Stop Showing Up and Throwing Up

stop showing up and throwing up

Heave you ever heard the expression “stop showing up and throwing up” when it comes to sales calls and presentations? It’s an important piece of advice. Last week a neighbor called and asked if I’d sit down with her to discuss a business opportunity. I told her that I was not a good prospect and was extremely busy with Business … Read More

Prospecting Tip: Take Note of Note Taking

Prospecting Tip: Take Note of Note Taking

In sales, you know the importance of paying close attention to your clients or prospects. During a meeting, you’re not only listening to what they are saying but also of picking up on their nonverbal cues as well. You’re paying attention to their facial expressions and body language, as well as how they’re listening to what you’re saying and their … Read More

The Top 4 Tips for Overcoming Objections

tips for overcoming objections

It can happen at various points throughout the sales process:  you’ll be presented with some sort of an objection. How do you confidently handle objections and navigate pushback from your prospective clients in order to land the sale or opportunity? We’ve added this post to include a few tips for overcoming objections and putting prospects at ease. This is a … Read More

Start Helping, Not Selling

start helping, not selling

Although I have been in sales in one capacity or another for over 30 years and BDU is a sales training, coaching and consulting company, I am a big believer that nobody in the whole wide world wants to be sold anything. So I tell people that they should stop trying to “sell” anything and instead start helping, not selling. People or companies are seeking … Read More

Ask BDU: New to Sales Leadership? Do These Four Things Right Now!

Sales Leadership

Investing in a sales leadership course is a crucial step to take when being promoted from sales to sales management. Question: After being one of the top sales performers at my company, I was just promoted to the position of sales manager. While I am very excited, I am extremely nervous as I’ve never had any experience or formal training … Read More

Thinking in Threes: Listen to Lisa’s Interview on the Top 3 Podcast

Thinking in Threes: Listen to Lisa's Interview on the Top 3 Podcast

Lisa was recently welcomed as a guest on the Top 3 Podcast, hosted by her long-time friend Marcia O’Connor, CEO and Founder of The O’Connor Group. Listen to the episode now to hear their discussion about the importance of being purposeful in all that you do, as well as how to maintain proper relationships. You’ll also learn about BDU’s triage … Read More

How to Get Your Team Hitting Their Goals: 5 Steps for Sales Managers

How to Get Your Team Hitting Their Goals

Do you have a sales team of dynamic individuals that is struggling to achieve your company’s sales goals on a consistent basis? Do you have a clear vision for how to get your team hitting their goals? Perhaps the roadblock to your team’s success is the lack of a succinct game plan, utilizing each account executive’s individual talents and strengths. … Read More

7 Tips for How to Help Your Close Ratio

how to help your Close Ratio

Closing ratio is how many proposals convert to sales. So, if you close one client for every four proposals, your close ratio is 25 percent.  Do you know how to help your close ratio improve? If you find that your close ratio is not where it needs to be, that your proposals on the street are not converting BDU suggests … Read More

”Squeeze the Lemon” in Every Moment, Big or Small

be more productive

By now, you probably have heard all about BDU’s philosophy of “squeezing the lemon” to get the most juice out of everything you do each and every day. To fully “squeeze the lemon” and be more productive, it’s important to also think about what more you could be accomplishing throughout your day. How can you maximize every moment, and especially … Read More

AWE’s September Roundtable: Getting in Front of Decision-Makers

getting in front of decision makers

BDU’s CEO Lisa Peskin was honored to facilitate the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs’ September Founder’s Roundtable. Current and prospective AWE founder members joined Lisa for a discussion on the topic, “How to Get in Front of Prospective Clients / Reaching Top Level People.” Getting in front of decision makers can be a challenge, so there are some key things to remember … Read More

Determine Your Desired Outcome

determine your desired outcome

The people you meet with on a regular basis typically fall into one of three different categories: your prospects, your clients, and your centers of influence (COIs). There are a variety of different outcomes you can aim to achieve depending on the type of contact you’re meeting with, as well as your initial agenda, so it’s important that you determine … Read More

Want Sales Success in Q2 (and Beyond)? Do These Three Things Right Now

Sales Success in Q2

There are three things that all salespeople need to do right now if they haven’t already to help maximize their performance and potential, as well as set themselves up for not only a strong second quarter but the rest of the year: 1. Stop, Start and Continue Take a moment to reflect on your activities and performance from the first … Read More

Interview: Lisa’s Return to Rain Maker’s Roundup

Lisa was thrilled to make a return appearance on Rain Maker’s Roundup with host Mark Iorio recently! Watch the interview now and learn how Lisa believes prospecting has changed over the past couple of years, what’s helped make her so successful in sales and leadership, and how she’s helped so many people achieve their own sales success (and how you … Read More

Three Plus Three Equals “Six”-cess!

Whether you’re an individual contributor or a leader, sales success ultimately comes down to just three types of key activities and three types of key results. Over the years, Lisa and our coaches have worked with hundreds of companies to help them maximize their sales performance and potential. We’ve noticed that every organization has their own set of metrics or … Read More

Stand Out From The Competition

As salespeople in a competitive selling environment, we always need to make sure that we can differentiate ourselves from our competition. Often buyers will indicate that they’ll be basing their decision solely on pricing, but we may not always have the least expensive option to offer. It’s important to remember that there is one thing that no other company or … Read More

Suspect vs. Prospect: Do You Know the Difference?

One of the most important keys to being successful in sales is to fill the sales pipeline with qualified prospects on a consistent basis. However, sales professionals often mistake suspects for prospects. By doing so, they get a false sense of the true value of their prospective business and end up ultimately forecasting business that is not yet properly qualified. … Read More

Perfect Your Prospect Messaging: Use Benefit Statements

We work with a variety of clients, both selling and non-selling professionals, but the one common challenge we hear more than anything is that they all have difficulty with prospecting and getting net new appointments. How do we help? We take a look at two key things: What is their game plan? Do they have a methodical approach outlined, including … Read More

Sales Success: Lisa’s Interview on the Heroic Council Webcast

Lisa had a wonderful time talking with Sarah Ohanesian and Parchelle Tashi on a recent episode of the Heroic Council. They discussed the BDU Sales Success Workbook and Lisa’s thoughts on what it really takes to achieve next-level sales success. Want to boost your own sales to the next level? Watch the episode now! For more information about the Heroic … Read More

AUTUMN (and Year-Round) Tips for Sales Success

As we’re into the fourth quarter of the year, it’s time to kick our sales efforts into high gear. Here are six AUTUMN-inspired tips you can apply right now to help you not only meet but exceed your year-end goals and set yourself up for success in the new year ahead! A = ASSESS Now more than ever, it’s important … Read More

Sharpen the Saw, Always Be Learning and Continue to Grow

Never stop trying to be the best version of you that you can be! After over thirty years in sales, Lisa’s realized one very important thing: you can never stop looking for opportunities to learn, “sharpen the saw” and improve yourself as a salesperson. Recently, it’s become even more apparent that we need to continually adapt and develop, and that … Read More

BDU Virtual Fall Sales Success Training

Our series of virtual sales development sessions may have ended, but you will not want to miss this incredible opportunity hone your sales skills for maximum performance and results! BDU Virtual Fall Sales Success Training Whether you are refreshing, fine-tuning or just beginning to develop your sales skills, this workshop series will help you not only meet but exceed your … Read More

The Importance of Understanding Your Prospect’s ROI

As salespeople, we need to keep in mind that no one likes to be sold anything but everyone loves to be helped. Therefore, it’s important to understand your prospect’s ROI and how to use that when positioning your product or service in the form of a solution that can help them solve a problem or address a challenge. One of … Read More

Sales Lessons from the Other Side

As a salesperson, it’s always interesting when you’re on the opposite side and are being “sold” a product or service. Sometimes, it’s hard not to notice the sales “red flags” as they are raised. Recently, Lisa was looking for some help and scheduled a time to meet with someone who has been pursuing her business for quite a while. When … Read More

Summer Tips for Sales Leaders

If you’re a sales leader, you’ve likely heard us say that your job description is just one line: to help your direct reports be as successful as possible. As we’re well into the summer and have officially started the second half of the year, it’s the perfect time to re-energize your sales team and reassess the ways in which you’ll … Read More

The Good News is…

Not achieving the level of sales success that you desire? We know it’s easy to feel discouraged if you’re not hitting your numbers or performing at your best, but don’t worry! The good news is… Small changes make a big difference. There’s not a huge difference between being good and being great, or between being great and being a sales … Read More

Want to Boost Your Sales? Book a Speaking Engagement!

You know that no one likes to be sold anything and that you should look for ways to help and not sell, but how do you build credibility so that you’re known as a reliable consultant that people can trust? Look for speaking engagements, where you can actively demonstrate your knowledge and expertise! Speaking engagements: Give you an opportunity to … Read More

The #1 BDU Blog Post According to Our Team Members

The BDU team ranked this BDU blog post as #1, plus a few other top blog posts we don’t want you to miss We recently asked our BDU team members to select one post from our blog that they felt was important for people to see and read. More than half of the group selected Are You Truly Listening? and … Read More

Tame Your Prospecting Nerves

By Janet Nankin, Managing Director, Southeast Region If you watch Food Network, you may have seen a show called “Worst Cooks in America.” I love the Food Network, but I generally watch it for several reasons: to learn new cooking techniques, because I’m hungry or because I am just bored. I certainly don’t watch it to see people who can’t … Read More

Some “Foolish” Advice for April Fools’ Day!

In honor of April Fools’ Day this year, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the ridiculous business tips we’ve heard. You know they’re out there, those “words of wisdom” that some business people and sales folks alike swear by but that we’ve come to realize just don’t work. Here’s what some of our BDU team members said … Read More

Celebrating International Women’s Day 2021: Lisa’s Interview with Slice Communications

In honor of International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, 2021, Slice Communications featured interviews with some incredible female leaders throughout the marketing and communications industry, including BDU’s CEO Lisa Peskin! Read Lisa’s article now to learn her definition of a successful leader, find out how her view on leadership has changed over the past year due to the COVID … Read More

Know Your Numbers

As we’ve said time and time again, sales really is a numbers game. It’s critical that you understand how your business metrics break down and where your revenue is coming from so you can figure out the best way to not only get more business from existing clients but also find new clients to help boost your numbers. Figuring Out … Read More

Are You Truly Listening?

As Stephen Covey so accurately expressed, “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” Do you find yourself listening to reply instead of to really understand what the other person is saying? Now more than ever, our ability to truly listen to and hear one another is critical to our personal and professional … Read More