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'In a previous blog, I talked about my own motivation as it related to my athletic career. In an earlier earlier post (yes, I typed it twice to make the point that it was even earlier than the first), I wrote about my motivation today to drive revenue to Anthony Cole Training Group – to build a sustainable business so that those who depend on us (our clients, development experts, and employees) would not have to worry about the future of the company.
'For those of you who follow this blog, you know that every once in a while I take a break to take on race in this country. Considering what’s happening in Ferguson, I wanted to take a sales time out to break down for all ya’ll why Ferguson is happening, because as much as you’d like to think you know, you don’t. You have no clue.
'Social CRM and social selling are two terms which I have seen go from obscurity to mainstream business topics in the past 24 months. Jon Ferrara CEO and Founder of Nimble , an early innovator in social CRM and social selling technology, took time out of his schedule to share with us the latest innovations in the space. “Social selling is about inspiring and educating the customer as a trusted advisor.” - Jon Ferrara , CEO and Founder of Nimble.
'Some of you out there may find this Google Analytics feature overview to be mostly review. That’s awesome! That means you’re really taking ownership of your data. However, if you’ve never used any of these features, only experimented with them a little, or aren’t sure you’re using them correctly, you should read on. From the time you set up your account and put your tracking code on your site, Google Analytics, starts to capture and display a lot of data.
AI adoption is reshaping sales and marketing. But is it delivering real results? We surveyed 1,000+ GTM professionals to find out. The data is clear: AI users report 47% higher productivity and an average of 12 hours saved per week. But leaders say mainstream AI tools still fall short on accuracy and business impact. Download the full report today to see how AI is being used — and where go-to-market professionals think there are gaps and opportunities.
'I worry, sometimes, that we take the process of hiring, onboarding, coaching, developing and managing the performance of sales people too casually. Too often, managers tend to treat sales people as commodities. There’s an attitude of quickly hiring the best that’s available, if that person doesn’t work out, we can fire them and hire someone new.
'Yes, it’s true. On Monday, March 3, I will be shaving my head for cancer research. Salespeople love a great sales pitch. I heard one, couldn’t resist seeing if I could be involved, and offered to participate too. I was at one of my clients’ offices this week, Granite LLC , coaching sales team members and meeting with sales leaders – and heard about the massive undertaking that will be happening on Monday.
'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Can you name 10 Core Competencies of a great salesperson? Let''s see, there''s prospecting, qualifying and closing, and then there''s.wow, this is difficult! For the past 20 years, every Objective Management Group (OMG) sales force evaluation and sales candidate assessment has been tied to 21 Sales Core Competencies.
'Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan Can you name 10 Core Competencies of a great salesperson? Let''s see, there''s prospecting, qualifying and closing, and then there''s.wow, this is difficult! For the past 20 years, every Objective Management Group (OMG) sales force evaluation and sales candidate assessment has been tied to 21 Sales Core Competencies.
'Over the last 5 years, when conducting keynote sessions or workshops, presidents and senior sales executives overwhelmingly want to know – How do I motivate my sales people and keep them motivated? The answer that I give them is one they never like, but they soon understand: You cannot motivate them nor can you keep them motivated. Let me make this clear; I am not a student of motivation.
'I was first introduced to goal setting in sales when I was an insurance agent with National Life of Vermont. The General Agent was Dave and his manager was Bob. The company subscribed to the “Al Grannum” school of 10-3-1 - see 10 people, 3 will be qualified buyers, 1 will buy. Based on that equation, the established goal was to write 100 lives. You do the math.
'The obvious gut reaction answer is …both. However, if you HAD to choose, it would be a dilemma similar to the age old “Which came first - the chicken or the egg?” And, you know, I have never been able to answer that question. I honestly don’t know that there is a RIGHT answer to the question I’ve posed today, but if you held a gun to my head and demanded an answer – not that you would have to go to that extreme to get an answer from me – I would have to say start with the behaviors.
'Once again, I’m flooded with stuff happening around me that has nothing or very little to do directly with sales… and I cannot help myself but to connect these thoughts and events to what I love to do – coach and teach sales and sales management. I think it was 1992 when Pat Riley, as part of a speaker’s event, came to Cincinnati and spoke at the convention center.
Today’s buyers expect more than generic outreach–they want relevant, personalized interactions that address their specific needs. For sales teams managing hundreds or thousands of prospects, however, delivering this level of personalization without automation is nearly impossible. The key is integrating AI in a way that enhances customer engagement rather than making it feel robotic.
'I’ve been in the sales and sales management consulting business for 21 years. Prior to that, I was an insurance wholesaler, an insurance agent, a Nautilus Regional Sales Manager, a Nautilus Regional Sales Rep and collegiate athletic coach. During my 30 year professional career, I’ve read a lot of books, met with lots of keynote speakers and listened to hours of audio recordings.
'I started this series - 5 Keys To Building Successful Sales Teams with this post: 5 Keys to Building a Successful Sales Team/Career. I finished that post with the following statement: I believe that, with all the variables that contribute to the outcome of a sales team, there are 1) just a few that really matter, 2) just a few that you can really control, 3) some that you can manage, 4) some that you can improve and 5) some that you have to ignore.
'I’ve been trying to find a way to tie cooking to sales management. I love to cook (and eat) and I love selling and coaching sales management. I often tie sports stories, analogies and themes to sales and sales management, and I generally have at least one in the crowd that doesn’t/cannot relate because they have not played sports or are just simply not into sports.
'Managing a sales team can be described as complicated, difficult, tough, impossible, thankless, endless. OR. you could make a case for and describe it as rewarding, exciting, challenging, critical for success, important, simple. So. which is it? From my experience, your answer will depend on: Your experience. Your bias towards the work required for success.
What if you could help your sellers stop wasting 72% of their day on non-selling activities and focus on bringing in revenue? Incorporating AI in your enablement workflows can help you cut down on busy work, get projects done faster, and let your team (and you!) focus on making a bigger impact. We put together this guide to show you how to use AI to cut time and costs for projects, including collateral creation, development of training videos, and automating tedious processes.
'Ever wonder if your sales people are really listening to you? Do they respond and react. or do they sit politely listening and then continue to do what they’ve always done? As a sales manager or sales executive, you have many roles to fill in order to get the most out of your sales team. You must coach them, you must motivate them, you must have some level of performance management and, in some way for some of them, you must mentor them.
'Today, let’s talk about effective prospecting. At Anthony Cole Training, we have a program called The Rules and Gottas of Prospecting. I must honestly tell you that there is a fine line between a rule and a gotta and it gets a little fuzzy sometimes. But, that’s a whole other discussion. Today, I want to talk with you about 3 of the 5 rules that we cover in that session. 1) You don’t have to LIKE prospecting; you just have to do it. – I learned this rule from David Sandler.
'I don’t know if this has ever happened to you, but occasionally I send out an email without the attachment. What is interesting here is that the sender replies that they didn’t get it, I deny it, go back to my email sent folder to validate that I did it and I sent it out… only to find out that Oops! I did it again. There’s no little paper clip in the corner which informs me that, once again, I failed to execute my email process completely.
'Guest Post By Walt Gerano, Sales Development Expert. When working with prospects and clients, I’m generally a couple of moves ahead; I think well on my feet and I know what to say next. But, I must admit, that sometimes, I get excited or upset during a sales call because I get caught off guard by with a question or response from a prospect. When was the last time you asked yourself , “Why did I do that?
Speaker: Jay Allardyce, Deepak Vittal, Terrence Sheflin, and Mahyar Ghasemali
As we look ahead to 2025, business intelligence and data analytics are set to play pivotal roles in shaping success. Organizations are already starting to face a host of transformative trends as the year comes to a close, including the integration of AI in data analytics, an increased emphasis on real-time data insights, and the growing importance of user experience in BI solutions.
'Guest Blog By Mark Trinkle, Sales Development Expert. How smart are you? Actually, how well do you know your smart numbers? I’m always amazed at the number of sales people I meet who either have no idea what their key indicators or smart numbers are or who have no idea why tracking them is important to begin with. By smart numbers I mean those activities that are essential to your sales success and that, when done consistently, predict new business.
'There are at least 2 schools of thought regarding the types of appointments sales people should set when calling prospects to set an appointment. The first school of thought follows the "mirror test" approach to prospecting - Just put a mirror under their nose, and if they fog the mirror, they are a prospect. Their thinking is this - just get in front of people.
'As I have written before, I grew up on a farm in Hammonton, NJ., the Blueberry Capital of the World. As a matter of fact, come this next Monday, I was born there 60 years ago at 7:14am on a Wednesday morning at the Esposito Home (A small, privately-run hospital). When growing up on a farm, it is beneficial to learn how to use certain tools. Learning what the tools are at an early age was extremely helpful especially when dad (Ray) was working underneath a pickup truck or in the middle of a trac
'Today is the first day of my renewed focus on High Payoff Activities (HPOA ) - those activities in sales and sales management, that when done well and done consistently, drive sales results to our company. There are just 5 steps to making this process of “focus” work and work well. Recognize that the problem exists. Identify the HPOA (High Payoff Activities) and the LPOA (Low Payoff Activities).
Are you curious about how artificial intelligence is reshaping sales coaching, learning, and development? Join Brendan Sweeney and Devyn Blume of Allego for an engaging new webinar exploring AI's transformative role in sales coaching and performance improvement! Brendan and Devyn will share actionable insights and strategies for integrating AI into coaching and development - ensuring personalized, effective, and scalable training!
'My dad used to tell me, “Anthony, sometimes you have to pick up the dirty end of the stick.” Well, actually, my dad’s quote was “Sometimes you have to pick up the shi**y end of the stick.” For the life of me, I had no idea what he was talking about then…and I still didn’t know what he meant until many years later. Why would I ever want to pick up the shi**y end of the stick when there was a perfectly clean end to grab?
'I don’t remember how old I was. I couldn’t have been more than 9 or so, but I remember I asked my dad for a quarter to buy some candy. He gave me the quarter. We were at my brother Ray’s football game and so I went to the concession stand, looked at the prices of candy and bought 5 – yes, count them – 5 Three Musketeers candy bars. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have done the same!
'Prospecting, prospecting, prospecting. I may have shared this story in the past, if so, I apologize. But it''s a very good story. I was in my second year of my insurance career with National Life of Vermont. This event took place at the Cincinnati Association of Life Underwriters Annual Recognition Holiday Dinner. It was held at Western Hills Country Club, here in Cincinnati.
'Back a few years ago, when I was teaching my daughter how to drive, I tried to teach her good driving habits. One critical habit that I tried to help her recognize was to read the gauges, or what they call in aviation, complete a radial scan. I explained to her that, prior to taking off in a car, you’ve got to make sure that there isn’t a light on telling you that your air pressure is low or that there’s an engine problem.
Speaker: Laura Noonan, Chief Revenue Officer at CallFinder + Angie Kronlage, Director of Program Success at Working Solutions + April Wiita, Vice President of Program Success at Working Solutions
Are you still manually reviewing calls? 🤔 It's time for a change! The traditional method of manual call monitoring is no longer cutting it in today's fast-paced call center environment. Industry experts Angie Kronlage and April Wiita from Working Solutions are here to explore the power of innovative automation to revolutionize outdated call review processes!
'As I think about this concept, I realize that I may actually discuss more than just 5 keys. These elements, or contributing factors, can be called “keys” but they can just as easily be called the 5 elements of successful sales teams or the 5 contributing factors of successful sales teams. 5 Keys sounds too finite or definitive but, although I’ve never claimed to have the definitive answers to building successful sales teams, I am convinced that if you have strong Performance Management, Recruit
'Occasionally, maybe 3 or 4 times since I started blogging, I write about something that is bigger than managing sales people, sales growth, sales coaching or selling. Something happens that is meaningful to me and I feel compelled to write about it. Maybe it’s my way of dealing with the event. Often, the event is when someone in my life (or our lives) is lost.
'I just spent the last five days with my client and good friend, Ric Stoakes, from Lincoln, Nebraska. In addition to being a principle at the UNICO Group, he is an avid traveler and “a nutcase of a Nebraska Football Fan”. If you spent enough time in Lincoln, you would soon discover that “a nutcase of a Nebraska Football Fan” is not a group of one. From Tuesday through Friday, I spent time with him, his sales team and other partners in the firm.
'Well…I already blew my goal to blog every day that I work in December. That happened when I failed to do so yesterday, December 1 st. But, I didn’t blow my commitment to making phone calls to prospects every day I work in December. As a rainmaker for Anthony Cole Training Group , I have a responsibility to keep an active pipeline of prospects. I made a choice.
Learn how to optimize email deliverability and drive greater email ROI. What lands your email in the customer’s inbox? Understanding those factors, otherwise known as email deliverability, is critical to getting the most return on your campaign investments. But the “rules” around which factors land you in the spam folder aren’t always easy to keep up with.
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