salespodder

salespodder

http://salespodder.com

Recognising Showstoppers

I have a friend selling from his recently adopted New York base data mining kit for sales people. He’s been peddling this kind of stuff (aka ‘BI’ for the tekkies out there) since 99. He’s sold oodles of it in the meantime, and learned a fair bit about

Delivery Innovation?

Met a prospect today with an enviably impressive track record. Founded by a dozen people, ten of them Directors, at the turn of the century, they already sell £29m of lighting product to trade wholesalers. Their first strapline was “Halogen Lighting Specialists”. This distinguished them from other competitors, who sold

Accent on Success in US

I did something my generation probably consider a bit nerdy in some rain-induced spare time over the weekend, although kids and non-Brits probably don’t get such hang-ups. I got involved in a forum discussing why it was that the English accent is apparently so successful when cold-caling in America.

New Sales Manager Turnaround, Blair-stylee

So Tony B-Liar finally ended his tenure of Number Ten. Paxo hosted a Newsnight Blairathon to assess his ‘legacy’. Unfortunately it included Alistair Campbell, which made me wonder how many of Newsnight’s 1½m loyal devotees view him as one of Britain’s most odious men, but at least

Learning From 'Cool' Brands

Lucky enough to stay in one of those trendy boutique type hotel [http://www.hotelduvin.com/]s over the recent bank holiday weekend, the type you like ‘cos it doesn’t remind you of your grandmother’s house, there is a noticable absence of dado rails and porcelain ornaments like

Zero crm Compliance

Saw two companies in a day recently for first meetings, and both moaned about their sales software. Apparently, “no bugger uses it”…. Case One – Goldmine Wonderful kit, about a dozen historical databases all rolled into it with a call plan generating front-end, even having a link somewhere with SAS’s

The Golden Hour

Britain is in the grip of collective trauma after a three-year old toddler’s abduction from an Algarve holiday apartment. The local police force face a barrage of complaint from The Fourth Estate, as the Portugese authorities don’t do communication. At best bizarre, at worst inexcusable, this outdated behaviour

The Dignity Of Labour

Surprisingly not a reference to experimental Human League 1980ish singles pre-Dare, rather seeing how the libertarian inspiration of Charles Murray [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Murray_(author)] should enthuse sales people that don’t want to pick up the phone to take action. I saw an interview with former

Assessing Reps

Been dealing with a thoroughly engaging Scotsman recently that sells software all over Europe, Asia Minor and Africa. When I last met him, he was bemoaning the lack of an Angolan visa, thwarting some of his current ambitions. He gave me a fascinating insight into how his bosses tried to

Keep Demos Short

Over lunch I read an American article on presentation lessons for software demonstrators that could ‘have prospects buying without even asking the price’. Trying hard to contain my drooling, I did note there was one good point among the seven steps proposed. Apparently, prospects get overwhelmed with more than two