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Ensuring a Successful Sales Kick-off Meeting
Many of our clients begin each year with a conference for their sales team, in order to instill confidence, enthusiasm,…
What are the 5 skills a healthcare professional need to finish strong in 20
The role of the healthcare sales professional seems to change daily. It’s as if they wake up each day in…
Aligning Sales Training With Growth Strategy
Sales training investments are made by thousands of global organizations on an annual basis, with an estimated 3+ billion per…
Sales 3.0 Conference Keynote
Rewriting the Sales Transformation Playbook According to a KPMG/Forbes Insight survey (Link), 82 percent of CEOs worry that their company’s…
SPI to speak at MedForce in Germany, the Marketing and Sales Strategy Conference for MedTech Commercial Leaders
SPIHealth, Sales Performance International’s dedicated life sciences practice, is a proud sponsor of the MedForce 2019 conference. This conference is…
Sales Performance International Announces Sales Performance Tools for SPI-1
Technology-enabled smart tools improve sales execution and effectiveness Sales Performance International (SPI), a global leader in sales performance improvement announced…
Transforming Sales – Commit to Coaching
“Commit to Coaching” is step five in the McKinsey Transformation Model. Coaching is a critical component to achieving any desired behavior…
Sales Performance International Receives Thirteenth Consecutive Top Sales Training Award
Independent evaluation and determination of the 2018 Top Sales Training Companies conducted by the Sales Community of Training Industry, Inc….
2019 Sales Planning and Budgeting: Quality Over Quantity & Marketing Alignment
Sales Performance International surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need in order to succeed…
2019 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Executive-Level Selling Skills & Effectively Cross-Selling/Upselling
Sales Performance International surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need in order to succeed…
2019 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Ask Your Customers Why They Chose You & Measure Value Creation
Sales Performance International surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need in order to succeed…
What are the latest trends in the Sales Enablement world? A recap of the Showtime18 Conference
Sales Performance International (SPI) was thrilled to attend Showtime 2018, Europe’s largest Sales Enablement Conference, last week! The two-day event…
Moving from Relationship to Value-based Selling
If your organization has traditionally relied on relationships in order to sell and it’s not working for you as well…
The 3 Keys To Identifying and Closing Sales Skill Gaps
Recently I had a conversation with an SVP of Sales Operations for an organization. One of the organization’s key challenges…
A Simple Formula for More Effectively Qualifying Opportunities
I hate to use the analogy, but it’s like playing poker. If you don’t have a good hand, fold early….
47th Annual L-TEN Conference Recap
Sales Performance International (SPI) was thrilled to attend the 47thAnnual L-TEN Conference, the largest Life Sciences and Trainers Network, last week!…
Selling to the Right Stakeholders to Win Opportunities
Recently, I wrote a blog post about pursuing new opportunities with the right strategy. In that post, I discussed how so…
SPI dedicated Life Sciences practice is proud to be a Preferred Industry Partner at the L-TEN
Sales Performance International’s (SPI) dedicated Life Sciences practice, is proud to be a Preferred Industry Partner and exhibitor at the…
PharmaTech Outlook Awards: Sales Performance International 2018 Top 10 Analytics Solution Provider
PharmaTech Outlook Awards Sales Performance International 2018 Top 10 Analytics Solution Provider Sales Performance International has been recognized as a…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Making Personalized Development a Priority for Retention and Motivation
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
An Agile Sales Process Creates an Agile Start-Up
An agile sales process is necessary for companies entering a rapidly changing industry such as healthcare. Digital is changing almost…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Aligning Internal Stakeholders for More Successful Program Execution
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Brad Ansley and David Nash – Population Health and the New Sales Paradigm
Population Health and the New Sales Paradigm “No outcome, no income,” says Dr. David Nash, founding dean of the…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Finding the Right Balance to Make Change Initiatives Stick
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
SPI Invites You to Showpad’s Sales and Marketing Success Summit in London
It’s no secret that the way B2B buyers buy has significantly changed in recent times and this trend continues to…
Brad Ansley and Jay Graves – Does Sales Add Value in Healthcare?
Regulatory change and industry consolidation have lead pharma companies to shrink their sales teams by 20% or more. This causes…
A Brief Recap of our European Customer Success Conference 2018
This year, SPI hosted its third “Customer Success Conference” on the 18th and 19th of April in Brussels. Creating an…
SPI lädt Sie zu der Sales 4.0 Konferenz von Showpad in München ein
Im digitalen Zeitalter ist der Kunde anspruchsvoller denn je, und oft ist im heutigen Geschäft das Einkaufserlebnis der entscheidende Faktor….
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Focusing on the Right Customer Success Metrics
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
SPI Invites You to Showpad’s Sales 4.0 Conference in Munich
In the digital age, the customer is more demanding than ever and often times in today’s business the buying experience…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Increasing Ineffectiveness of Current Executive Prospecting Methods
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
John Gardner – Strategic Account Management Association
John Gardner from Strategic Account Management Association joined SPI as a guest speaker at the 2018 Customer Success Conference and…
Brad Thurman-Director, Sales Effectiveness : Return Path
At the SPI Customer Success Conference, we had a speaker named Brad Thurman from Return Path to talk about adoption,…
Raymond Ivory – Manager, Operational Excellence & Sales Enablement : Blackbaud
Raymond Ivory from Blackbaud joined SPI as a guest speaker at the 2018 Customer Success Conference. There, he shared with…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Aligning Behavior Change Through Gamification
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Actively Creating Value in Portfolio Companies
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Creating a Longer-term Vision of Sales Excellence
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Creating Account Management Discipline in Pharmaceutical Sales
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Doubling Down on Investments to Retain and Grow Customers
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Making Competency Models Actionable
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Aligning Competencies with Strategy
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Making Learning More Efficient in a Time-pressed World
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Unlocking the Potential of Modern Learning Methods
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Utilizing AI and Machine Learning to Enhance Sales Performance
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Creating Clear Line-of Sight Between L&D Investment and Business Outcomes
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Shifting from Volume to Value-based Healthcare
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Matching Sales Training to Sales Training Needs
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Doubling Down on Sales Coaching
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
3 Challenges Facing Today’s Global Sales Leaders
In this video, Fred Diamond, Director, and Co-Founder of The Institute For Excellence in Sales describes three of the top…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Aligning Your Selling Resources to Buyer Behavior and Preferences
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Inability to Leverage Clinical Data
Many of today’s regulatory changes are focused on the use of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). This rationale is to provide consistent…
Misaligned Sales Competencies Impact Business Outcomes
Many healthcare sales organizations are realizing that they must re-assess their sales competency model in light of today’s healthcare market…
Lack of Consultative Selling Skills
Differentiate how you sell, not just what you sell Stakeholders in today’s healthcare market are looking for solutions that help…
Ineffective Launch Capabilities
Realize the full potential of your R&D efforts Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, and Med Tech companies launch new products and services…
Difficulty Positioning Value
Differentiate your offering while providing more value Drive Market Share For years, pharmaceutical and med tech companies have successfully leveraged…
Difficulty Accessing Decision-Makers
Increasingly, physicians are becoming employees of healthcare systems, and as a result, they will have less influence over buying decisions….
Data-driven Approach Decreases Time to Results
Using subjective decision making for talent development and hiring decreases ROI Sales leaders are confronted by a continuing challenge —…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Modernizing Sales Learning and Development Systems
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
Sales Performance Improvement Trends for 2018 and Beyond: Digital Transformation of Sales Talent Development
We asked Sales Performance International executives and consultants what kind of changes we can expect to see for the sales…
The Top 5 Sales Competencies Needed By Sellers Today
https://spisales.wistia.com/medias/tsi6qsbmps?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640 In this video, Fred Diamond, Director, and Co-Founder of The Institute For Excellence in Sales describes the top 5…
Watch the Webinar! Sales Excellence: Overcoming Hurdles to Growth
In our recent survey of European business leaders, we discovered many struggles with building and maintaining a strong sales force….
Taking a Hard Look at “Must Win” Sales Opportunities
Many of our clients report that their sales pipelines include a distribution of different opportunity sizes – a mix of…
Insight for Closing by Year-end: The 3 Sales Within Every Sale
One of the main duties of a sales professional in most opportunities is to effectively promote how their capabilities will…
Watch our Recent “Land & Expand” Webinar with Engagio
In this webinar, learn how Sales Performance International drove $5 million in pipeline through cross-sell/upsell with ABM and Engagio. SPI’s…
How Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Sellers Can Better Differentiate to Win More Business
In the book, The Solution-Centric Organization, Keith Eades and Robert Kear describe how product marketing teams can help sales representatives…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Account Planning is a Team Sport
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. One…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Executive Level Selling Skills Require Continuous Competency Development
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. One…
Watch our Recent Webinar! Straight From the Source: What Sales Teams Want Most to “Hit the Number” in 2018
As you plan for 2018, what investments will have the most impact on sales performance improvement? SPI conducts an annual…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Connect the Cross-selling Dots
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. One…
Kartesia Completes Strategic Investment in Sales Performance International
Charlotte, NC, October 24, 2017 – Sales Performance International (SPI) announced today that Kartesia has assumed an ownership position in…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Ask Your Customers Why They Chose You
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. One…
How to Get the Most From Strategic Account Management
In this video, SPI’s Mark Hilton explains what organizations need to do to get the most out of SPI’s strategic…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: To Justify Value Creation, You Must Measure Value Creation
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. One…
How to Overcome Difficulty Accessing Hospital and Healthcare Decision Makers
At SPI Health, we’ve worked with many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical, medical device, and medtech companies, to optimize their…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Don’t Lose Sight of Quality Over Quantity
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. One…
2018 Sales Planning & Budgeting: Improving Sales and Marketing Alignment
We recently surveyed nearly 800 sales managers and reps to better understand what they need to succeed in 2018. The…
A.J. Oster and SPI Win Prestigious Brandon Hall Group Award
A.J. Oster, North America’s foremost distributor of metal foil, strip and sheet products, won a coveted Brandon Hall Group Bronze…
Introducing SPI’s Voice of the Sales Force Survey Results
It is no secret that sales leaders and CEOs want to maximize productivity and performance for their sales teams. However,…
How to Manage the Four Types of Channel Sales Partners
For organizations that use indirect channels sales partners for all or part of their revenues, Channel Partner Managers (CPMs) play…
Watch the Webinar! Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Watch Dario Priolo, CMO and Demand Generation Practice Leader of SPI and Emily Wingrove, Director of Marketing at Synthio as…
Position Value Throughout the Sales Process
Most successful sellers identify buyers business issues and the impact they have within an organization. They attempt to differentiate their…
SPI Welcomes Steve Carlson as VP of Sales, North America
We’re happy to introduce Steve Carlson as SPI’s Vice President of Sales for the North American operation. In this brief…
Subject Matter Experts: “What am I even doing here?”
In this brief video, Phil McCrory of McCrory & Company, an SPI Gold Certified Partner, emphasizes the importance of aligning…
A Lack of Consultative Selling Skills in Healthcare
Hi, I’m Brad Ansley, Director of SPI Health, Sales Performance International’s dedicated life sciences practice. We’ve worked with many of…
Help Your Sales Leaders Succeed in 2018
We are conducting a brief survey to help sales leaders with strategic planning for next year. We want your input…
Making a Comeback: How to Recover from a Weak First Half
The first half of the year is now behind us. For those of you who are on track to achieve…
Capture Pain Patterns by Building Your Own Pain Chain
In organizations, the morale, performance, and activities of one person directly impacts another person. A chief marketing officer has the…
How to Negotiate Access to a Decision Maker
As you already know, access to a decision maker is vital. When a salesperson doesn’t have access to a decision…
How to Create Buying Vision Without Alienating Prospects
You’re about to engage in a sales conversation with a prospect where a business issue or pain is known, or…
The Four C’s of Winning Sales Presentations
Sales leaders know that the ability of the sales team to deliver value at every point of contact with buyers…
SPI Health to Speak at L-TEN 46th Annual Conference
SPI Health™, Sales Performance International’s (SPI) dedicated life sciences practice, is proud to be a Preferred Industry Partner and exhibitor…
SPI Receives Two SalesTech Industry Awards
The SalesTech Awards is an annual competition honoring companies and individuals that demonstrate excellence, innovation and leadership in the sales…
SiriusDecisions Demand Waterfall 2017: Good Progress with Room to Improve
Probably the most significant new thinking to come out of the Sirius conference was an update to their Demand Waterfall….
SPI on Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies List for 8th Consecutive Year
We are proud to announce that SPI has been recognized as one of Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies…
SPI on Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies List for 8th Consecutive Year
We are proud to announce that SPI has been recognized as one of Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies…
Customer Success Story: Equifax
Sam Agha works for Equifax’s commercial side with their commercial enterprise solutions. What is your impression of the workshop so…
Why You Should be Using Customer Success Stories
Why are customer success stories so important? They’re important because it’s human nature for to people care about what their…
What is a Relationship Seller?
A few weeks ago, I facilitated a selling skills development workshop for a client, a provider of industrial equipment. One…
Join SPI at the Upcoming European Business Awards
SPI is pleased to be the exclusive sales consulting sponsor of this year’s European Business Awards! The Awards’ primary purpose…
Are Your Sales Managers Delivering?
Sales managers play a critical role in an organization’s success. Through their efforts and those of their teams, they help…
Watch the Webinar! Sales Training: New Techniques to Drive Results Better, Faster and Cheaper
Techniques to train and enable sales teams have undergone a dramatic shift, but keeping up with all of the change…
RFP Strategies – When to Walk Away and When to Double Down
What are the issues with RFPs? When I work with some of my clients, I’ve seen several of them struggle…
Make Sure Your Sales Management Process is What it Should Be
For sales executives to get adequate information, and for sales managers to meet or exceed their key metrics, sales managers…
How SPI-1 Technology Drives Behavior Change
Hi, I’m Ken Cross with Sales Performance International. I’m the Director of Sales Enablement Solutions on our innovations team at…
The New Standard for Developing and Enabling Sales Talent
At SPI, we believe that improving sales performance requires much more than just a sales training class. That’s why we…
How to Own Your Sales Methodology
Hi, I’m Nick Maslanka. I’m a senior sales consultant with SPI. We help our clients in a lot of different…
Managing the Collaboration Plan
Jimmy Touchstone, Director of Learning and Development here at SPI. We look after the content and make sure it’s up…
Decrease Buyer Risk, Avoid No Decision
The top two buyer concerns at the end of the buying process are risk and price. A loss to no…
How to Ensure You are Ready to Close a Deal
Have you heard, “Close early, close often, and always be closing?” The phrase might generate some questions: What does that…
Sales Training: New Techniques to Drive Results Better, Faster and Cheaper
Techniques to train and enable sales teams have undergone a dramatic shift, but keeping up with all of the change…
Planning for Sales Collaboration
In our latest book, The Collaborative Sale, Keith Eades and I explored what sellers need to do to sell successfully…
Improve Your Sales Force – The Right Way
My name is Dave Christofaro. I’m a Director of Global Accounts at Sales Performance International. My focus is working with…
How to Close with a Bang
Sellers use value justification or value analysis to close opportunities. Creating a formal value analysis focused on what differentiates the…
SPI recognized as one of Training Industry’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies
We are proud to announce that SPI has been recognized as one of TrainingIndustry’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies for…
How to Create Effective Negotiation “Get-Gives”
Of course, the goal in a sales negotiation is to resist providing concessions. Unfortunately, this isn’t always realistically possible. You…
How to More Effectively Leverage Clinical Data to Support Selling to Hospitals and Health Networks
Hi, I’m Brad Ansley, Director of SPI Health, Sales Performance International’s dedicated life sciences practice. We’ve worked with many of…
How to Avoid Sales Slippage
For nearly all of our clients, the end of every quarter is an important milestone – each with sales goals…
A Simple Formula for More Effectively Qualifying Opportunities
I hate to use the analogy, but it’s like playing poker. If you don’t have a good hand, fold early….
SPI Client Success Story: Physio-Control
Brandi Hricik is the Pan American Sales Training Manager for Physio-Control, Inc, a division of Stryker. What were the key…
Why did we develop the SPI-1 Technology?
Hello, my name is Rick Judson. I’m the Director of Learning Technology for SPI. I am responsible for all the…
Change Your Daily Selling Habits. Become a Micro-Marketer.
Get started with Social Selling in 2017 by identifying goals against which you can measure your success and building a routine of activities that you can repeat often and track results against.
Making Sales Conversations Matter
All sales leaders know their sales team’s success depends largely on the ability to converse in a compelling way with…
How to Get Your Organization Ready for Account-based Marketing Success
ABM is top-of- mind for many our clients. If you think about our clients, these clients sell high value solutions….
How Does SPI-1 Work?
Link Competencies to Business Results SPI is really a very simple concept. It’s based on the idea of linking competencies…
10 Symptoms of Unhealthy Demand Generation Efforts
Are your demand generation efforts healthy or on life support? We recently polled several hundred business and sales leaders about…
How to Align Sales & Marketing in a Common Lead Management Process
How do you better align marketing and sales in the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) to Sales Acceptable Lead (SAL) hand…
Preparing for Effective Sales Conversations
In their book, The Collaborative Sale: Solution Selling in a Buyer-Driven World, my colleagues Keith Eades and Tim Sullivan describe…
How to Deal with a Shortage of Qualified Leads
Over the last two years, several companies that we’ve worked with are struggling with a consistent issue – a shortage…
Leveraging Account and Territory Growth Reviews to Ensure Sales Success
Every quarter, about one-third of sales leaders fall short of their goals, according to recent industry research. If you have…
How to Better Leverage Data and Analytics to Drive Sales Success
I’m Ken Cross, Director of Sales Enablement Technology, working with our innovation team to bring the most advanced sales enablement…
What do sales managers and reps need to succeed in 2017?
As you kick-off the start of the new year, you undoubtedly have some ideas you expect will improve sales performance….
2017 Predictions for the Sales Profession
The sales profession is always changing, because sellers must constantly adapt to changes in economic, political, cultural, and market forces….
Elements of Effective Customer Success Stories
Using storytelling as a device in selling may not be a new idea, but it is one that’s resurfaced in…
Building Your Personal Brand for Better Social Selling
Editor’s Note: This video was created by LearnLoft (www.learnloft.com), an innovative elearning company focused on developing the leaders of tomorrow….
How to Determine if Your Big Deal Will Close By Year End
Think about this. Professionals across a variety of jobs use recipes, checklists, formulas, and procedures to serve as a guideline…
Lessons in Crisis Management from Flight 1549 and the USMC
I’m Mark Hood with Sales Performance International. I wanted to share a few key leadership principles. A bit about my…
SPI Health – Difficulty Position Value
Hi, my name is Artur Trzebunia, Product Manager for SPI Health, Sales Performance International’s dedicated life sciences practice. We’ve worked…
How to Prepare a Sales Conversation Prompter
Imagine that you’re about to conduct a meeting with a prospect where you’re expecting a diagnostic sales conversation. The goal…
Thank You, Clients!
At SPI, we love our clients. We wanted to take a moment to say “Thank you!”
SPI-Sales Process Playbooks: SmartApp Builder
Welcome to the future of Sales Enablement! We are proud to announce the release of our new SPI-SmartApp builder, which…
Customer Success Conference 2017
Isn’t it refreshing and inspiring when you join a conversation and walk away with ideas on how to improve yourself…
Closing Sales with More Certainty Through Effective Collaboration Plans
With buyers having more information at their fingertips than ever before, it is no secret that in many sales situations,…
PPVVC: The GPS for Qualifying Opportunities
As a sales leader, are you able to prioritize your coaching and pick the right opportunity for your team? Are…
Do you have the data you need to coach your sellers to healthier productivity?
A few days ago, I spoke with someone who needed a bone scan. They were nervous about going through with the…
SPI 2017 Course Catalog
We have just released an updated, comprehensive course catalog, detailing Sales Performance International’s (SPI) many sales training programs. Although SPI delivers…
Research Introduction: What do the Most Successful New Sales Leaders do Best?
If you’re a new sales leader and want to know what the most successful new sales leaders do better than…
Sellers Want Help Differentiating Value to Succeed in 2017
On September 14, SPI released a research report entitled “Voice of the Sales Force,†which analyzed the compiled opinions of…
SPI Health™ to Exhibit at L-TEN 5th Annual MD&D Trainers Summit
SPI Health™, Sales Performance International’s (SPI) dedicated life sciences practice, is proud to be a Preferred Industry Partner and exhibitor…
Sellers Want Account-based Marketing to Succeed in 2017
On September 14, SPI released a research report entitled “Voice of the Sales Force,” which analyzed the compiled opinions of…
SPI-1: The Future of Sales Effectiveness Explained in 3 Minutes
What if there was a radically better, smarter, faster way to improve the overall performance of your sales organization? What…
Survey: Sellers Want Better Account Planning and Executive Selling Skills in 2017
On September 14, SPI released a research report entitled “Voice of the Sales Force,” which analyzed the compiled opinions of…
Survey: Sellers Still Need More Selling Time and Fewer Non-Selling Distractions
On September 14, SPI released a research report entitled “Voice of the Sales Force,” which analyzed the compiled opinions of…
The New Situational Fluency: How Buyers Changed the Sales Conversation
In our book, The Collaborative Sale, Keith Eades and I explored how the concept of situational fluency has changed as…
Survey Results: What Sales Managers and Reps Say They Need to Succeed in 2017
It is no secret that sales leaders and CEOs want to maximize productivity and performance for their sales teams. However,…
What Is Learn-Ablement? And Why Is It So Valuable?
Companies that offer sale skills or methodology training programs will sometimes provide automated tools to help improve post-training adoption of…
Sales Performance International Unveils SPI-1, Revolutionizing Sales Talent Development and Enablement
New solution helps sales leaders improve the capability and performance of their people faster, more precisely, and at lower cost…
Targeting Sales Coaching with Analytics and Insight
We think that there’s a simple mantra that should underlie sales performance coaching: “Data should lead to insight, insight should…
Introduction to a Successful New Sales Leader Research
If you’re a new sales leader and want to know what the most successful new sales leaders do better than…
Finding Nuggets of Gold in Accounts
Many sales professionals often ask us, “Where do I find more leads?” They want to know how they can expand…
SPI Health™ to Exhibit at L-TEN 5th Annual MD&D Trainers Summit
SPI Health™, Sales Performance International’s (SPI) dedicated life sciences practice, is proud to be a Preferred Industry Partner and exhibitor…
Success Story: Axway Manages Growth More Consistently with Solution Selling
Kathryn Hughes is the Director of Global Sales Enablement for Axway, a large, global integration organization. They do enablement integration,…
Success Story: HP Software Services Implements Solution Selling
Joe Fenn is with HP Software Services, a global software enterprise and infrastructure tools company. The organization focuses on implementation…
Success Story: Moving from Selling to Procurement to the Line-of-Business
We have been working with a very large distribution company in Canada – about a billion dollars in sales, around…
Opening Calls: How to Gain the Prospect’s Attention (part 2)
We’ve discussed how to gain a prospect’s attention early in a meeting. Now, we would like to dig a little…
Opening Skills: How to Gain a Prospect’s Attention Early in a Meeting
So, you’re about to conduct a first meeting with a prospect. What’s the prospect really thinking, early on? What’s critical…
What can Sales Leaders learn from Olympic Trials?
Last week, the U.S. Olympic trials took place for our athletes to compete and qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics…
Change Management after Deploying Training
Planning and organizing a training initiative is a lot of work. Pulling people away from their day-to-day jobs to find…
Success Story: EdTech Innovator Supports Fast Growth with Solution Selling Sales Methodology
Jen Burns is the Director of Sales for Hobsons, an education technology company, spanning the life cycle of the student…
Success Story: Driving Transformation Through Sales Management Development
We want to share a brief story of a large organization in the financial services space. This organization realized that…
SPI Featured in Training Industry Magazine
We are proud to announce that SPI will be featured in the 2016 Training Industry Magazine. Earlier this year, SPI was recognized…
Client Success Story: How a Financial Services Giant Overcame Commoditization
We would like to share a story of Greg Engalicev, the Managing Partner of SPI in Canada’s story with a…
How to Identify Your Compelling Differentiators
The key to positioning your capabilities to your prospect is to identify your most compelling, differentiated capabilities. This is so…
Lead Qualification: Lessons Learned from the Trenches and Frontlines
Buyers now have more resources than ever before and will usually be more than 50% through a buying process at…
Client Success Story: AngioDynamics Integrates Three Acquisitions with a Common Sales Approach
AngioDynamics was looking for a standardized message across all three franchises and needed a company that had the infrastructure, support,…
Identifying Critical Competencies and Measuring ROI Through Talent Analytics
Doesn’t matter who you are – Sales Leader, Chief Sales Officer, Chief Marketing Officer. They’re all asking the same question:…
Solution Selling Essentials: Diagnosing Buyer Pain
Parts of this post adapted from the Solution Selling Fieldbook (2005, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0071456074) by Eades, Touchstone and Sullivan. Imagine…
How to Resist Concessions Using Negotiating Stands
When a buyer asks for an unreasonable concession during sales negotiations, what do you do? How do you react? Do…
Improving Your Odds of Success with Performance Improvement Projects
If in your role, you’re responsible for the success of a sales performance improvement project, then unfortunately, the odds of…
Sales Manager Hiring: A Lack of Discipline
It is widely assumed that sales managers play an important role in the success or failure of selling organizations, but…
SPI Named Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Company List for the 7th Consecutive Year
We are proud to announce that SPI has been recognized as one of Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies,…
How to Establish Customer Success Criteria (Video)
Establishing success criteria is an important step in the sales cycle to prove value and reduce the fear associated with…
SPI Health to Speak at L-TEN Annual Conference
SPI Health™, Sales Performance International’s (SPI) dedicated life sciences practice, is proud to be a Preferred Industry Partner and exhibitor…
7 Simple Steps for Better Instructor-Led Sales Training
In SPI’s 25+ years of experience in delivering effective ILT, our clients consistently tell us that there are 7 key…
How to Develop Better Sales Managers
The importance of strong leadership is not even a question. When leadership is weak, it hurts everyone. When it comes…
Sales Manager Hiring: Identifying Internal Candidates
It is widely assumed that sales managers play an important role in the success or failure of selling organizations, but…
Research Briefing: What Makes New Sales Leaders Successful?
SPI and Selling Power teamed up to publish a new research report on practices of the most successful new sales…
SOAP Isn’t Good Enough in Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Sales
SOAP is an acronym for the items one should include in a medical chart. It is also a method used…
What Do Chiropractic Adjustments Have to Do with Increasing Sales in Healthcare?
Most chiropractors believe that vertebral misalignment can be the cause of many health related issues and can decrease the ability…
How to Reengineer a Buying Vision with a Prospect
You’re about to engage in a sales conversation with a prospect, and they already have an existing solution or set…
How to Select and Develop “A” Players in Sales
Do you have a systematic process for hiring A-players, or are you just winging it? Because their team is one…
Sales Manager Hiring: Critical Competencies and Their Measurability
It is widely assumed that sales managers play an important role in the success or failure of selling organizations, but…
How To Measure Sales Training Impact
SPI’s Customer Success Group has one purpose: To drive the adoption of our capabilities within our client’s community, provide measurable results, and…
MicroLearning: How to Uncover a Buyer’s Evaluation Criteria
SPI is an innovator and thought leader, not only in sale performance improvement but also in learning and development. We…
SPI Formally Re-brands Life Sciences Practice as SPI Health
Sales Performance International (SPI) is pleased to announce that re-branding of its life sciences practice to SPI Health. We recognize…
MicroLearning: How to Compose Buyer Confirmation Emails
This video is an example of one of our hundreds of NanoLessons. These are typically embedded in CRM and sales process…
Understanding Buyer Decision Criteria
Increasingly, organizations are making buying decisions using teams. As my colleagues Keith Eades and Tim Sullivan cited in their book,…
New, Mobile-friendly NanoLessons for Just-in-time Skill Reinforcement in CRM
Sales Performance International (SPI) is pleased to announce the launch of its new NanoLessons. NanoLessons are brief videos, usually 2-4 minutes…
Recognizing and Rescuing a Failing CRM System
CRM systems have come a long way since the early, nightmarish days when project failure rates were between 50 and…
SPI Announces new Healthcare Account Management Program
One of the most desirable sales skills in any industry today, but specifically in healthcare, is the ability to manage…
SPI Announces New Solution Selling for Pharma® Program
Over the past two decades, Solution Selling® has evolved to a world-renowned brand of sales methodology that relies on science…
SPI Recognized as a 2016 Top 10 Analytics Solution Provider by PharmaTech Outlook
We are proud to announce that Sales Performance International (SPI) has been recognized as a 2016 Top 10 Analytics Solution…
Research Kick-off: What Separates Successful New Sales Leaders from the Failures?
As a selling professional, you may have encountered a new sales leader who thought he or she would save the…
SPI Named TrainingIndustry.com’s Top 20 Sales Training Company List 2016
We are proud to announce that SPI has been recognized as one of TrainingIndustry’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies for…
Research Briefing: Companies Struggle to Find and Develop Sales Management Talent
Last week, I had the opportunity to join Robert Kelly, Chairman of the Sales Management Association (SMA), on a web…
Three Collaborative Selling Personas
In our recent book, The Collaborative Sale, we describe the significant changes in buyer behavior over the last few years….
SPI Announces New Practice Focused on Buyer Research and Demand Generation
Sales Performance International (SPI) is pleased to announced the launch of its new demand generation practice, lead by Dario Priolo….
Maximizing Market Share in the Six Month Launch Window
Consider this: According to IMS, only one in five pharmaceutical products is able to significantly change the market share trajectory…
5 Best Practices: Sales Success in Today’s Healthcare Market
Changes in healthcare policies are having a profound impact on how healthcare products, services, and solutions are being bought. Reimbursements…
Why Solution Messaging Matters
Many sellers struggle with how to communicate the value of potential solutions to buyers. This is because most sales training…
SPI Promotes Jurgen Heyman to Position of Global Chief Operations Officer
Sales Performance International (SPI) is pleased to announce the promotion of Jurgen Heyman to the position of Global Chief Operating…
SPI hires industry veteran, Dario Priolo, as CMO and Demand Generation Practice Leader
Sales Performance International (SPI) is pleased to announce that Dario Priolo has joined the company in a dual leadership role….
2016 Predictions for the Sales Profession
The sales profession is always changing, because sellers must constantly adapt to changes in economic, political, cultural, and market forces….
Planning for Effective Territory Coverage
Sales leaders often ask if we can help their teams to improve their time management skills. I recently had a…
Selling to the Right Stakeholders to Win Opportunities
Recently, I wrote a blog post about pursuing new opportunities with the right strategy. In that post, I discussed how…
How to Control Selling Costs with the Right Pursuit Strategy
Are your salespeople pursuing new opportunities with the right strategy? Do too many deals end up in a “no decision 
How to Target Your Sales Improvement Efforts More Precisely for Greater Impact
As a sales leader with limited time and resources, how do you prioritize your sales improvement initiatives to ensure that…
Accelerating Sales Performance Improvement Results
Sales & Marketing Management magazine recently invited me and my colleague, Steven Vantongelen, to deliver a presentation about “Creating a…
The Four Types of Inside Sales
Recently, I was invited to speak on the “Interviews with Inside Sales Gurus†podcast, hosted by Chris Orlob. On the…
How to Find and Connect with Early Stage Buyers
There is a popular school of thought that suggests demand generation is the responsibility of marketing, and that salespeople’s time…
Who Should Own CRM Success?
More than a few of our clients have asked us to help them fix failed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives….
Using Competitive Strategy to Win Sales
In past blog posts, we’ve provided the Successful Sales Formula tool to determine the strength of a seller’s position for any given…
Sales Process, Methods, and Skills
If you are responsible for sales training in your organization, then you know that it can be difficult to make…
Who Should You Choose as Your Next Sales Manager?
Sales leaders face a challenging dilemma when promoting or hiring a sales manager. You’ve probably heard warnings about simply putting…
First Steps for Effective 2016 Sales Planning
This is an especially challenging time of the year for sales leaders – even more so for those in companies…
How to Protect Strategic Accounts from Competitors
How much of your annual goal depends on growing revenue in strategic accounts? Almost all of our clients tell us…
Sales Training Buyer’s Guide
Sales training programs can easily provide a return on investment of 50x or more. However, not all sales training is…
How to Sell More in Key Accounts
Are your salespeople putting enough time, effort, and thought into developing and retaining business with your current customers, especially in…
The Personality Trap
Personality assessments, such as DISC or Meyers-Briggs, have an understandable appeal. They are well-known and usually inexpensive. However, according to…
Improving Channel Partner Productivity
Many of our clients rely on channel sales partners to generate business, either exclusively or in conjunction with direct sales…
The Doing and Being of Solution Selling
I recently attended a conference where 35 executives introduced their company in thirty seconds or less. Interestingly, two-thirds of them…
Aligning Sales Teams with Healthcare Buyers
All over the world, there is a growing middle class that expects better healthcare, and an aging population that requires…
BANT Isn’t Enough
When we first engage with them, many of our clients are using BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeframe) as their…
Aligning CRM with Sales Improvement
Launching any new sales improvement initiative is no small undertaking. Tinkering with the revenue engine of your company always entails…
Current Sales Talent vs. Future Growth
To say that markets are changing rapidly in response to many forces is an understatement. For example, we described in…
Bridging the Sales Training to Execution Gap
In most classroom environments, there is little intention to show students how they would apply their learning in real world situations – nor do the training materials (text books) show how it is applied to day to day life. Not surprisingly, your sellers often feel the same way, after exiting training. If sellers find it difficult to apply learning to real-world scenarios, the value of the learning retention is diminished. We call this the gap between learning (training) and execution (real-life application).
Instead, sellers need the following to bridge this gap between learning and execution – automated, seller journeys and contextual learning.
Is Sales Training Really Impacting (Business Outcomes) Behavior Change?
Sales Leaders want the business results – so they will monitor and measure the pipeline of deals to ensure sales activities are contributing to the intended results. Good learning initiatives provide sales professionals with the required knowledge. Knowledge acquisition is tested and reinforced. That knowledge is also put to application during the learning process through case work, exercises, role plays, etc. And more importantly, application happens back in the real world where key learning and supporting tools help the seller perform in their every day job.
