A great example of an organization that fully understands the importance of "opening a sale" before you try to gain someone's commitment is Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The hospital also has what I'd call a very non-traditional sales organization....

I hate the term "close" as it applies to sales. The word implies that you are ending or shutting down something. The truth is, if you wish to gain a customer's commitment, you don't want to end anything...

Quiktron Inc. of Albania, Iowa, sells cable-connectivity solutions to the datacomm and telecommunications industries throughout North America...

Regardless of how much education you’ve had, you can always learn more. When your profession is sales communications, and you want to be great at selling, then what you say—and the way you say it—are pretty important....

I have consulted with hundreds of companies over the years, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard the comment: "Our business is different." I understand, and I agree. But I would take that difference down another notch or two. Every salesperson and every sales call is different; to treat th...

Thanks to some ideas he picked up in a recent Action Selling ® workshop, Ken Prenger returned to his job and rescued a $250,000 deal he had given up for dead. But that’s just for starters....

I know a corporate training manager who calls Action Selling ® the "secret sauce for sales success". David Winkler, training manager for Fortune 100 Company CHS Inc. of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., reasons like this: Just as a secret sauce in cooking brings out the best in food, sometimes with ex...

Whoa! You’ve done everything right, you’re cruising toward a major sale, you think it’s in the bag, when suddenly, for no reason that seems to make much sense, the customer balks and the deal goes up in smoke. What just happened?...

The Action Selling ® system lays down some rules that are unfamiliar and even counterintuitive to many veteran salespeople. These rules happen to be true, which means that if you break them, you will suffer....

When you invest in sales training for your company’s salespeople, what would you most like to achieve? Your list of goals might include better prospecting skills and an improved ability to secure new business. But what about the customers you’ve already got?...