management

How Rick Brandt used acquisitions and a Tampa headquarters to scale a family ag business into a global company.

The first month of the year is a classic time for business owners, and sales professionals, to identify and focus on their most important personal, and professional, goals. We’ve noticed, though, that the goal-setting behavior of an organization’s leaders during the month of January tends to have the biggest bottom-line impact on the year, as

The holiday season is already upon us and you might be wondering: “Where did 2022 go?” Maybe you and your company had a great year, blowing through your billing projections and setting revenue records. Or you might be asking yourself: “What went wrong and how do I prevent it from happening again?” But, before you

If you’re in sales, sales management or business development, here’s a reality check for you: Are you counting on closing a deal or projecting income from an opportunity that isn’t fully qualified? Whenever we ask sales professionals this powerful question, we often hear an awkward silence in response. Sometimes that silence is because the person,

By Christine Hairelson, vice president, employee experience at Accusoft/OnTask COVID was a massive stress test, and gut check, for every organization regardless of size, scope or industry. All departments were faced with unprecedented scenarios that tested organizational processes, teams, culture and technology. Unfortunately, many of us quickly found we needed to evolve and evolve fast.

If you’ve been keeping up with this column, you may have noticed a theme: the fact that it’s never a bad idea to “get back to the basics” and constantly hone your skills in an ever-demanding business development environment. For many professional sellers, the concepts, and ideas, to which they regularly adhere have been refined

Welcome to the dog days of summer—that time when the temperature and humidity are still unbearable, families are trying to squeeze in the last days of summer vacation before going back to school and (it seems) most of your customers, and prospects, are out of the office. As a manager, it can be hard to

Whether you are a sales leader responsible for an entire team’s performance or a single salesperson looking to hit your income target, you are well on your way to implementing your new business and client retention plan for 2021 – or are you? If you are struggling with how to organize your selling time, and

During this time, when many of us are directly or indirectly dealing with issues related to the global COVID-19 pandemic or, perhaps, financial pressures on the personal and organizational levels, many sales leaders are struggling with the issue of keeping their teams focused. It’s not at all surprising that sales teams can become distracted. The

On May 25, in Minneapolis, George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, was slain by a police officer. He was held down, with a knee on his neck, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The video was circulated on social media and spurred a social justice movement that spanned throughout the United States and around

Responsive, adaptive organizations invest time upfront to make future work easier. I call this frontloading. One simple, impactful and repeatable way to frontload work is by performing a team agreement at the start of a project or when forming a new team. Ever had a terrible roommate? Imagine how much time and energy you could

Although the national unemployment rate spiked earlier this year, hiring a productive salesperson can still be a huge challenge. Salespeople tend to be outgoing, and engaging, and it’s easy to convince yourself that you’ve found the right person for the job simply because a candidate is “likable.” But before interviewing any sales candidate, take the