AI can make your reps sound smarter, but it can’t make them better at selling.
On paper, things look great. The pipeline’s fat, full of “opportunities.” But dig deeper and you’ll find the same ugly truth: nothing’s moving. Deals have stalled. Decision-makers have vanished. And everyone’s pretending it’s fine. So what’s really going on here?
Sales today is bloated, broken, and bizarrely stuck in the past. Scripts from the '90s. Metrics that reward noise over value. Teams burning out while buyers burn bridges because they don't respect sales reps.And yet... we keep playing the same game.It’s time to blow it up.
Here's our library of previous articles we've published.
Ultimate Active Listening is designed to confirm that everyone is aligned and clear on what was discussed and the next steps. It is especially useful in remote teams where it is harder to informally check in on progress. It is also helpful in cross-cultural teams where there may be language difficulties. Use Ultimate Active Listening at the end of each call as away to drive clarity, prevent misunderstandings and confirm next steps. Here is how to do it.
Guest blog by Kyle Hegarty, Author of The Accidental Business Nomad: A Survival Guide for Working Across a Shrinking Planet. The most common mistake sales people make when selling into different parts of the world is that they sell the way they are used to in their home country. A company out of India who had a solid track record of sales success within India wrestled with this as they began to selling into the US.I was asked to look into what was going on. What I ended up doing was listening rather than looking because the problem was based on what the sales reps were saying and how they were saying it. Standard phrases in India would sometimes put foreign prospects off.
Recurring revenue with a bundle. Walla, it’s a rundle. What I was specifically wondering: does a rundle work the same way overseas? Is it repeatable globally?
Over the years I have put together a few tools to help business nomads as they go global. I call it The Global Survival Kit. To wrap up this book, I’d like to present some of the key ideas and tools I recommend packing into your Global Survival Kit. Many of the origins of these tools came from the people I’ve met and situations I’ve been through. And hopefully it won’t surprise you that it is constantly changing and adapting. Enjoy!
Due to Covid-19, Hegarty argues, globalization has just accelerated rapidly and these skills are needed now more than ever while Americans face entirely new challenges of doing business digitally at an unprecedented rate with cultures around the world.
Ever heard of a slapdragon? No, not the mythical beast - it's a particular breed of culturally ignorant, egotistical leader who sees local culture as an afterthought, if at all. Along with the infamous seagull, slapdragons are out there, mucking up business opportunities for global organizations. I learned about slapdragons and more from Kyle Hegarty in my latest podcast episode. Listen in for Kyle's hilarious and relatable take on global business as we discuss his fantastic new book, The Accidental Business Nomad and more.
Thank you Kyle Hegarty, author of The Accidental Business Nomad: A Survival Guide for Working Across a Shrinking Planet - who got us to better understand zigging and zagging as it relates to global team #leadership. Equal thanks to Gary Covert and Monique Daigneault, Executive Coach for completing our globinar discussion for executives yesterday... with plenty of insights, tips and timely case studies.
This virtual session looks at how call centers can adapt to international clients and end users. How do you train customer service reps to adapt to different communication styles?
Burnout is an invisible enemy. Here are some ideas to stay ahead of this growing threat.
Kyle sits down with Chris to discuss his new book as well as how companies are finding growth opportunities in new markets.
Has the COVID19 pandemic actually accelerated globalization? Catch my latest chat w/ @LeadershipNomad about his new book, "The Accidental Business Nomad: A Survival Guide for Working Across a Shrinking Planet." Listen here.
Whether you’re in the early stages of growing your team in APAC, or you’re ready to scale your efforts, successful global businesses have a deep understanding of the expectations of their international employees, and how to build a personalized, yet scalable employee experience that’s culturally relevant for their team members in their local region
This is a quick 7 minute radio interview where we discussed fun topics including why Americans can be confusing in overseas business settings.
Check out my recent episode on the Know Pain, Know Gain podcast with Jay Rooke. What is one thing you wish you knew before stepping into an overseas environment? Tune in as @JayRooke and @LeadershipNomad discuss this helpful stack of information to help you get through your new venture.
The Accidental Business Nomad goes on sale across North America tomorrow!
Enter for a chance to win 1 of 5 copies of The Accidental Business Nomad!
We are living and working in a shrinking world. Technology has allowed us to blur international lines and make connection and collaboration easier than ever. How we listen and understand our remote colleagues can hinder or propel us to our business success.
While overcoming language barriers, cultural nuances, different working styles, and logistics across a large geography can be overwhelming, the results are often just the opposite – reps struggle to prioritize their time, fail to learn key cultural nuances that could make them more effective, and miss targets they should be crushing. And because there’s no formal training about cross-cultural communications for sales teams, this topic is often overlooked by even experienced sales leaders.
Where will you be after this virus passes?Triathlons are my hobby. Training keeps me sane and I’ve got a tribe of fellow crazies who agree. We got together over the weekend to commiserate recent race cancellations and ended up drinking too much. It turned out in our altered states we agreed to sign up for a full Ironman distance race in June of 2021, fifteen months away.
This year Singapore began implementing major changes to their education curriculum by shifting the emphasis away from standardised tests towards building critical thinking skills. This is a smart move, but it will take years for the effects to benefit organisations who need these “future skills” today. Companies can’t wait that long.In today’s hyper-evolving workplace, employees no longer need to know textbook answers, they need to know how to ask the right questions.
My guest this episode is Kyle Hegarty, Singapore-based entrepreneur with an expertise in sales training and development. For years Kyle has worked with multinational and Asia-based sales teams and culled from this experience a treasure-trove of tales on what it takes to do business in this part of the world. His new book, soon to be released, is titled, The Accidental Business Nomad: A Survival Guide for Working Across A Shrinking Planet.
How to Work with Local Marketing Teams in APAC to Build a Global Brand
A simple idea global teams can learn from cross-border information sharing networks.
