salespodder

salespodder

http://salespodder.com

Presentation Pauses & Structure

How many presentation skills training courses have you been on? It’s possibly the most common kind of sales-y training non-reps go on. There’s positively oodles of tips around the web, and to add to that surfeit, here’s three hints I took when hearing an explanation of just

Beating "chindia" Prices

I guess this must be happening to several salesreps, and is likely to gather pace. You’re supplying someone that all of a sudden, decides to take what you’ve been faithfully selling from a far flung land instead. One of my customers told me today about a famous story

Support, Don't Obstruct

Spent an engaging session with a newly appointed sales manager called Mark at a London prospect, who amongst many things, bemoaned why at his last place they mysteriously ripped out a bespoke system (despite it having universal rep approval) and replaced it with a Siebel one (which all the reps

Swapping Groans For Moans

Been reading quite a few mags now that I’ve a bit of R&R downtime on my hands during Cape Town’s Spring evenings. Reluctantly I was drawn to Men’s Health [http://www.menshealthsa.co.za]. Lazily thumbing through, realising what I was invited to read could

Sales Email Management: A Solution?

Watching Sky News Sunday afternoon I was alarmed to watch a piece explaining that the average worker wastes 49 minutes every day on email management. In addition, a recent anaylst reckoned that interrupting your current task in response to a new email alert creates 4 minutes of disruption [http://news.

Deadlines, Not Guidelines

Here’s a wonderful phrase my Cape Town pal Paul passed on to me over the weekend. Ever bemoaned the lack of progress from a pre-sales helper-cum-techie, supposedly helping you with vital prospect prep? In my case, I was trying to work out how to rush-up a local supplier, who’

Overcome Initial Resistance

Rocked up at a place a few Monday morning’s ago and almost immediately qualified out. Not only was it little more than a trade counter selling tools, so not my target market at all, but the fella in charge, Frank, said that no appointment was in fact arranged, and

"Mooning" Competition?

Most of the sales teams I meet cite one specific competitor with whom they enjoy (or endure!) locking horns, where intense battles often focus on their opponent’s inferior product at cheaper cost stealing away business. Then travelling to Heathrow to catch a flight I picked up a deshevelled paper

Stumbling Over A Close

We all know closing should be a smooth process, one where we preferably ask for the order without there being any discernible change in conversation flow, and so that the prospect wasn’t even aware we closed them. Yet on Wednesday, I found myself in the middle of a couple

What's Good For The Goose Isn't Always Also Good For The Gander

One of my customers sells to accountants. A rep there frustratingly recounted to me how a paradox causes him much irritation. Bean counters tend to espouse diligent processes and talk of returns to their clients when assessing investment, yet when it came to his wares, they rarely applied such vigilence