It’s with gratitude and pride that I write this blog post, celebrating the 9 year anniversary of Carver Peterson. Milestones have always prompted me to pause & reflect and I wanted to take a moment to recognize some key people and say thank you to all of the leaders who have trusted me with their businesses & sales teams. I am immensely proud of where we are today, but I am also excited about what the future holds. My commitment to helping growth-minded leaders build high-performing sales teams remains unwavering. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey. Here's to the next nine years and beyond!

Raise your hand if you love doing role-plays. I know…just the thought can make your palms sweat. The organization I grew up in expected us to engage in two role-plays every single week, and I'll admit, I wasn't exactly thrilled about it. But here's the twist – over time, I came to realize just how fortunate I was to have this practice embedded in our culture. If you're curious about how to make role-plays (and other best practices) a valuable tool rather than a dreaded task, keep reading.

My father-in-law asked if I wanted to attend the Marquette basketball “open practice” and I immediately responded with YES! The Marquette University Golden Eagles are ranked #5 in the preseason polls and I’ve loved their Head Coach, Shaka Smart ever since he turned Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) into a basketball powerhouse in the early 2010s. My original expectations was a fun way to entertain our 3 young kids for the evening and maybe … just maybe… I might get to watch a little basketball. What I found, instead, was an absolute masterclass on leadership. In this blog post, I'll share what I learned from Shaka Smart's practice and how they can be applied to business.

Do you remember that game show “Let’s Make a Deal.” In a nutshell, the contestant was willing to trade away a prize to see what was behind Door #2. Sometimes it was a brand new car and sometimes it was a bathtub full of baked beans. When I decided to start my career in sales, I’m thankful that behind Door #2 was Burt Baptiste and Chris De Angelis, two of the very best at leading & managing people. Over the years, I’ve come to realize just how fortunate I was.

In the complex world of B2B sales, growth is a coveted objective. Companies aim to increase their market share, secure more clients, and, in general, become bigger players in their industries. However, before pursuing expansion, it's imperative for B2B sales teams to prioritize excellence and refinement in their operations. In this blog post, I will dive into the reasons why focusing on improving your B2B sales team before scaling up is not just a good idea, but a strategic necessity.

As a kid, I was convinced that I was going to play professional basketball. Fast forward the tape and I’m working as an entry level sales person at a staffing firm. It just… kind of… happened. At first, I was excited, but that enthusiasm quickly faded. I'm not sure I would've made it if it wasn't for some simple, yet profound advice. In this blog, I share the three principles that helped me turn from an Accidental Salesperson to a Sales Professional.

I thought I was going to be an awesome manager. Why? Well…because I knew what I “liked” and “didn’t like” as an employee. And because I was the captain of a couple teams in high school and held a few leadership positions in my fraternity. Okay…so not a ton of a experience, but a full-tank of confidence. Does that sound familiar? Unfortunately for my first direct report...I sucked. Ultimately, he was let go, not because of his incompetence, but due to mine. It was a humbling experience, one that taught me invaluable lessons about leadership, self-awareness, and personal growth. While I understand there is no better teacher than experience, my purpose & goal is to better equip and prepare first-time managers (or the leader of the 1st time manager) so we can limit the number of sacrificial lambs. In this blog, I'll share my journey and the crucial takeaways I gained from my early missteps as a first-time manager.

Nearly 1 out of every 3 salespeople turnover each year, according to LinkedIn, Hubspot, Forbes & Harvard Business Review. In my own research and study, I found that the vast majority of that turnover is happening in the 1st year within a new company. Regardless of their professional experience, a well-structured onboarding program is critical to ensure your new B2B salesperson gains the competence and confidence they need to succeed at selling your unique offering. Here are the top 10 recommendations for a successful onboarding process.

In the fast-paced and competitive landscape of B2B technical and professional services, making strategic decisions about your sales team's leadership is critical. Unfortunately, the sales manager role is a hard one to get right and one that commonly experiences turnover. One common dilemma faced by organizations is whether to promote their top-performing salesperson into a sales manager role. As the saying goes…the best salespeople don’t always make the best sales managers. This decision can significantly impact your team's performance and overall success. In this blog post, I’ll explore the pros and cons of promoting your star salesperson to a sales manager position.

For nearly a decade now, Scott Peterson has helped executive leaders build high-performing sales teams of their own. We met with him to talk about leadership and the impact of human-centered design... Read the interview or listen to a podcast version through "Do tank Presents."

Nearly 1 out of every 3 salespeople turnover each year, according to LinkedIn, Hubspot, Forbes & Harvard Business Review. In comparison, the average turnover rate for all professions is about 13%. That means, the turnover rate in sales is 3x higher. The big question is WHY? I reached out to our community of business leaders who are actively building / growing their B2B sales teams and asked them a series of questions specifically around their Year 1 salespeople’s expectations, performance and compensation. Here are some of the results, insights and my five top 5 recommendations to help your organization improve at screening, selecting, onboarding and retaining top sales talent in Year 1.

Sales Managers play a pivotal role in driving growth and profitability within B2B professional & technical services firms. However, their job is filled with unique challenges that demand creative solutions and strategic thinking. In this article, I’ll dive into the top five challenges faced by sales managers in these industries.

In my experience, the key to growth is winning, retaining & growing the “right” clients. But unfortunately, all-too-often, sales & marketing teams don’t have a clear definition of what the “right” client is. Resulting in time, energy & money focused on misaligned prospects and clients. This is a one way ticket to nowhere. When I started my consulting practice in 2014, I needed a way to simplify business development for entrepreneurs and developed this 2x2 matrix. This simple framework has become the centerpoint of my work and has helped many organizations grow in a sustainable way.

The average turnover among U.S. salespeople is around 30%, according to LinkedIn, Hubspot, Forbes & Harvard Business Review. I'm confident saying the majority of this turnover is coming from “new hires” within their first 12 months of employment. It’s hard to attract, screen and select the right candidate if you don’t have clarity of “what success looks like” for a salesperson within your unique organization. So why do you have such a generic job description?

As we speak, your sales, marketing and customer success teams are abusing precious time by pursuing misaligned prospects (vs. aligned prospect) and unknowingly “prioritizing” your worst clients (instead your best).

Let’s be honest. Most cold outreach sucks. It’s painfully clear and obvious when you are the recipient of a generic, automated, wide net email blast.

You have a small number of clients that are generating the vast majority of your revenue and profitability. However, it’s astonishing that you don’t act like it.

If they are not willing to schedule time to review your proposal live with you…they’re just not that into you.

Buying has become more complex. Based on CEB’s “The Challenger Customer”, on average there are now more than 5.4 stakeholders involved in the decision making process.

These are prospects who often go through the entire sales process, only to end up doing nothing. That means your sales team has invested, or more accurately wasted, precious time, energy and resources on an opportunity that eventually fizzled out. Ghosted!

As a salesperson, time is your most precious resource. How and where you invest your time largely determines your performance and your paycheck. The last thing you want to do is dedicate time, energy and resources into a prospect and opportunity that doesn’t close. Unfortunately, we’ve all been there before. And it hurts.

The buying journey has become much more complicated. There are more stakeholders involved, considering more options and with an abundance of information readily available. Sales organizations are investing more time with prospects but closing fewer deals.

You are making important strategic decision based on your sales pipeline and the information is inaccurate. It’s likely you have old, stale opportunities that need to be “washed” from your funnel.

It’s been my experience that when you meet someone who is going to change your life, you almost never know it as it’s happening.