WSJ and USA Today Bestselling author of The Growth Leader and two other books. Founder of Edinger Consulting. Forbes and HBR contributor.
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Scott Edinger
3 formas de potenciar al equipo de ventas de su empresa
Cuando hay incertidumbre en los mercados y presión sobre el crecimiento, los ejecutivos suelen presionar al equipo de ventas para que redoble sus esfuerzos, convencidos de que, si aumentan los indicadores de actividad comercial, los resultados no tardarán en llegar. En el contexto actual, esa presión es aún mayor. El crecimiento es más difícil de generar, los costos siguen siendo elevados y las expectativas de rendimiento continúan siendo exigentes.
3 Ways to Supercharge Your Company’s Sales Organization
3 Ways to Supercharge Your Company’s Sales Organization March 30, 2026 When there is uncertainty in markets and pressure on growth, executives often push the sales organization to do more, believing that if sales activity metrics rise, results will follow. In the current environment, that pressure is greater. Growth is harder to generate, costs remain elevated, and performance expectations remain demanding.
Compensation Is A Poor Substitute For Leadership
When CEOs discuss sales performance, the focus almost always turns to compensation—how much, in what form, and for what behaviors. This happens for two reasons: one practical, and one that’s quietly counterproductive. The practical reason is straightforward. In most B2B companies, compensation is the largest line item in the sales budget. It’s a significant cost that must be effectively managed.
Ganarse a los clientes adecuados no es sólo una cuestión de ventas
Si quiere liderar el crecimiento, su organización de ventas debe comprender claramente su estrategia de comercialización. Esto comienza con el CEO y los miembros del equipo ejecutivo, y la forma en que comunican la estrategia. Luego, se transmite a todos los niveles de liderazgo de ventas de la empresa. Esto es lo que debe comunicar a su organización de ventas para asegurarse de que estén preparados para ejecutar la estrategia de la empresa en cada interacción con clientes y prospectos. 1.
Winning the Right Customers Isn’t Just a Sales Issue
Does your organization sell what you want, to whom you want, the way you want? Or do you have too many instances of selling whatever you can, to whomever you can, however you can? If your strategy is built on winning in specific target markets with solutions you’ve invested in to drive high-margin growth, the latter approach undermines that focus. Source link
Winning the Right Customers Isn't Just a Sales Issue
By Does your organization sell what you want, to whom you want, the way you want? Or do you have too many instances of selling whatever you can, to whomever you can, however you can? If your strategy is built on winning in specific target markets with solutions you've invested in to drive high-margin growth, the latter approach undermines that focus.
3 errores que debe evitar al establecer incentivos para equipos de ventas
Cuando se habla del rendimiento en ventas, es casi un reflejo pavloviano que los ejecutivos mencionen la compensación como el principal impulsor del éxito. Esto no es sorprendente, dado que en la mayoría de las empresas B2B, la compensación representa la partida más grande en el presupuesto de ventas. Sin embargo, la idea de que los profesionales de ventas son "movidos por monedas", es decir, motivados únicamente por incentivos financieros, es obsoleta y algo ofensiva.
LEADING STRATEGY EXECUTION
The author, who is recognized as an expert in the intersection of leadership, strategy, and sales, contends that “if leaders are going to successfully drive the execution of their organization’s strategy, they need to strike the right balance of defining the work to be done and providing the boundaries for how it will be done.” He notes that for “leading strategy execution, I employ a model called magnets and milestones, a simple metaphorical model that offers a bridge from the strategy...
Close The Gap Between C-Suite and Sales
The relationship that the executives and other leaders have with the sales organization is among the most important elements of growth leadership. Very often, that relationship is distant and limited. With more frequency than I’d like to admit, I’ve seen it as adversarial. And it nearly always lacks a strategic connection. Research on executive involvement with customers and the sales organization fortifies these observations.
Leading Your Business From Surviving To Thriving
For the past few years, businesses have been in survival mode. Executives have had their hands full just keeping their business afloat while weathering the pandemic, labor issues, supply chain problems, rising interest rates, recession, and more. As a leader, your job is not to simply maintain the status quo. To thrive, an organization must grow. In my new book The Growth Leader, I highlight strategies for leaders to drive top- and bottom-line results.
5 questions leaders should ask their teams to prepare for 2024
By Scott Edinger8 minute Read Throughout history, flags have been used to communicate. They communicate boundaries, rules, directions, targets, and so forth. When everyone playing and watching understands what they are for, the flags—like any other form of communication—create a shared understanding. Think of the flags used today in the sport of auto racing. They are clear, emphatic communication devices about action and direction.
The Hidden Differentiator In Sales
The sales organization is always naturally more distant from the C-suite than many other functions. But the sales function is also closest to the customer. They speak to customers every day, on every call. If you accept the natural distance between sales and leadership, you also admit a huge—and costly—distance between leadership and customers.
Kurumsal İtibar Nedir?
X Üye Girişi Üye Ol PAROLAMI UNUTTUM “ÜYE OL” butonuna basarak üyeliğinize ait Şartlar ve Koşulları, Gizlilik Politikası ile KVKK Aydınlatma Metni’ni okuduğunuzu ve HBR Türkiye tarafından size özel oluşturulan hizmet, kampanya ve promosyonlara yönelik elektronik posta almayı kabul etmiş sayılırsınız. E-bülten aboneliğinden dilediğiniz zaman çıkabilirsiniz. Parola sıfırlama linki e-mail adresinize gönderilecektir.
Liderlerin Konuşmalarında ve Sunumlarında Kullandığı 10 Retorik Teknik - Harvard Business Review Türkiye
X Üye Girişi Üye Ol PAROLAMI UNUTTUM “ÜYE OL” butonuna basarak üyeliğinize ait Şartlar ve Koşulları, Gizlilik Politikası ile KVKK Aydınlatma Metni’ni okuduğunuzu ve HBR Türkiye tarafından size özel oluşturulan hizmet, kampanya ve promosyonlara yönelik elektronik posta almayı kabul etmiş sayılırsınız. E-bülten aboneliğinden dilediğiniz zaman çıkabilirsiniz. Parola sıfırlama linki e-mail adresinize gönderilecektir.
Verilere Hayat Veren Bir Liderlik Modeli
X Üye Girişi Üye Ol PAROLAMI UNUTTUM “ÜYE OL” butonuna basarak üyeliğinize ait Şartlar ve Koşulları, Gizlilik Politikası ile KVKK Aydınlatma Metni’ni okuduğunuzu ve HBR Türkiye tarafından size özel oluşturulan hizmet, kampanya ve promosyonlara yönelik elektronik posta almayı kabul etmiş sayılırsınız. E-bülten aboneliğinden dilediğiniz zaman çıkabilirsiniz. Parola sıfırlama linki e-mail adresinize gönderilecektir.
Adapting Your Sales Approach in a Downturn
There has been plenty of debate over whether the U.S. economy is in a recession. Regardless of the technical definitions and economic perspectives, many organizations see challenging headwinds on the horizon. Even if companies aren’t feeling the economic pinch yet, they will be more skittish when it comes to spending when news cycles predict doom and gloom. As customers become more reticent to buy, your sales approach must change.
Leading Powerful Meetings Requires Addition By Subtraction
A new client recently told me that he felt the meeting he had just attended was a waste of time. The problem was that it was his meeting. He had invited the attendees, set the agenda, and led the meeting. I suggested that he would have to look in the mirror to solve the problem. Executives face a conundrum when it comes to meetings: most people say they hate meetings, yet scheduling a meeting is the widely accepted default for getting things done.
İyi Liderler Gerçeklikle Savaşılamayacağını Bilirler
X Üye Girişi Üye Ol PAROLAMI UNUTTUM “ÜYE OL” butonuna basarak üyeliğinize ait Şartlar ve Koşulları, Gizlilik Politikası ile KVKK Aydınlatma Metni’ni okuduğunuzu ve HBR Türkiye tarafından size özel oluşturulan hizmet, kampanya ve promosyonlara yönelik elektronik posta almayı kabul etmiş sayılırsınız. E-bülten aboneliğinden dilediğiniz zaman çıkabilirsiniz. Parola sıfırlama linki e-mail adresinize gönderilecektir.
Motivating People Starts with Building Emotional Connections
If you want to inspire and motivate others to achieve high levels of performance, tap into the power of emotion. In the research for our book, The Inspiring Leader, my coauthors and I analyzed 360-degree survey data on 25,000 leaders. We discovered that those who were most inspiring (the top 10% of the group) had something unique in common: their ability to establish a strong emotional connection with their employees.
How Leaders Fight Skimpflation
You may not be able to do anything about the devaluing of currency and inflation. And while the broader issue of stagflation – higher than usual unemployment and stagnant demand in the economy – is what all the financial gurus are focused on, there’s little that individual businesses can do to change these trends. But don’t underestimate the role of leaders in fighting “Skimpflation.” Even if you haven’t heard of Skimpflation, I bet you’ve experienced it.
Smart Growth For Your Sales Organization
Leading the transformation from a transactional business to selling broader solutions is a major challenge for most companies. Especially when you have a sales organization that is already very good at what they do. So how do you communicate and execute on your vision for the organization? It starts with a change in mindset –– a different mental model.
(HBm+) Wie Führungskräfte die Realität akzeptieren lernen
Foto: Johanna-Maria Fritz / OSTKREUZ Weiterlesen mit Harvard Business manager+ Das Wissen der Besten – zu den wichtigen Fragen rund um Führung, Strategie und Management. Wir liefern Ihnen Knowhow aus den renommiertesten Hochschulen der Welt, anschaulich und umsetzbar für Ihren Alltag als Führungskraft.
Is Your Sales Team Struggling to Sell Solutions?
One of the most common concerns expressed by CEOs about their sales organization is that they aren’t consultative enough and that they need to do a better job of selling solutions.
Avoid These 3 Sales Performance Stumbles
Often, success is a culmination of multiple elements working together flawlessly. Think about a car, which has a variety of parts that each serve a critical function. Ignore a rattling sound coming from under the hood for long enough, and it’s likely just a matter of time before you end up broken down. Just a single failure point could spell disaster for even the most thoughtfully designed sales teams and strategies.
Are Workstreams Driving Your Strategy?
Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels Leading strategy execution requires executives to focus on managing results instead of managing tasks. This is a fundamental shift for many leaders. A few years ago, I was scoping a strategy execution project with the COO of a Fortune 500 company. The company was in the middle of a large transformation project, working with a small army of consultants from a huge firm.
Good Leaders Know You Can’t Fight Reality
The ability to accept reality is one of the most useful, and most misunderstood, skills for a leader. It’s a concept that has been around for centuries in philosophy and more recently in psychology, and properly applied can help drive change. As Carl Jung wrote, “We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” But I don’t see acceptance applied enough by leaders today as a valuable tool for achieving better results.
Encourage Your Employees to Give You Critical Feedback
It’s been 10 years since I co-authored the HBR article “Making Yourself Indispensable,” with John H. Zenger and Joseph Folkman. In the article we provided a model to get useful and actionable feedback on one’s leadership effectiveness, and how to uniquely develop your strengths in those areas.
Building A High-Performance Solution Sales Organization
Photo by fauxels from Pexels The number one thing I hear from C-Suite leaders about their Sales organization: they want their sales team to be better at selling solutions, and to from a transactional approach to a consultative approach. Remarkably, I was hearing the same thing from executives ten, even twenty years ago. Why aren’t sales professionals better at this already?
Are You Paying Attention to the Right Sales Metrics?
Executives are responsible for the future value of any business. So, having a useful dashboard of leading indicators that are predictive of the overall health of the revenue stream is a valuable asset. Rather than “measuring to prove” with the typical data found in forecasts, take a rigorous, in-depth look at what could be improved within your sales process.
Do Your Company’s Sales Calls Reflect Your Strategy?
Photo by Jim Reardan on Unsplash I recently met with an EVP of a Fortune 25 company to discuss his growth strategy. Specifically, we talked about their expansion in a new market segment with a line of highly specialized products. As we discussed the revenue forecast, he became irate with the kind of companies the sales team had been pursuing. “I have no idea why we’re calling on many of these companies!” A lot of the targets did not fit the profile outlined in the company’s go-to-market strategy.
The Future Of The Solution Sale
Photo by Snapwire from Pexels It is stunning to realize that the ideas and practices of consultative selling and the solution sale have been around for more than four decades. As “selling solutions” and “consultative selling” became popular ideas, many companies began describing their offerings as solutions. Products, services, and capabilities all blended together to become solutions.
The Future Of Sales Leadership
A critical issue for companies that limits their growth potential for the future is a lack of great Sales leadership. I’ve seen this to be the case in companies I’ve worked with in the Fortune 500 all the way to venture backed startups and every size in between. Tom Wallace, Managing Partner of Venture Capital firm Florida Funders, recently told me that "Getting the right person to lead Sales” was the biggest issue for growth across their portfolio of more than 50 companies.
What an Effective Client-Referral Strategy Looks Like
Nothing builds new business more reliably than a sustained effort in gaining referrals from existing clients. What’s more, as a marketing approach to fill the “top of the funnel,” it is more likely to succeed than other campaigns and carries virtually no incremental costs. The author offers three ways to accelerate revenue through referrals. There is no better source of leads and revenue than referrals that come from a company’s clients.
Pandemic Proof Your Sales Organization For 2021
Photo by Startup Stock Photos from Pexels Many businesses are more than happy to see the year 2020 come to an end after facing the enormous challenges of pandemic, quarantine, recession, supply chain issues, and the list goes on. Restoring growth in revenue and net income during the year ahead will require company leaders to fundamentally change the way they think about their Sales Organization.
4 Ways to Reconfigure Your Sales Strategy During the Pandemic
Morning Brew/Unsplash It has become clear that we won’t be back to “business as usual” anytime soon. A few months ago, the changes to the workplace brought on by Covid-19 were viewed as a temporary adjustment — something we needed to endure for a few months before the inevitable return to commuting, offices, and face-to-face meetings.
An Ancient Formula For Executive Presence That Works Today
Andrea PIacquadio In my work as an executive advisor and coach with corporate leaders, one topic that regularly comes up is executive presence. Leaders are universally concerned about how they show up and interact with others, from the Boardroom to the front lines of their business. As humans, we’ve intuitively understood for thousands of years that there is an “it” factor when it comes to leadership that separates the excellent from the average.
Would Customers Pay for Your Sales Calls?
When I speak to audiences of sales professionals and ask, “How many of you sell value versus price?” everyone raises their hand. But my next question “So how do you do that?” is frequently followed by an uncomfortable silence. Many consider themselves to be value sellers but few are able to articulate what that really means. In the simple economics 101 definition, value equals benefits minus cost: V=B-C.
Learn to Solicit Feedback … from Your Kids
Thomas Barwick/Getty Images Understanding how others experience us is an important tool for change. That’s true in the workplace and especially at home, where we’re often so busy being parents and partners that it’s easy to overlook the impact we have on others. How can we measure how we’re doing as parents? What work tools might we adapt to use at home?
How to Convince Your Sales Team to Adopt a Subscription Model
In these difficult times, we’ve made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter. If there is a lesson in the current unpredictable economic environment, it’s the importance of recurring revenue streams for businesses of all kinds. Having a subscription product or service that customers will reload, renew, or reorder repeatedly can smooth intermittent cashflow and keep a business alive.
How Leaders Can Increase Engagement While People Are Working From Home
Virtual meeting Image by Tumisu from Pixabay Even as companies have some employees returning to the office, nothing about our current circumstances is optimal. While people work from home all over the world, leaders need to understand that there is a tremendous opportunity to increase employee engagement and commitment right now. I share this, not as a theory or some Pollyanna plea to make lemonade from lemons.
Prepare Your Sales Organization For Future Growth Now
business growth Pixabay.com While some industries like teleworking software and online technical support are thriving during the COVID-19 Crisis, most of the world is experiencing major disruptions to normal business volume. Social distancing parameters and uncertainty about the future have created a lull in sales for many companies, with buyers only purchasing the essentials required to operate today.
Lead Your Sales Team Through Uncertain Times
Sean Murphy/Getty Images We’ve made our coronavirus coverage free for all readers. To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter. My first tour of duty as a VP of sales coincided with the onset of the 2001 recession. Often referred to as the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the recession worsened after the 9/11 attacks, and while the economy technically recovered in the fourth quarter of that year, unemployment continued to climb.
If You Want to Communicate Better, Read This.
In the academy award-winning movie The Kings Speech, the difference in King George VI ability to lead came down to his ability to communicate.
What CEOs Should Focus On In Revenue Forecasts
What CEOs Should Focus On In Revenue Forecasts Pixaby When CEOs and Senior Executives look at revenue forecasts, they tend to be myopically focused on figures for the current quarter or even month. That’s a mistake. It neglects the early pipeline stages and the progressions in sales cycles that determine future value. It’s short-term thinking at its worst and puts the health of the company’s revenue stream at risk. If you just want to have the current quarter number reported to you, read no further.
Two Hallmarks Of Executive Level Communication
Executive level communication Photo by energepic.com from Pexels Many leaders could do a better job of communicating. But most don’t even try. Not because they don’t care or aren’t capable. Rather, because they are simply not sure where to begin when it comes to improving their communication.
Transformation In 2020 Succeeds One Customer At A Time
neon signage Photo by Ivan Bertolazzi from Pexels “Transformation” may be the most overused term in business today. It has become corporate speak for anything involving change, yet a majority of so-called transformative initiatives are actually subtle changes or simply cost reductions masquerading as revolution. The intent of a true transformation effort is to reshape the organization, usually to drive top and bottom-line improvements.
Why Companies Struggle to Sell Solutions
Overcoming Pixabay A shift from selling products to selling solutions is a common strategy for companies looking to boost their bottom line. Over the past two decades, I’ve worked with many companies trying to implement this approach, bundling products and services to form a solution to their customers’ needs as a way to sell more and sell at a higher margin. What many leaders overlook is the impact this change in their business model will have on the sales organization.
3 Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team - Without Stressing Them Out
C. J. Burton/Getty Images It’s widely accepted that if you are in sales, you will have a quota. Achieve your quota, good job. Miss your quota, bad job. Miss your quota by a lot or miss it multiple times: no job. This creates stress for individual sellers and the sales organization as a whole. Plenty of jobs are stressful and have objective measures of achievement. But there is a special kind of stress reserved for the sales function.
Three Paths To Increase Revenue and Margins
Profits Pixels If you lead an organization or a business unit, odds are you have at least one objective related to growing your top line or improving the bottom line. The task is deceptively difficult. The goal to increase revenue (and/or improve margins) is a clear mandate but, practically speaking, one that is very difficult to execute consistently across an entire organization.
Weekly Round-Up: 5 Leadership Communication Lessons, How to Be a Leader, Why Introverts Make Great Leaders, Making Internal Comms Interactive, How to Clarify Your Corporate Strategy
Welcome to my weekly round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts. 5 Priceless Leadership Communication Lessons Learned the Hard Way By Art Petty (@artpetty via @SmartBrief), SmartBrief Five lessons the author learned – sometimes the hard way – over two decades of leading and guiding others.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Scott
Contact Scott, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack