is your sales leader barking mad? Or are they just ignoring the facts?

You are misleading yourself when you measure your pipeline!

Sales people are measured and managed by metrics that encourage and foster the wrong behaviours. Focusing on 'pipeline size' is a big mistake.

Sales people are notoriously bad when it comes to selling themselves....why?

'Team Composition' is the key to driving high performing sales teams.

Despite the conjecture, sales is still the most important role in every business.

People buy from people right? Really?

Vast numbers of sales people are about to be culled.

Why sales people MUST start focusing on their existing customers.

Sales people must URGENTLY take charge of their own self-development…..or find a new career.

Structured 'on-boarding' for sales people will provide your business with massive ROI.

Sales people are now failing to perform a critically important component of their role: the gathering of Market Intelligence (MI).

Sales & Marketing alignment is now absolutely fundamental to success in 2017 and beyond.

You are now in danger of being culled from the vendor stack, and you had better start asking the right questions or you are going to cost you employer lots of money.

Are you wondering why your sales conversion rates are low? and why you staff attrition rate is high? Perhaps it’s because your sales model is stuck in the 1980’s. Perhaps it's because you are treating your sales people like robots?

Some sales basics that many seem to forget!

If you are currently running or overseeing a B2B sales force, and finding the following challenges then you are not alone:

There is mounting evidence that ‘risk’ now plays the single most critical role in practically every buying decision.

…..because sales people no longer participate in the "entire" buying journey:

Building pipeline coverage is a mistake….’qualifying out’ is what increases productivity.

Buyers now have greater leverage than ever before - what does that mean for sales people:

Are you assessing the right things?

Sales teams have never really been 'teams'……just individuals working autonomously under the same corporate structure.