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<!--Generated by Squarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/) on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:57:22 GMT--><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><title>Solution Selling Blog</title><subtitle>Sales Training Improvement For Solution Sellers</subtitle><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/</id><link rel="alternate" type="application/xhtml+xml" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/"/><link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/atom.xml"/><updated>2012-02-06T20:26:10Z</updated><generator uri="http://www.squarespace.com/" version="Squarespace Site Server v5.11.81 (http://www.squarespace.com/)">Squarespace</generator><entry><title>Are You Ready For 2012? A Quick Look Back At 2011.</title><category term="2011"/><category term="Future of sales"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><category term="best articles"/><category term="sales training"/><category term="top articles"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2012/1/23/are-you-ready-for-2012-a-quick-look-back-at-2011.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2012/1/23/are-you-ready-for-2012-a-quick-look-back-at-2011.html"/><author><name>SPI</name></author><published>2012-01-23T07:00:21Z</published><updated>2012-01-23T07:00:21Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[New to the Solution Selling Blog? Or are you a committed reader? Welcome and welcome back. At SPI we are more committed than ever to be the go-to thought-leaders of the sales performance improvement industry. We are consistently looking ahead to changes in the marketplace, trends, tools and learning methods to influence our practices and programs. We incorporate research and feedback into our decisions and work diligently to forward the knowledge and skills we pass on to our clients. So in with the new year and out with old. But… before we move forward with a wealth of new sales knowledge in 2012, let’s take a brief look back to see what mattered most to readers in 2011.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Rumors of Solution Selling's Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated</title><category term="Commentary"/><category term="Rumor"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/11/8/rumors-of-solution-sellings-demise-have-been-greatly-exagger.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/11/8/rumors-of-solution-sellings-demise-have-been-greatly-exagger.html"/><author><name>James N. Touchstone, Solution Selling® Product Mgr</name></author><published>2011-11-08T09:00:40Z</published><updated>2011-11-08T09:00:40Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[Solution Selling® has to weather the trendy selling phrases that pop up&#8230; &#8220;Provocative selling&#8221;&#8230; &#8220;Sales challenger&#8221;&#8230; &#8220;Outcome based selling&#8221;&#8230; (Insert your own trendy phrase here). The irony is that while all of those are relevant approaches, they’ve been approaches inherent in Solution Selling® for years.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>What’s YOUR “Strength of Sale?”</title><category term="BANT"/><category term="Commentary"/><category term="News"/><category term="Sales Success Formula"/><category term="Strength of Sale"/><category term="solution centric"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/10/14/whats-your-strength-of-sale.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/10/14/whats-your-strength-of-sale.html"/><author><name>Robert Kear, CMO</name></author><published>2011-10-14T08:01:02Z</published><updated>2011-10-14T08:01:02Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[Sales organizations are not very good at objectively assessing the probabilities of winning sales opportunities. By default, they spend more that 50% of their precious selling time on opportunities that are lost to competition or to “no decision.” There’s also a subtle, deeper problem with this issue. What the research is really telling us is that sales organizations are not applying process and structure to selling on a consistent basis, so they have no real way to understand where sales “quality” problems exist, and how to address them.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Exploring Impact and Growing the Sale</title><category term="Commentary"/><category term="SMB"/><category term="diagnosing customer pain"/><category term="pain"/><category term="solving customer problems"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/9/27/exploring-impact-and-growing-the-sale.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/9/27/exploring-impact-and-growing-the-sale.html"/><author><name>Nick Maslanka</name></author><published>2011-09-27T09:00:05Z</published><updated>2011-09-27T09:00:05Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[As sellers, we need to explore how a critical business issue flows through an organization. One person&#8217;s critical business issue can become the reason for someone else&#8217;s problem. This &#8220;pain&#8221; could be a problem, critical business issue, potential missed opportunity, or goal that anyone in the organization is trying to overcome.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Do You Really Understand Your Customer's Problems?</title><category term="Commentary"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><category term="consultative sales dialogue"/><category term="increasing sales"/><category term="sales pipeline"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/9/12/do-you-really-understand-your-customers-problems.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/9/12/do-you-really-understand-your-customers-problems.html"/><author><name>Nick Maslanka</name></author><published>2011-09-12T08:00:19Z</published><updated>2011-09-12T08:00:19Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[I have the opportunity to speak with the sales leaders for a lot of small and medium-sized businesses. One common sales challenge I have been hearing a lot lately is that sales people are not having consultative dialogues with the customer. As a result, sales cycles become longer or win rates drop. Let me paint the picture.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>From College to Account Director: Loni Bernhard</title><category term="Commentary"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><category term="sales best practices"/><category term="sales training"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/7/27/from-college-to-account-director-loni-bernhard.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/7/27/from-college-to-account-director-loni-bernhard.html"/><author><name>SPI</name></author><published>2011-07-27T05:01:00Z</published><updated>2011-07-27T05:01:00Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[Last week I interviewed a sales executive, we decided to continue the trend. This week I interviewed Loni Bernhard, Account Director at a national hotel and resort chain.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>30 Years of Experience and Counting, An Interview: John Winslow</title><category term="Commentary"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><category term="sales best practices"/><category term="sales training"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/7/20/30-years-of-experience-and-counting-an-interview-john-winslo.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/7/20/30-years-of-experience-and-counting-an-interview-john-winslo.html"/><author><name>SPI</name></author><published>2011-07-20T05:00:39Z</published><updated>2011-07-20T05:00:39Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[For our blog this week, I interviewed sales executive, John Winslow. John is currently the Vice President of International Sales for a billion-dollar orthopedic company. Since 1982 he&#8217;s worked in domestic and international sales for several Fortune 500 medical supply companies
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Selling Styles: Art or Science (A Love Story)</title><category term="CRM"/><category term="Commentary"/><category term="improving sales"/><category term="increasing sales"/><category term="sales process"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/7/13/selling-styles-art-or-science-a-love-story.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/7/13/selling-styles-art-or-science-a-love-story.html"/><author><name>SPI</name></author><published>2011-07-13T05:00:20Z</published><updated>2011-07-13T05:00:20Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[Should Sales Reps sell via ART or SCIENCE?
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Column Fodder</title><category term="Commentary"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><category term="column fodder"/><category term="improving sales"/><category term="increasing sales"/><category term="pain"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/6/22/column-fodder.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/6/22/column-fodder.html"/><author><name>Ken Cross, Business Development Manager</name></author><published>2011-06-22T08:00:51Z</published><updated>2011-06-22T08:00:51Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[Welcome to the world of column fodder - whether we are talking Mexican food or $1M software applications, if you aren’t first, then you have lot to live up to.  In the world of Solution Selling®, we call this an Active Opportunity (they are already working with another vendor, but feel that they need to do their due diligence) - you may or may not realize it, but this is very likely the majority of the deals in your pipeline.
]]></summary></entry><entry><title>Top 7 CRM Predictions for SMB’s in 2011</title><category term="CRM"/><category term="Commentary"/><category term="Mobile device"/><category term="ROI"/><category term="SMB"/><category term="Social Media"/><category term="improving sales"/><id>http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/6/15/top-7-crm-predictions-for-smbs-in-2011.html</id><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.solutionsellingblog.com/home/2011/6/15/top-7-crm-predictions-for-smbs-in-2011.html"/><author><name>SPI</name></author><published>2011-06-15T08:00:37Z</published><updated>2011-06-15T08:00:37Z</updated><summary type="html" xml:lang="en-US"><![CDATA[The seven things that I predict today’s small businesses will see-and should be looking for-in 2011 as they consider and adopt a CRM system.
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