As we celebrate our 50th anniversary this month, we thought it would be fitting to look back at the first Sales Stars column Brian Offenberger wrote for SDM back in 2015.

If you’ve been selling long enough, you probably know all the objections customers will use to not see you or to not buy from you. But do you know how to respond to them?

You need more leads and you need more sales. You come to realize you need help with your marketing.

Have your sales flatlined at your company? Are you unable to revive them? Do you feel like you couldn’t sell an air conditioner in Arizona in July?

I’ve been leading security industry sales teams since 1983 to record levels of achievement. Over the years I’ve learned a thing or two about managing sales teams.

Emily is a salesperson for a security company in Ohio that I am working with who was at the end of her rope. It seemed to her that no one was responding to her emails, at least not completely. She was discouraged and looking for solutions.

As I write this column our country is in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. Stay-at-home orders are in place, social distancing is the norm and uncertainty reigns supreme.