Author Archive | Dr. Richard Ruff and Dr. Janet Spirer

If you believe that sales training works, and it shouldn’t be considered unless you think it does, then most sales training is a bargain when compared to the increased probability of – closing more business, closing better business, or closer business sooner. This misperception persists because it’s easy to calculate the money saved if you don’t […]

While price has moved to a more prominent position in all sales, it still remains central primarily in transactional sales. In major sales, while customers may be more price conscious than in the past, value remains the cornerstone to successful selling.

Because of the complexity of the negotiation itself and the significance of getting it right, the actual plan for a major account negotiation must be developed with care. In any major account, if the sales team does not develop a well-conceived and coordinated negotiation plan, they are playing Russian roulette with the long-term relationship with […]

The dates marking the starting and ending birth dates for the Millennials varies by what you read, but the most referred to is the mid-1970s and the early 2000s. The largest generation since the Baby Boomers, the Millennials will have a huge impact – socially, economically, and even on sales training!

Selling is a complex discipline involving many kinds of activities. Some are customer-facing (e.g., making a presentation). Others are background activities (e.g., researching the customer). In that complex array of activities there are innumerable qualities that make someone a top performer. This analysis focuses on six best practices which can be observed and then trained […]

Although it is often difficult for individual managers to alter some of the institutional issues that frequently get in the way of successful sales coaching, some common hobgoblins of sales coaching can be exposed and dispatched. So, let’s take a short journey into the land of sales coaching myths.