For decades, if not centuries, we've written books about, lectured about, and trained about, the virtues of Open Questions. I'm here to denounce the myth that they are good in all instances: I actually believe they are used most effectively at the back end of the selling/buying ...

Science, sales, negotiating, and the prison system - not to mention neuromarketing, neurosciences, and decision making sciences - have a base-line belief that there is a 'rational' way to recognize choice - rationality assumed when the 'appropriate information' is available to decide with.

Recently, a student of my Guided Study program thought that her clients - franchisees who sell her product - might do well to add...

How does my focus on a buyer's decision making parallel with decision making in general? For me, it's all the same: I believe that every choice, every new concept, every new action demands a decision to allow in something new and and supplement what's already there.

Think about the last purchase you made. What criteria did you use to make the purchase? Choose the product and/or vendor? the time of purchase?

Buyers have two identifiable responsibilities: maneuver through their internal, behind-the-scenes buy-in issues to ensure a trouble-free change process, and...

My friend Vanessa DiMauro (social media and decision making guru) had a nasty PC problem. As she attempted to resolve it, she wildly Twittered her frustration.

Marketing automation people are techies who just love the idea of extracting data with wizzy technology. But they are not sales people. As a result, there are some ‘features and functions‘  missing. Like, how to close …

Marketing automation works. By saying the right thing, and offering the right content, touching the right demographic in the right market, we can bring in more leads than we ever dreamed possible.

My brilliant colleague Vanessa DiMauro (a leader in social networking marketing, decision making, and leadership) and I are currently writing an article on Sales and Social Networking. While we are both filled with ideas, I …

Just to see what the hype is all about in Marketing Automation, I decided to trial a solution with my sites. And, I’m here to report, that all of my cranky views remain even crankier.

Here are some numbers I’ve recently read: through marketing automation we are closing between 2-8% of leads (as per Jeff Lenskold), 70% of leads buy something (as per Steve Gershik) but not necessarily during the time …

I’ve been reading articles on marketing automation/sales enablement that discuss leads ‘falling out the bottom’ of the funnel. What, exactly, does this mean, and how is this different from what has happened in sales for the …

I’ve been frustrated of late, as I witness the field of digital selling – marketing automation, telesales, and lead gen – talk about following the buying process. Indeed, they are only following the last 10% of the …

A colleague recently told me that ‘sales questions are hot now.’ But I don’t know what that means: what is a ‘sales question’?
what makes them ‘hotter now’ than before? what is their intent? I’m going to go out …

As the 5th installment of a 6 part series called Making Change Work, this podcast is about buy-in: what buy-in means in terms of the change management process, how and when buy-in occurs, why people do not buy-in …

Everyone defines ’quality lead’ differently. Some use ‘lead scoring’ to follow different ‘touch points’ – determined by industry standard or corporate dictate - defined as having a ’buying’ value that is supposed to project a close.

I have a couple of annoyances. There are phrases popping up that sound kinda cool, but are absolutely meaningless. Or should I say, they don’t mean what they are meant to mean.

Digital sales approaches are faulty: they * drip content with no clear understanding what the best content or interval should be, * follow digital footprints with no clear understanding of exactly who is on line, what weight they...

From what I’ve read and conversations I’ve had with several industry leaders and a few marketing automation companies,  current marketing  and sales automation technology does not address the human, private, off-line side of the buying...

‘Turn prospects into buyers with content marketing.’ ‘Create opt-in permission to deliver content through email using the drip/nurture system.’ ‘Deliver content to develop trust and authority.’ What, exactly, do these claims mean?

Let me begin by saying that the very baseline of the new, new marketing thinking is faulty. The focus is on ‘content.’ Whether it’s offering content, getting links to content, gathering content/data – the assumption seems to be that content drives...

Historically, sellers have been the one touching the buyer as marketers developed the brand awareness and hopefully brought buyers in – to be aware of the brand and trust it (or have some sort of mental relationship with it).

Procurement folks have hard jobs. Not only do they have to find the right vendors and keep them in line – a Herculean task at best – but they have to manage all of their …

Recently, a student of my Guided Study program thought that her clients – franchisees who sell her product – might do well to add Buying Facilitation® to their sales skills so they could close  more sales. I sent a …

Without buy-in, nothing changes. If the group or person deemed change necessary, it would have happened already. So whatever state the status quo is in is the preferred state: no matter what you think is wrong, …

These are heady days. Global business changes, environmental disasters, political upheavals. Change, Change, Change. Maybe it’s time to have another conversation about what change is. And at the same time, maybe discuss why it’s …

Think about the last purchase you made. What criteria did you use to make the purchase? Choose the product and/or vendor? Choose the time of purchase? I just bought my first Mac. I thought about buying one …

Imagine if instead of believing that unexpected decisions are emotional, we assume they have a very specific reason, even if we don’t understand or agree. Then what? Is it just easier to believe the other …