The Rainmaker Blog – Building People, Leaders, Teams & Economic Moats

The Real Reason Why Good Salespeople Often Turn Into Mediocre Sales Managers

May 25, 2016

Sales managers fail because of you. Let's assume you did everything right. You didn't guess in the promotion of a good salesperson to sales manager. You used a valid multi-science ...

Sales Culture

What the Best Salespeople Have In Common With Carson Wentz

Apr 29, 2016

Today is a proud day for my fellow North Dakotan's and North Dakota State University Alumni (Go Bison!). Carson Wentz just became the number two 2016 NFL draft pick. ...

Sales Strategy

The Fourth Challenge With Challenger Selling

Apr 20, 2016

If you have not read The Challenger Sale, you need to. If you have yet to read Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson, I highly-recommend you put this powerful sales ...

Sales Selection

Which Is More Important in Sales - Talent or Tenacity?

Mar 24, 2016

Bob was my third and worst hire ever. In 2000 I was responsible for building the sales team for an online learning start-up. Bob was my third hire. He was a referral from a ...

Sales Culture

Hail Mary Cold Calling Is Dead

Mar 1, 2016

"May I speak with the business owner?" The number on my cell phone screen suggested the call was local. When I answered I was met by a long period of silence. Just as I was about ...

Sales Selection

The HBR Advice You Need Your Competitors to Follow

Feb 5, 2016

Astonishingly mediocre advice. In their February 1, 2016 article on HBR - Hiring Star Salespeople Isn't the Best Way to Grow, Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooj ...

Sales Management

No More Half Measures

Jan 27, 2016

I binge-watched the hell out of Breaking Bad. I stayed up way too late when I shouldn't have. Now I am sometimes find myself muttering, "Yo, yo, yo." It's my colleague Joe's ...

Sales Selection

The Ugly Truth: The Real Costs of a Bad Sales Hire

Jan 19, 2016

Hiring costs are just the tip of the iceberg. Ask most people about what a bad sales hire costs and they immediately fixate on the hiring costs including recruitment, training, ...

Sales Management

Your Company Has a Prospecting Problem

Jan 14, 2016

How many of your salespeople are really order-takers? Recently a Client requested sales personality assessment codes to assess sales candidates. In our conversation they shared ...

THE RAINMAKER