Author Archives: Brian Gardner

We’ve all heard plenty of statistics about how the millennial generation is impacting distributors from the buyer side; the trends of millennials being more likely to buy products online and of millennials having growing influence in B2B buying have attracted plenty of attention.

I often tell companies searching for a CRM vendor that finding the right CRM partner – and building a long-lasting, successful relationship with them – is a lot like a marriage. Here are some tips to make that “marriage” strong

I spoke last week at the Sales GPS Executive Workshop in Austin, hosted by MDM and Indian River Consulting Group. I talked with distribution leaders there about how many distribution companies proudly consider themselves to be quoting machines. 

When consulting with distributors implementing CRM technology, I’m often involved in the training of the sales team. I like to start each sales team training session with this question: “Why do you think your company is moving forward with CRM?”

On Tuesday, I presented an MDM webcast on long-term CRM success, just two days after the Patriots won Super Bowl LI. I couldn’t resist drawing a parallel between a contributor to their success and a characteristic of successful sales teams: teamwork.

Managing CRM according to the status quo will only yield status-quo results. I’ll be presenting three focus areas you can focus on for long-term success with CRM in my upcoming Feb. 7 webcast with MDM.com. It’s free: Register today.

The most common CRM-related problems I’ve found for companies over the years revolve around sales processes. For example, most industrial sales organizations are giving nonqualified leads to the sales team with no follow-up process, resulting in wasted effort.

I’m pleased to announce I will be presenting Day 2 of Louisiana State University’s Advanced Professional Sales Certificate Program, which will run April 10-11, 2017.

I’ll share how to fuse sales process improvements and CRM to gain an edge over the competition. This interactive workshop will provide best practices to help sales executives drive organic growth.

Learn more about the certificate program on the LSU website.

I’m excited to announce I’ll be a featured speaker at the first Sales GPS 2017 conference on March 1-2 in Austin, co-hosted by Modern Distribution Management and Indian River Consulting Group.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by CRM.

But rather than let technology get in the way of better process, I’ve learned that the most effective way for industrial sales organizations to get the most from CRM is to approach it systematically— with sales process top of mind.