Welcome to the Whole Brain Selling Blog

FULL DISCLOSURE:  I will be the first to admit that I let that book about “12 Habits of People Who Have More Money Than You” sit on the shelf for far too long.  Telling myself “I’ll get to it next week.”  Or the flood of my monthly subscriptions of Success Magazine, Speaker Magazine, Entrepreneur, and Money Mag loaded with articles relevant to my business that just pile up on the magazine rack at home.  Yes I’m guilty.  But lately I have been on a purge.  I have always eventually gotten around to them, but I have made a commitment to read an article or book chapter almost every morning.  It has replaced Sportscenter and the news.

But I’m not reading for the reason you might expect.  While I do love increasing my knowledge and business acumen, I have a bigger purpose.  That purpose is my prospects and customers.  No, not to call them up and impart this newfound knowledge on them.  In fact it’s quite the opposite, and unfortunately that’s exactly what most of us do when we get a whole bunch of new information.  We want to go TELL our clients or prospects everything we know, and how it will cure all their ills.  You call it “EDUCATING”.  I hate that word when referring to sales skills.   So instead I would like to share a few ways to start reading.  I like to imagine putting on a pair of glasses and it changes the way I look at the information.  Instead of reading strictly to gain more knowledge, I’m reading to create a conversation that positions me as a problem solver. Continue reading →

Emotional intelligence, leadership, and football.

It was week 17 last week in the NFL, and the College football national championship is right around the corner.  Which usually means it’s evaluation time for many coaches.  By evaluation I mean the chopping block.  In the NFL it’s even called “Black Monday” because of the inevitable firings that come from missing the playoffs.   This year the 2 teams I pull for couldn’t be in more different circumstances.  My beloved Philadelphia Eagles just fired their head coach Chip Kelly after just 3 years while my beloved Clemson Tigers are on their way to the National Championship game, and Dabo Swinney was named this years College Football Coach of the Year.  Now I’m no expert on what it takes to coach a football team, but we are experts in Leadership here at The Leone Resource Group.  I can’t help but think of the similarities I have seen between successful coaches who lead their teams to greatness on the field, and successful mangers, directors, and CEO’s who lead their organizations to great success.  I’m a fanatic, so I have paid close attention to both men’s style and ability, what has been said by their players and coaches, and I couldn’t help but think of the organizations we have worked with that similarly have fallen on either side of the equation.  So here are 4 leadership takeaways from my observations as a football fan, and leadership consultant.  Note well, when I say players, I mean YOUR players in your organization too. Continue reading →

Today we have a Ray’s Rule that comes up nearly every time we train a group of sales people.  The Sales Funnel® can feel like a long process.  It’s 16 steps, we usually train for 3 days and don’t cover everything, and we do a lot of role playing.  What most people don’t realize was it was created to close deals quickly!  Click here ACCELERATE and find out what we mean by accelerate the process.

Here is a somewhat lighthearted Ray’s Rule today.  We are here training a group of salespeople right now, and as you look around the room you can’t help but see who is highly engaged, and who is *ahem* not.  We’re all guilty of it at some point, so click here  Wherever You Are, Be There for some inspiration.

When we refer to the Research Phase in our sales process we are referring to your initial sales calls.  Possibly your first 1 or 2 meetings with the prospect.  If you’re having trouble “closing” you are most likely making big mistakes (like this one) during the Research Phase.  Click here  No PUKING during the Research Phase! for the latest Ray’s Rule.  For more information about this or any of our courses please send us an email.

This weeks Ray’s Rule is for those of you in the B2B world.  As always, feel free to ask any questions in the comments below!  Click here FISHBONE to watch the video.

Here is the latest segment from Ray’s Rules for Sales Success.  Click HERE>> Conditional Concessions

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments.

ALSO, we have launched our new Sales Funnel Online University.  Click here for more info: http://salesfunnelu.advantagelibrary.com

Ray’s Rules

Pull The Trigger

Recently, I have made two mistakes that have cost me dearly and I want to share with you my pain, in hopes that you can avoid a similar fate. I was in a big poker tournament where first prize was over $500,000!!! I planned a strategy to bluff an opponent during one particular hand. He bet on a flop that had a pair of tens. I raised him with nothing, believing that he had a pair lower than tens and would be worried that I had a ten or a pair higher than tens. He called. The next card came and paired the deuce which put two pair on the board. He checked and I checked. The river was a nothing card. He checked. I planned on going all in, but hesitated thinking that if he did not have a pair I would win with my ace high card and, if he had a pair higher than tens, he would call me and I would be out of the tournament. I gutlessly checked. He had exactly what I thought he had, a pair of eight’s, and he won. He would have folded if I had bet. At this point you may be wondering what any of this has to do with you since most of you do not play poker. Stick with me as the answer will soon become apparent. Continue reading →

What is your EQ?

Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others? Have you ever wondered why someone that you hired that had all the attributes for success, failed to do the job? Have you ever wondered why some people are not as smart as you but are more successful than you? Maybe EQ is the reason. Continue reading →

If the prospect defines the problem, then low bid is the only way to win. Stop chasing deals you can’t win. The word BID stands for Be In Doubt about quality. Low bid almost always assures lowest quality. When the client defines the problem, they believe they know everything they need to know about the solution. Therefore, all they want from you is the price. If you are not the lowest price, why would you waste your time bidding? I have developed a formula for Success Probability. When I plug in the variables, if the probability does not exceed 50% then I do not play. As sellers, our attitudes and where we spend our time are critical to our success. Chasing deals you can’t win messes with both. Many of my clients have closing averages exceeding 80% because they only go after deals where there is a reasonable chance of winning. I am sitting in an airport lounge in Paris on my way back from India and I just received a call from a top seller for one of my clients and he told me that he was 800% of quota for the year and was working on a deal that would put him at 1000% of quota!!! Oh and did I mention that his closing average is 100%!!!!!! What would your life be like if you earned double or triple your normal income? It is not as difficult as you think. Continue reading →