Keep it simple. We've all heard it a million times before. Brian Bell, the Worldwide VP of Sales for Dell Compellent, helped to reinforce this mantra at the Forum as he talked about his philosophy on opportunity selection. He said that his sales team focuses on only 3 account selection variables: do we know and can we get to the decision maker; do we know the procurement process; do we know the solution/business fit. Those three criteria guide his team and help them to determine where to invest their time and effort. His guidance came up over and over again throughout the forum, as the participants challenged themselves to keep it simple.

Our own BD team recently engaged in a discussion about our favorite BD best practices to sharpen our own focus and improve our effectiveness. One of the ideas shared was, "make it easy for the customer to buy". Sometimes easier said than done, right? It was a good reminder to all of us to avoid complicating the situation and stick to the heart of the message. Prospects don't need more reasons to say "no", they need a clear compelling reason to say "yes" and our job is to give it to them.