Category: Inside Sales Dude

About 2 years ago, I saw a video of a guy doing handstand pushups. Despite having never done a handstand in my entire life, I thought, “I’ll bet I can do that. I’m in good shape. I workout every day. ”   I couldn’t do a single handstand push up. But what I lack in skill and technique,…

I learned how important weekly 1-on-1s could be early in my career from one of my first mentors. He dedicated 1 hour every Friday afternoon to meet with me. During these meetings we discussed sales opportunities, challenges and areas where I needed his help. I learned so much from him in these 1-on-1s that I…

If you are the Top Sales Rep, a Team Lead, a Manager, a Director, or a VP, you should always be grooming someone to replace you. Many leaders neglect to do this. When they do, they are dooming themselves and their teams to complacency and mediocrity. There are many good reasons for training your replacement:…

I was not born a “natural salesman”.  Instead, I followed a meandering path that eventually led me to a career in Sales. This is my story. Childhood I spent my early childhood years in Tamaqua, a declining coal mining town in eastern Pennsylvania. Multiple generations of my close knit relatives lived within a few blocks…

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one way for sales professionals to effectively manage email and that’s Inbox Zero. Today I will explain the Inside Sales Dude Inbox Zero method. It is simple, effective, & repeatable. I’ve been using it for more than 10 years in multiple companies.  This is not really about the…

How can a Sales Rep make 75 outbound calls a day, send another 75 personalized email follow ups, perform a few sales demos, attend a mandatory all-hands meeting, follow up on emails, close business and still get out of the office at a decent hour? I’ve talked about using the 3 Big Rocks method for…

Last week I arrived at my airport gate only to see FLIGHT CANCELLED on the screen beside the gate.  I approached the agent and was told, “Don’t worry. There’s no problem. Instead of flying you to Orlando for your connection to Fort Lauderdale, you’ve been automatically rebooked to fly into Baltimore and from there catch a connection to Florida. You’ll arrive in Florida by…

One of my personal rules is to give 150% effort whenever I can. This first came into play for me when I had started a new position as the Manager of Information Systems for an Advertising Company. I had talked my way into this job of supporting Macs, Windows PCs, and the website for this agency….

When I am hired, my clients always say two things: “Our Sales Team isn’t selling enough!” “We’re not sure if our Sales Team is doing all the right things.” To address either of these, I begin by assessing the reps.

At my first home-office based sales job I spent the 1st Quarter hustling 10 hours a day prospecting for new customers, learning how to sell our solutions, and dealing with the challenges of working from home. In the 2nd Quarter, having made little progress and having almost no contact with my manager & coworkers, my motivation dropped significantly. I still prospected most mornings and…