Recently, an article was published by Steve Martin on the Harvard website called the Ten Reasons Sales People Lose Deals.

Bryan and Bill tear into the ten reasons and come up with solutions to three of them:

1. What happens when you can't get to the decision maker?
2. What if you have a "nice to have" product that isn't compelling for the prospect? and
3. How do you penetrate new accounts? 

Also, send us any thoughts you have about these three or the other seven at listener@advancedsellingpodcast.com

From the mailbag of listeners this week, two topics come up:

• 1) Call Reluctance. A listener seems to have a little bit of it and we have some thoughts (all good, of course) on what to do about it.

• 2) How Can I Demonstrate Value BEFORE the Sale? A listener struggles with this especially since his product is a premium product.  Two great topics that affect virtually every sales and account manager.

If you have a question to submit to the mailbag, write us at listener@advancedsellingpodcast.com

As sales pros and sales leaders, we're frequently in situations where we're either giving or getting "performance feedback." As with any business skill, there are right and wrong ways to look at feedback. In this episode, Dan Paulk, Senior Designer, Professional Development Programs at Hogan Assessments, discusses some 'feedback intelligence' that he has used as a psychotherapist and Hogan consultant.

For those of you who don't recognize Hogan Assessments, they are one of the fastest growing personality assessment companies in the US. Full disclosure: We use the Hogan Inventory of Personality tests as both selection and coaching instruments for our private client group. We recently attended a certification class on Hogan and Dan was the workshop leader. We felt his approach to feedback was worth you knowing about.

Well, this title might be a little presumptuous - that we can actually "get" someone to do what we want them to do. But the real issue is your frustration when prospects don't act as quickly as you'd like. So what's really going on in the prospect's mind on this one?

Join Bill and Bryan as they each give their opinions based on what some of their clients are doing to help the sales process move forward quicker.

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You've just written an email to a prospect who's not calling you back.
You get ready to hit SEND...but as you read it again, you realize
it just doesn't quite capture your thoughts.

Here's our advice: STOP - Don't SEND! Instead, read EMAIL IT!,
The Seller's Guide to Emails That Work.
http://emailitsellersguide.com/

This week's podcast features the Q&A from the live podcast event we did at the end of April. Bill and Bryan answer some great questions from the audience on "scenario intelligence: if they say, then we say," abundance, and "where do I find the time?" 

Bryan always accuses Bill of using terminology he doesn't understand. Well, in today's podcast, Bill is riding solo and discusses a concept called "problem proliferation." Actually, if the truth were known, it is the biggest "miss" salespeople experience when in persuasion mode. It's the understanding of what's going on inside the prospect's life absent your solution.

In this episode, Bill and Bryan complete their list of new ways of preparing for a sales call. If you missed Part I, go back and catch last week's podcast.

You're probably thinking, "You must not know who you're talking to here! I'm a seasoned veteran of sales wars. I know how to prepare!" Well, not so fast. What if there were new ways of preparing for the typical sales call that you hadn't thought of before? And what if one of those preparation points had to do with "your mental framework"? Well, it does. In this episode, Bill and Bryan cover part 1 (of 2) on the skill of 'call preparation.'

We speak of it often in our training with clients--and we refer to it on the Podcast--but in this episode, we take a longer, deeper look at the concept of DETACHMENT in the sales process.

The bottom line is that every sales problem you have is rooted in flawed thought--and this is the best place to begin to look. Are you 'attached' to the prospect saying, "Yes"? If so, listen up....

Also, we introduced a contest to help us create a Signature Sign-off. Email your ideas to listener@advancedsellingpodcast.com. Winner gets a 30-minute phone coaching session with both Bill and Bryan.

Kevin Eikenberry is our guest today. He just wrote a book called From Bud to Boss...where he addresses what it's like when one gets promoted from a peer to a manager. We address this in the sales realm.

So, if you're a sales manager who has recently been promoted from the field--or, if you're angling toward a promotion where you will lead your team, you will get great value out of this cast. He speaks of the three specific things you can consider as you lead teams or are led by a former peer.

You can order the book at www.frombudtoboss.com and find out more about Kevin at www.kevineikenberry.com