ASLAN Training

Ep. 248: Truth #13 - The Best Way to Respond To Objections is with Truth

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:15:00 GMT

A tough sales objection creates an almost immediate instinct to respond.

The buyer questions the price, challenges the value, says a competitor is better, or tells you your solution will not work. The seller hears the concern and reaches for an answer: the proof point, the case study, the practiced objection response, or the company-approved explanation for why the buyer should reconsider.

In Truth #14 of Sales with ASLAN’s 30 Truths for 30 Years series, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris unpack a deceptively simple principle: The best way to respond to an objection is with the truth.

Sales Process vs. Sales Methodology: Why the Distinction Determines Whether Training Sticks

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 20:37:56 GMT

A sales process and a sales methodology solve different problems, and training only works when it's built for the one that's actually missing.

Some teams are missing the process itself: stages nobody agrees on, a CRM nobody trusts, cadence that never happens. Others have an airtight process and still lose buyers who go quiet, because nothing in that process explains why.

Training built for the wrong one might bump results for a few weeks before fading back to where they started.

The Q3 Sales Coaching Moves That Set Q4 Up for Success

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 20:41:14 GMT

In the first weeks of August, a manager has about eight weeks to turn a new capability into something reliable before Q4 hits.

If that window closes without action, the capability a team needs under Q4 pressure won't be there when the pressure arrives. Most managers aren't skipping that work because they don't care. They're buried in forecast calls and live-deal fires, and coaching quietly turns into a reactive message after a bad call instead of a real development cycle.

Eight weeks is real time, but it's narrow, and the math behind it changes what a manager should actually do this month.

Ep. 248: Truth #12 - Drop the Rope®

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:00:00 GMT

When a customer challenges your recommendation, questions your price, or says your solution will not work, the natural response is to defend your position.

You explain the evidence. You share another success story. You clarify what the customer misunderstood. When that fails, you strengthen the argument.

The seller may be completely right, but the conversation is still moving in the wrong direction. The problem is not always the strength of the seller’s case. It is whether the customer is open to hearing it.

3 Ways to Elevate Sales Training for Manufacturing

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:00:00 GMT

Manufacturing sales training works when it's built around how manufacturing deals actually happen. Generic training isn't.

Specs get locked by engineering before a vendor's phone even rings. The people who actually decide whether to buy rarely show up on an org chart. And the manager who's supposed to coach reps through all of that is also running the floor.

Here's how to build training around each of those three realities.

3 Ways to Motivate a Sales Team as Buyers Get Harder to Reach

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:45:00 GMT

Buyers are getting harder to reach, and it has nothing to do with how hard your team is working. Left unexplained, though, a team won't read it that way. Unexplained failure gets read as personal, with reps defaulting to "I'm bad at this" or "our approach doesn't work."

Sometimes that's true. Often, something else is actually driving it.

That's the actual lever for motivation here. Not encouragement, and not more activity. A specific, controllable explanation for what changed, one that replaces self-blame with something the rep can actually act on.

Three shifts are behind this, and each one has a specific, controllable response.

Ep. 248: Truth #11 - Your Metamessage is The Real Message

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 29 Jul 2026 13:15:00 GMT

When we talk about sales conversations, we often focus solely on the words you physically say.

What questions should a seller ask? How should they explain value? Which framework should they follow? What should they say when the customer pushes back?

Those things matter. But the words are only part of what the customer receives.

Every conversation also carries a metamessage, or the meaning communicated through your tone, expression, attention, posture, timing, and apparent motive. A seller may ask a technically correct question, but if the customer hears pressure, impatience, or self-interest underneath it, the metamessage can overpower the words.

The message is what you say. The metamessage is what the other person believes you mean.

And in many sales conversations, the metamessage is the real message.

How to Improve Sales Performance in a Tough Market

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 02:37:24 GMT

A tough market doesn't change who's accountable for the number.

Cycles are longer, buying committees are bigger, and closing a deal takes more work than it did two years ago. If market conditions alone explained a soft quarter, every rep in the same territory, working the same accounts, would post similar results, and they don't. That gap is where the actual answer lives, not in the market headlines.

Here's how to improve sales performance without waiting for the market to turn around: find out exactly what's broken, and fix the specific version of the problem you actually have.

Sales Coaching ROI: How to Connect Coaching to Measurable Business Impact

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 13:00:00 GMT

If you're the one pushing for investment in coaching training, you're also the one who has to defend it later.

A business case that only answers why the investment makes sense goes quiet the moment someone asks about sales coaching ROI: whether it actually worked.

Proof that answers both questions from day one is gathered once, not rebuilt after the fact.

How to Coach Manufacturing Reps to Drive Demand

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:00:00 GMT

Manufacturing buyers now do most of their homework before a rep ever gets a meeting, and that has quietly rewritten what it takes to win their business.

They arrive informed, technically fluent, and often actively trying to avoid a sales conversation altogether. Most reps respond by explaining products to buyers who already know the specs. What buyers actually need is help turning all that research into a confident decision.

Closing that gap comes down to five specific behaviors sales leaders can coach for, the same ones that separate reps who create demand from reps who just manage it.

EP. 247: Truth #10 - You Can't Improve What You Can't See (Blind Spots 101)

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 12:57:42 GMT

We all have a sign above our heads. Other people can see it, but we cannot.

That sign may reveal strengths we underestimate, habits that limit us, or blind spots we have carried for years without realizing they are there. Unless someone helps us see what is written on it, we are likely to keep making the same mistakes, underusing our strengths, or working on the wrong things entirely.

That is why one of the most valuable habits a seller, manager, or leader can develop is also one of the hardest: seek feedback before you think you need it.

How to Enable Your Managers to Coach for Sales Performance

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 22:19:58 GMT

Managers who are willing to coach for sales performance still won't do it consistently unless leadership builds the system underneath it.

In most cases, the mandate to develop reps isn't the gap. Managers know they're supposed to coach, but knowing isn't the same as having a way to do it consistently under real pressure. Without that, managers end up improvising their own approach on top of an already full quota, and coaching quietly reverts to whatever gets the next deal closed.

Here are the three levers a sales leader can put in place so that sales coaching is achievable for managers and effective for sales teams focused on achieving more.

Sales Management Performance: Are Your Managers Developing Teams or Just Managing Them?

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 16:30:00 GMT

You can't measure sales management performance by whether the team hits its number. Why? Because quota is a lagging, binary outcome: it tells you the team got there at all, not how they achieved it.

A manager can produce that same result by building reps who close on their own, or by personally stepping in and closing the gap themselves, and the dashboard sees success either way. That's exactly why quota alone can't tell you which of your managers is actually developing their team and which one is just managing it in place.

Here's the framework that actually tells you the difference, and how to check for it in your next 1:1.

How to Earn Buyer Engagement in 2026: A Research Briefing for Sales Leaders

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 01:38:46 GMT

Most sales leaders already sense that something has shifted in how buyers engage.

In a recent webinar, ASLAN CEO Tom Stanfill and VP of Enterprise John Cerqueira unpacked findings from a double-blind study of 499 B2B buyers and 441 B2B sellers, examining how AI has changed buying behavior and what sellers need to do about it.

The data points to three findings with direct implications for how you build, coach, and develop your team.

Watch the recording here:

Sales Coaching vs. Sales Training: Which Does Your Team Actually Need?

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 13:41:08 GMT

Most development investments don't fail because of bad training or bad coaching. They fail because the two aren't connected, or because leaders are applying one where the other is needed.

That disconnect is expensive. Reps leave training with a shared language, but no coaching rhythm to reinforce it. Managers want to help, but without a clear structure, they default to advice, deal inspection, or whatever feels most urgent that week. Over time, the same pattern shows up in the field: reps understand the approach, but under pressure, they revert to the behavior that feels easiest.

Training and coaching solve different problems. They work at different points in rep development and break down in different ways when they're missing or misapplied. Getting the relationship between them right is one of the highest-leverage decisions a sales leader can make.

How to Build the Capabilities Behind Effective Objection Handling

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:14:02 GMT

The teams that handle objections well don't have better responses. They have sellers who can do three specific things, and the difference shows up before, during, and after the moment a buyer pushes back.

Those capabilities are learnable and coachable, but they don't develop from script practice alone. Enablement leaders who understand what each one looks like in practice are in the best position to build it.

Here are the three capabilities that separate teams that handle objections well from teams that don't.

Overcoming Objections in Sales: Is It a Capability Gap or Something Else?

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 23:07:16 GMT

When reps struggle with overcoming objections in sales, the instinct is to look for a better technique.

Training often produces early improvement, then the old behavior returns the moment buyers push back under real pressure. The cycle tends to survive another round of training.

Getting the diagnosis right changes the game.

Ep. 246: Truth #9 Discipline is Greater Than Talent

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:00:04 GMT

Discipline beats talent in sales because talent may create early momentum, but discipline creates repeatable results.

That is the simple truth behind the latest episode of Sales with ASLAN. It is not the flashiest idea in the series, and it is not new to most leaders. But it may be one of the most important reminders for sales organizations trying to improve performance, especially when teams are surrounded by more tools, more messaging, and more pressure than ever before.

The best sellers are not always the most charismatic, naturally gifted, or quick on their feet. They are often the ones who know what matters, build a plan around it, and consistently do the work other sellers avoid.

Why Objection Handling Training Backfires (And How to Get It Right)

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 28 May 2026 20:30:00 GMT

The problem with most objection handling training isn't that reps didn't absorb it. It's that the training gave them the wrong model.

When the model is wrong, better execution of it doesn't help. It accelerates the failure. Most programs teach reps what to say when a buyer pushes back. What they need to build first is the ability to diagnose what's actually happening before they say anything at all.

Here's what's missing, and what changes outcomes.

Ep. 245: Truth #8: Attention Follows Need or Novelty

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 28 May 2026 15:53:26 GMT

In a crowded market, attention is harder to earn than ever. Buyers are overwhelmed by emails, messages, meetings, AI-generated outreach, and competing priorities, so generic sales messaging gets filtered out quickly.

In this episode of Sales with ASLAN, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris continue the “30 Truths for 30 Years” series with a simple but critical idea: attention follows need and novelty.

They unpack why buyers pay attention to what is already on their “whiteboard,” how sellers can create relevance before asking for time, and why a disruptive truth can break through when product-centered messaging falls flat.

What Buyer Objections Reveal About Your Sales Team

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 21 May 2026 23:03:10 GMT

When sellers mishandle buyer objections, the problem is rarely that they need a sharper rebuttal.

Most teams are coached to respond to the objection the buyer states: price, timing, fit, or competition. But those objections often reveal something deeper about the conversation, including whether the seller created enough receptivity for the buyer to evaluate the recommendation honestly. If the buyer is emotionally closed, more proof, more logic, or a better answer can create more resistance.

To coach objection handling effectively, leaders need to help sellers diagnose what the objection is really signaling before they decide how to respond.

What Seller Confidence Is Actually Telling You Right Now

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 14 May 2026 22:03:00 GMT

Most sales leaders treat rep confidence as a leading indicator, a sign the team believes in the approach and expects to perform. Right now, it may be the least reliable signal they have.

ASLAN's 2026 Buyer & Seller Insight Report surveyed 441 B2B sellers and 499 B2B buyers and found that 97% of sellers expected to hit quota. According to Gong benchmarks, 46% of sellers actually hit quota in 2025, down from 52% the year before. Confidence is climbing. Results aren't following.

That gap points to a specific problem in how most organizations are reading their teams.

Ep. 244: Truth #7: Top Sellers Focus on Identifying Barriers, Not Closing

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 14 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Most sellers think advancing an opportunity means getting the buyer to say yes. Top sellers know it means understanding what could keep the buyer from moving forward.

That is why Truth #7 in ASLAN’s 30 Truths for 30 Years series is simple: to advance effectively, focus on barriers, not closing. In this episode of SALES with ASLAN, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris unpack why sales conversations often stall at the finish line, why pressure rarely works, and how sellers can create clearer next steps by helping buyers navigate the decision in front of them.

Closing is not about forcing commitment. It is about identifying what still needs to happen for the buyer to make a confident decision.

What Buyers Reward, and What Sales Leaders Inspect Instead

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 07 May 2026 18:01:13 GMT

Most sales leaders inspect whether their sellers can pitch well. But ASLAN's 2026 Buyer & Seller Insight Report, a double-blind survey of 499 B2B buyers and 441 B2B sellers, suggests buyers have moved the bar somewhere else entirely.

Buyers aren't evaluating sellers on product knowledge or presentation quality first. They're evaluating whether the seller understands their world well enough to be worth engaging at all. And most teams haven't caught up to that shift.

Here's what that means for how leaders develop and inspect their teams.

Ep. 243: Truth #6: Customers Trust Partners, Not Reps

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 07 May 2026 16:11:27 GMT

In the latest episode of Sales with ASLAN, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris unpack new research from nearly 500 buyers and 500 sellers.

The headline is simple, but uncomfortable: buyers don’t need sellers for information the way they used to. AI, digital research, peer networks, and internal buying committees have changed the role of the rep. But that doesn’t mean sellers matter less.

It means the standard for earning trust has gone way up, which means buyers don't simply want a rep anymore; they want a partner to guide them.

Tune in to the full episode below to learn what this research means for you and how you can help shift your team in the direction buyers want.

4 Things Teams See After Other-Centered® Selling Training (and Why It Sticks)

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Too often, sales training produces a temporary lift. Teams leave the workshop energized, managers report good feedback scores, and within a few months, the pipeline can start to look exactly the same as before.

Sales leaders know this pattern; it's why "proven ROI" on a training proposal gets read with skepticism. But Other-Centered® Selling (OCS) produces different results, and the reason comes down to what it actually changes.

Here's a breakdown of four outcomes teams report after OCS, what's driving each one, and what it takes to make those gains hold.

How to Coach Discovery Conversations That Go Beyond Surface Answers

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:05:44 GMT

When discovery conversations stay at the surface, the coaching answer is usually not to give sellers a better list of questions.

The bigger issue is what happens before and after the question is asked. Sellers need to know what they are trying to understand before the call starts, and they need to know how to respond when the buyer gives them something vague, guarded, or incomplete.

Sellers who walk away from a discovery call not knowing what's actually driving the decision often show two gaps:

They weren't clear on what they needed to understand going in.
They didn't know what to do with what the buyer gave them.

Here's what those gaps look like in practice, and how to coach them.

What Buyer Resistance Is Actually Telling You About Your Sales Team

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:00:00 GMT

When sellers report more buyer resistance, most leaders respond the same way: sharpen the message, increase the activity, or coach harder on objections.

According to ASLAN research, 82% of sellers say buyer resistance has increased. But the buyer data tells a more specific story than resistance. Buyers aren't describing themselves as closed. They're describing a faster, more selective judgment about whether a seller is worth their time. And that judgment is happening earlier than most leaders realize.

That's a different problem than messaging. And it requires a different solution than better scripts or more follow-up calls.

Ep. 242: Truth #5: Clear Your Mental Cache

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 12:00:01 GMT

If you’ve been in sales long enough, it’s easy to think you already know where the conversation is going. You’ve heard the same objections, seen the same patterns, and solved similar problems a hundred times before. But that instinct can quietly become a liability. The faster you assume, the easier it is to miss what’s actually true for this customer.

In the latest episode of Sales with ASLAN, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris sit down with sales engineering expert and bestselling author Chris White to unpack a simple but powerful idea:

If you want to influence effectively, you have to clear your mental cache first.

How to Coach Better Open-Ended Questions in Sales

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Most sales teams have already trained on open-ended questions. The format is right: start with “what” or “how,” give the buyer room to talk. So why do some conversations still go nowhere?

The problem usually isn’t whether the question is technically open-ended enough. It’s what the question is trying to do, how well it reflects the buyer’s world, and how the seller handles the answer once it comes.

Here’s what separates discovery conversations that produce real insight from ones that stay on the surface, and what to listen for when they don’t.

5 Sales Kickoff KPIs That Tell You If Your SKO Actually Delivered

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 20:52:01 GMT

Q1 is over. Now comes the harder question: did the SKO actually work?

The answer is in the data, but only if you're reading it the right way. Each of these KPIs is a diagnostic signal pointing to a specific place where capability either transferred from the training room to real customer conversations, or didn't. Read them together and you get a clear picture of what the SKO built, and where the gaps still are.

Here are five metrics that give you a clear read on whether your SKO delivered, and what each one reveals about where to focus next.

What is Value-Based Selling and Why Is It the Key to Sales Success?

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:00:00 GMT

Value-based selling is the practice of connecting your solution to the specific outcomes the customer cares about most, not just the features you want to highlight.

Too often, though, teams think they’re selling on value when they’re really just repackaging the same pitch in ROI language. They talk about impact in broad terms, but never get specific enough about what matters to this buyer, in this situation, right now. And when the conversation feels generic, buyers tune out.

This article breaks down what value-based selling actually is, where teams get it wrong, and how to do it more effectively.

What Q1 Sales Performance Gaps Reveal About Your Team's Capabilities

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 23:16:50 GMT

Q1 is one of the clearest windows sales leaders get into how their team is actually selling.

If the same performance gaps are showing up across multiple reps, the issue is often not the strategy itself. It is a capability gap in how the strategy is being executed. That is what makes Q1 so useful. Before mid-year resets and second-half urgency start to distort the picture, you can see where execution is breaking down and what kind of coaching the team actually needs.

The four patterns below can help you identify where to look, and what kind of capability gap may be driving the result.

Account Growth Capability Gaps to Look for in Q1

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 23:57:53 GMT

Q1 results are one of the clearest diagnostic windows you get all year.

The accounts that stalled, the reps who stayed active but didn’t advance, the proposals that didn’t convert—those patterns aren’t random. They point to specific capability gaps that are easy to misread as strategy issues, motivation problems, or just a tough quarter.

The question is whether you’re reading them correctly.

In this article, we’ll break down four of the most common account growth capability gaps, what to look for in the data, and what to do about it.

The Future of B2B Sales

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 21:00:00 GMT

B2B buying continues to change, and it's creating a real tension for sellers.

Buyers are doing more research independently than ever, bringing more stakeholders into decisions, and engaging reps later and more skeptically than before. At the same time, they're overwhelmed by information and options, and still looking for someone they can actually trust.

For sales leaders, that's both the challenge and the opportunity. This article examines what's driving these shifts and what it takes to build a team that can respond.

What’s The Difference Between Customer-Centric Selling and Other-Centered® Selling?

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Customer-centric selling and Other-Centered® Selling both start from the same basic belief: the customer should be the priority.

4 Ways to Coach Your Team to Grow Existing Accounts

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT

Existing accounts are the highest-leverage growth opportunity most sales teams consistently underinvest in.

The relationship is already there. The access is already there. What's usually missing is the capability to use it: reps who can go deeper in discovery, build relationships beyond one contact, and show up as strategic partners instead of reliable vendors. When accounts stay flat, the instinct is to look at the customer. The better instinct is to look at what the leader hasn't developed yet.

Here's how the best ones close that gap.

Ep. 241: Truth #4: To Sell More, Focus on the Buyers Process, Not Your Commission

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 13:49:16 GMT

Many sellers believe the key to winning more deals is learning how to close better.

But the real problem is not closing. It is failing to advance the opportunity.

In this episode of Sales with ASLAN, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris unpack one of the most practical truths from ASLAN’s 30 Truths for 30 Years series:

To sell more, focus on the buyer process, not your commission.

When sellers focus on their own outcome, they often push for premature decisions, rely on generic follow-up, and allow deals to stall. But when they focus on helping the buyer move through their decision process, opportunities advance more naturally, and trust grows.

If you want to improve sales conversations, opportunity management, and your ability to advance deals, this episode will give you practical ideas you can use immediately.

5 Reasons Sales Coaching Fails (and What High-Performing Managers Do Differently)

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Most sales managers believe in coaching. Many struggle to do it consistently, and the ones who do look very different from the ones who don't.

According to Salesforce, in 2024, 67% of reps didn’t expect to hit quota, and 84% had missed it the year before. When leaders dig into why performance stalls, coaching almost always becomes part of the conversation. The managers responsible for developing those reps aren’t failing for lack of effort or intention. Ask nine out of ten why they don’t coach more and you’ll hear the same two answers: no time and no clear method. Both are true. Both are fixable.

Here are five reasons sales coaching breaks down, and what high-performing managers do differently at each one.

Consultative Selling vs. Other-Centered® Selling: What's the Difference?

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Consultative selling and Other-Centered® Selling are closely related, but they are not the same.

From Training to Transformation: Using AI to Accelerate Impact

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:09:35 GMT

When it comes to training adoption, the gap between what gets delivered and what actually sticks rarely comes down to content.

It comes down to ownership.

Not because the content was weak. Because the conditions that make adoption possible were never built. At the Selling Power Sales 3.0 Summit, ASLAN VP of Training Jesse Rome made the case that closing that gap is an ownership problem. And the person responsible for fixing it is you.

Here's the framework, and how AI accelerates it at every stage, when the foundation is solid enough to support it.

Other-Centered® Selling vs. Challenger Sales Training: Key Differences

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Challenger Sales and Other-Centered® Selling are built on different assumptions about what moves buyers.

Challenger focuses on teaching, tailoring, and taking control. Other-Centered® Selling focuses more explicitly on receptivity, whether the buyer feels enough trust and openness for the conversation to work in the first place. That difference matters because even strong insight and strong selling behavior can fall flat when buyers feel pressure or stay guarded.

In this article, we’ll look at where the two approaches overlap, where they differ, and what that means for your team.

5 Things High-Performing Sales Managers Do Differently (Beyond Hitting Quota)

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

Most sales organizations evaluate managers by whether their teams hit quota.

That metric matters. But it can hide a serious risk. A team can hit plan while underlying capability remains flat. Mid-performers stay inconsistent. Top performers quietly carry more of the load. Managers stay deeply involved in critical deals to protect the number. From the dashboard, everything looks stable. Underneath, very little is improving.

High-performing sales managers know how to detect and expand capacity before stable performance turns into stagnation.

Ep. 240: Truth #3: You Are the Best Person to Sell Your Solution

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 14:00:00 GMT

In out latest episode of Sales with ASLAN, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris unpack a critical truth from our 30 truths for 30 years series: rank does not equal influence. The highest title in the room is not always the person driving the decision, and trusting someone else to sell your solution internally is a risky strategy.

Tom and Tab explore:

Why deals stall when sellers rely on evaluators instead of true decision makers
How to identify real influence inside an organization
What to watch for in language and meeting dynamics
The role of a coach in navigating political structures
Why sellers must take responsibility for engaging decision makers directly

If you want to protect your solution, avoid stalled deals, and help customers make informed decisions, this conversation will reshape how you approach influence in complex sales.

4 Ways Sales Enablement Can Equip Managers to Drive Behavior Change

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:00:00 GMT

Sales enablement only works when managers are enabled to coach behavior change.

A lot of teams struggle to turn training into results. In fact, according to RepVue, only 43 percent of sales reps hit quota in 2025. That’s not because organizations aren’t investing in enablement. It’s because training alone doesn’t change how people sell.

Behavior change is facilitated by coaching, and managers are where that either happens or doesn’t. If they aren’t equipped to reinforce new behaviors in one-on-ones, deal reviews, and weekly coaching conversations, training stops at rollout and reps fall back on old habits.

Here are four ways sales enablement can equip managers to drive real, sustained behavior change.

Supporting New Sales Leaders: How to Develop Managers Who Drive Behavior Change

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:00:00 GMT

Promoting a top-performing rep into management doesn’t automatically create a coach.

Selling success and leadership capability are different skill sets, yet many organizations treat the transition as a reward instead of a role change. New sales leaders are expected to drive behavior change, in themselves and in their teams, without being trained to do it. So they default to what made them successful: closing deals instead of developing the people who will close them.

If you want performance gains to stick, you have to develop your new sales leaders as intentionally as you develop your sellers.

How to Support Sales Managers with a Coaching Cadence That Delivers

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 17:00:00 GMT

Most sales orgs equip their reps with training, playbooks, and tools. But managers are often left without a clear path to coach.

That gap doesn’t just create confusion. It also slows down rep development, weakens pipeline quality, and kills momentum coming out of the SKO. Without structure, even strong managers default to firefighting. Coaching becomes inconsistent or reactive, if it happens at all.

The fix isn’t pressure. It’s a system. To drive Q1 results, managers need more than encouragement. They need clarity on what coaching should look like, and a rhythm to sustain it.

EP. 239: 30 Truths for 30 Years, Truth #2: Motive is Ultimately Transparent

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 14:13:50 GMT

Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris are back in the studio for another episode of Sales with ASLAN, continuing ASLAN’s 30-part anniversary series, “30 Truths That Have Stood the Test of Time.”

Truth #1 set the foundation: receptivity matters more than communication skill. In this episode, they build on that idea with a simple truth that shows up in every sales conversation, every relationship, and every moment where influence matters.

Truth #2: Motive is ultimately transparent.

How to Scale Post-SKO Best Practices (Without Creating More Noise)

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 21:30:00 GMT

Most enablement leaders leave SKO with clarity on what worked: the ideas that resonated, the behaviors their top reps embraced, the early wins that proved traction. But what happens next is the real challenge.

Because scaling what works isn’t about more content. It’s about getting adoption right, at the manager level, at the rep level, and in the moments that actually move deals forward.

Here are three approaches for scaling post-SKO best practices without overwhelming your team.

What to Do After SKO to Turn Early Wins Into Real Sales Momentum

srobertson@aslantraining.com (ASLAN Training) — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:39:10 GMT

If your SKO sparked early traction, don’t mistake it for lasting sales momentum.

Without a system to reinforce and scale what worked, that initial energy fades fast. Most teams don’t lose momentum because the message didn’t land; they lose it because there’s not enough place to help them carry that message forward.

Here’s how to change that.