The Playbook Blog

Resources for Leaders and Sales Professionals Ready to Put in the Work

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

So said Yogi Berra.  I hear he said this when giving directions to his home. Both paths led to his residence, so it didn't matter which was taken.  Taken on its own, the advice sounds absurd, which is why it's remembered, but there's wisdom here for the sales professional. Asking...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Michael Jordan on Failures and Success

Do your failures get you down or make you feel that long-term success is out of reach?  Consider what basketball legend Michael Jordan had to say about his own failures: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Michael Jordan on Failures and Success

Marketing Manager Joke

A software manager, a hardware manager, and a marketing manager are driving to a meeting when a tire blows. They get out of the car and look at the problem. The software manager says, "I can't do anything about this - it's a hardware problem." The hardware manager says, "Maybe...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Marketing Manager Joke

Asking for the Sale Throughout

If your product or service is right for the prospective customer, then don't hesitate to ask for the sale.  Really, though, you should be implicitly asking for the sale throughout.  How so?  Because you're helping the prospect through the process of consideration, i.e., considering whether or not to buy from...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Asking for the Sale Throughout

Be Part of the Decision

The job of the sales professional is to help each prospective customer make the decision about what is best for him or her.  You're not to leave the choice to them, and you're not to take the decision out of their hands with some manipulative trick.  You're there to help...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Be Part of the Decision

Sales Joke: The Unbreakable Comb

A salesman was demonstrating unbreakable combs in a department store. He was impressing the people who stopped by to look by putting the comb through all sorts of torture and stress. Finally to impress even the skeptics in the crowd, he bent the comb completely in half, and it snapped...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Sales Joke: The Unbreakable Comb

Your Interactions with Customers Form Relationships

Therefore, it's a good idea to remember the sound advice of Stephen R. Covey when speaking with your prospects: "The little kindnesses and courtesies are so important. Small discourtesies, little unkindnessess, little forms of disrespect make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things." As I like...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Your Interactions with Customers Form Relationships

Peyton Manning on Following the Coach

An important lesson for any sales professional is to be coachable. If you refuse to follow the coach's leadership, then you can't function as the member of a team, the team can't function, and no one can win long term.  Take it from Peyton Manning: "The head coach tells us...
Continue Reading >> about Sales Professionals- STOP Telling and START Asking Clients What They Need!   about What Makes a Top Employee? How to Be the Best and Get Noticed about Sales Keynote Speaking Clip about How to Pick a Sales Leader Keynote Speaker Your Team Won’t Tune Out about Peyton Manning on Following the Coach

The Sales Leaders Playbook

Download Nathan's
Bestselling Book for Free

Discover the skills, mindset, and practices that will build a winning sales team, from creating an organizational belief system to taking the bullet for those you lead.

Based on the playbook that drove Nathan's own award-winning sales career, this free book is straightforward, practical, and proven to improve results for sales leaders willing to hold their teams and, more importantly, themselves accountable.

Start Building

To Win