Category Archive

Sales leaders, how often do you schedule one-on-one meetings with each of your direct reports? Are you making it a priority to have individual meetings with each of your salespeople on a regular basis? Lisa recently held a private leadership training for a group of sales managers and was surprised to hear that they don’t regularly meet one on one … Read More

There are six key metrics all sales managers need to monitor for each of their direct reports to determine if they are thriving, where any areas of opportunity might lie and how best to put a plan of action in place to help them not only meet but exceed their goals. If you’re a sales leader, you know that you … Read More

Lisa was recently listening to a morning radio show when she heard the horoscopes for the day. While she is not one to typically listen out for her horoscope, she decided to do so that day. She listened as the show’s host went through the other zodiac signs and when they finally reached Lisa’s, she was thrilled that she had … Read More

Selling without a sales playbook is akin to building a house without a blueprint. Are you setting your salespeople up for success by giving them the tools and roadmap necessary to get there? Every industry, company and individual has their own way of selling. Even the most well-established organizations will have different managers within who lead their teams in their … Read More

You know about BDU’s philosophy of “squeezing the lemon“, and part of what makes this philosophy so impactful is the power of doing just one more activity, no matter how small, as it can lead to big results. Lisa recently had the pleasure of conducting a training session for one of BDU’s clients on “The Power of One More.” Why … Read More

Everyone who is in sales has probably experienced the dreaded sales slump. Your numbers are down, you have no great leads in the pipeline, and you feel stagnant with your progress and efforts. What do you do when it hits? How do YOU get yourself out of a sales slump and back on track, and what do you do to … Read More

It can be challenging to figure out how to best handle a direct report who is just not performing well. Our first inclination as sales leaders may be to put more pressure on the underperformers. While you may have a few salespeople who perform better this way, adding pressure might end up doing more harm than good. Sometimes underperformers have … Read More

Want your direct reports to buy in when setting key numbers and quotas for them? It’s all about steering the conversation and allowing them get involved in the process of determining their own goals. By doing so, they’ll ultimately be more willing and committed to achieving them. As sales leaders, we know the importance of having frequent conversations with our … Read More

If your 2022 activities didn’t yield the results you desired, it’s time to determine if you should start doing MORE or if you need to look for ways to do BETTER. It’s the beginning of a new year, and with it comes a fresh start to set yourself up for sales success. If you haven’t already, take some time to … Read More

As the year comes to an end, it’s important as sales leaders that we do all we can to fulfill our one-line job description: to help our direct reports be as successful as possible. Here’s a handy year-end checklist you can download and use to help your team finish out the year strong and set yourselves up to hit the … Read More

If you’re a sales leader, it’s important that you know about BDU’s philosophy of “squeezing the lemon” to be productive and get the most from all you do. As sales leaders, we’re so busy juggling so much every day – especially if we carry a bag ourselves – that we need to make sure we’re doing all we can to … Read More

We’ve all been there with an initially warm prospect that’s suddenly gone cold. You’re trying to close the sale and they’re just not moving forward. Maybe they’ve stopped returning your calls or emails, or they’re responding with some strong pushback. When you need to re-engage your unresponsive prospects, there are several things you can do to move things forward. How … Read More

Being in sales can often feel scary as we put ourselves out there and face rejection, but with these three sales tips you can calm those fears and achieve success. Your year-end sales success starts NOW, around Halloween, but it doesn’t need to be scary. Now that we’re well into the last quarter of the year, it can feel overwhelming … Read More

Most sales professionals understand that networking is a key component to business success. Perhaps you’ve attended a handful of networking events but haven’t gotten much out of them. At Business Development University, helping you take things to the next level is what we do…here are some key tips for attracting influencers. Networking is so much more than just showing up … Read More

How do you go from good salesperson to great salesperson? Whether you’re a salesperson or a sales leader, it’s important to identify triage areas so you can focus on the gap and make the necessary tweaks to boost performance and potential. You’ve likely heard us talk about BDU’s triage philosophy of identifying the top three areas that, if improved upon, … Read More

As a sales manager or leader, you have a one-line job description: to make your sales team as successful as possible. In order to be a great leader, you first need to build trust within your team. Then, you’ll need to figure out what needs to be done to maximize everyone’s performance and potential. From our years of experience working … Read More

In 2020, the pandemic brought with it the drastic shift away from in-person meetings and suddenly everyone was on Zoom. This meeting platform that most of us had never used before was becoming our virtual office space. Now, many of us are returning to in-person meetings after two years of virtual chats and “Zoom fatigue.” However, we can’t discount the … Read More

Want to improve your close ratio? Always set the next step at the current step when it comes time to go for the close! It’s common during the sales process for a prospect to go dark once they’ve received a quote or proposal from you, and you may find it difficult to reconnect with them once they’ve gotten all the … Read More

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you doing all you can to really train, inspire and motivate your sales associates to be the very best that they can be? If you haven’t held one recently, it’s time to re-energize your direct reports and plan a Sales Kick Off! When is the last time you were able to get your entire sales force together for a … Read More

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

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

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

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