I really hate it when I end up paying more for something because I missed a deadline and I bet you’re the same way!
The other day, I announced a new online course with a special pre launch price that disappears today at 6:00 PM EST.
I thought I’d send this gently nudge to you all so […]

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Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

If there’s one thing you see lot’s of in sales, it’s extremes!
Take this business of the cold call for example . . .
There are some who believe you have no business being in sales if you aren’t going to make cold calls.
There are others who will do everything they can NOT to pick up a […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

When you live in a world with too much information being consumed and then you marry that with an attention span that hovers about 9 seconds . . .
You tend to scroll through things!
That’s great from a time management perspective but . . .
It may also mean that you are missing things.
And when you miss […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

If there’s one thing I’ve seen in 31 years of sales it’s people who cling to one or maybe two types of “touches” and meanwhile there’s a whole other world of options out there.
Let me be a tad more specific . . .
Beyond the phone and beyond email . . . What else do […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

I thought it might be useful to dissect a recent attempt by a sales rep to sell me advertising on one of the social networks.
And don’t worry, I don’t name names nor do I attack it in a way to make someone feel like an idiot.
Instead . . .
I talk about some serious mistakes that […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

Webster defines propinquity as “nearness of blood (kinship)” and “nearness in place and time”
You can create “nearness” and “kinship” by making sure you’re “showing up” regularly with your prospects (clients too).
Are you?
This is why your calls have to be scheduled  . . . so you stay up on that “nearness” thing!
Are you doing that or […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

I recently had what could best be described as a really nice “bro talk” with one of my clients who just had a really bad medical scare.
Everything turned out fine (thank God) and he told me how from this point on he was going to do all the things he spent a lifetime putting off.
Made […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

Every once in a while, when business isn’t where we’d like it to be, things tend to get to us.
I was speaking with one of my clients the other day and he expressed how frustrated he was with the lack of response he was getting on emails, calls, blog posts etc.
He joked with me and […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

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Yesterday, on The Sales Playbook Podcast, I announced that we would be changing the format for some of the episodes going forward.
While many other podcast hosts interview guests, I thought I’d offer something a little different.
Many of the guests on other podcasts make the rounds so it becomes pretty typical that you’ll hear the same […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

Today is a rather special day for me because I just crossed an important milestone . . .
The 100th episode of The Sales Playbook Podcast.
Truth be told, it’s also important  because it also marks the return of the podcast after a 6 month break.
During this time I had some time to reflect on some major […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

Us aspiring sales rock stars can be a proud bunch and as such we fail to do something that’s mission critical;
Ask for help!
We hesitate to ask other sales reps how they achieved a particular result because in doing so it sort of makes us feel inferior.
We fail to ask our manager for help because we […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

Us aspiring sales rock stars can be a proud bunch and as such we fail to do something that’s mission critical;
Ask for help!
We hesitate to ask other sales reps how they achieved a particular result because in doing so it sort of makes us feel inferior.
We fail to ask our manager for help because we […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

34 Gigabytes!
That’s how much content you consumed today according to a report published by the University of California, San Diego.
I wonder how much of that information is retained even a few hours later or better yet . . .
How much of the information turns into “action verbs” where we actually do something with it?
Action . […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

Many people will judge you not only on what you’ve done but on what you haven’t done.
You know, silly things like being available to your team and helping them become the best version of themselves!
Removing non performers or even . . .
Removing people who perform but they are a detriment to the team! (also known […]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).