Sales used to feel like a blank canvas every time I picked up the phone. No map, no rhythm, just intuition and hustle. That might work in the short term, but if you’re trying to scale, guessing isn’t a strategy. I learned that the hard way. The turning point came when I built my first…
If you’re still ignoring buyer journey questions, it’s time to pause and rewind. I say so because sales is now an increasingly consultative profession. Success today is less about “always closing” and more about “always helping” as a knowledgeable, reliable person that buyers can trust. Genuinely helping prospects demands providing them helpful and specific resources…
There are several different approaches and frameworks used in the sales qualification process. Given the various ways to discover the best lead, I think any approach could be effective, depending on the sales process context. For me, as a SDR in B2B sales, I used the BANT framework, as well as the Challenger Sale methodology.…
For the longest time, I was on the fence about creating manual invoices versus using invoice software for my side hustle. My tech-savvy friends often raved about using the latter for their small businesses. Still, I wondered if it would work for me or if adding a new tool would make things more complex and…
When I first started covering B2B SaaS, I used to skim over sales statistics, thinking, “Interesting, but not immediately useful.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. The more I worked with sales-led teams, the clearer it became: top-performing reps use industry data to fine-tune everything — when they reach out, which channels they prioritize, even…
If you’re like me, you’ve asked this question: What is the difference between a salesperson and a business development representative (BDR)? Well, here’s what I found. A salesperson usually deals with warm leads. That is, people who already know what they want and just need some guidance to make a decision. But a BDR? That’s…
During my time as a B2B sales rep, my voicemail greetings started off being long-winded, pitchy, and wordy. I thought that having a good voicemail greeting consisted of saying all the right things to guarantee the prospect answering my callback. Many believe voicemails don’t convert and are a waste of time, but I learned that…
Most small businesses know the frustration of scaling their tech all too well. As they address their pain points in day-to-day operations, they find themselves buried in tedious setup processes, constant troubleshooting, and tools that just don’t scale. I researched several companies who have shared about their struggles and the subsequent success they found in…
I feel like starting a retail business has never been easier — there’s a YouTube video and tool for everything. But growing one is exceedingly challenging. To survive in a competitive market, brands have to outshine their competitors and reach their customers where they are globally. This is a challenge, especially if you don’t have…
Cold calling might be the most dreaded activity in sales, especially during a slow season. As someone who‘s trained countless sales professionals at HubSpot, Stage 2 Capital, and Harvard Business School, I can tell you it’s also one of the most misunderstood. I run an exercise in some of my HBS classes. We have students…