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Key Sales Benchmarks for B2B Business Owners Who Sell

When you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, it often feels like you need to be a jack of all trades for your company. Growing it from the ground up, keeping an eye on production and service, and at the same time figuring out sales. 

My Entrepreneurial Triumph: From Struggle to Success

I was honored to be asked to be a guest at the Monday Night Reading with AJ Harper last week. I read selected pieces of my Buyer First book. This piece was a raw expression of my “Struggle to Success”Almost two decades ago, when I ventured into the...

Are you destined to be an entrepreneur?

I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and business owners. The concept of going to college and having a nine-to-five job at a desk was unfamiliar to my family, leading me to have a solid motivation to pursue my own path.

Listen: I just want to get pricing!

Tiffany Lyman Otten shares her buying experience, pricing, and the simplest thing she ever heard at her first sales job. Something companies, sales, organizations, and even founders trying to sell have yet to comprehend.

3 Tips to Maintaining Mental Health

You know, my family and friends often tell me that I am a special kind of crazy for being an entrepreneur and a salesperson. 

But did you know that 72 percent of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental health issues? At least...

The 3 Question Close

One of the most asked questions I get from salespeople, sales managers, and entrepreneurs is...How do I know when to close? How do I do it without being sleazy?Not knowing when to close is like a gardener not knowing when to pick the tomatoes in the...

What's the hardest decision you've had to make as an entrepreneur?

What's the hardest question or decision that you've had to make as an entrepreneur? For me, it was whether or not to invest more in someone who wasn't performing or do I cut my losses midway through the year and maybe I can recoup some of that time...

3 Scary Facts About Entrepreneurs and Sales

A while ago, I volunteered for a local event put on by Envision Maine, a non profit organization dedicated to promoting the next economy. The event that I attended was titled “Educating Tomorrow’s Innovators and Entrepreneurs.”

From this event, I...

What Salespeople Can Learn From Entrepreneurs

What can salespeople can learn about grit from entrepreneurs?

And what is grit anyway?

Grit is a term that has been made popular by psychologist Angela Duckworth when she explored what made high achieving people successful. But how did they develop...

What a failed sales hire really costs and how to reduce the risks

It is pretty normal at the beginning of the year for many companies to start hiring salespeople, or to at least start thinking about hiring. When I ask VP of Sales and CEOs what their ideal salesperson is like and what they will need to accomplish,...