salespodder

salespodder

http://salespodder.com

Chinese Pitching Dominance

Here’s a prediction from soothsayer salespodder; the Chinese will win big in business. I bet you’re amazed at my foresight, right?! You’ll probably know I’m one of the loyal Newsnight [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm] fanbase, and they regularly run

When you don't care about customers

More rummaging through old papers over my New Year break and I came across a reply to a complaint letter I received 12 September 2002 from PCWorld owners Dixons Stores Group. The background is that I (at that time) bought all my firm’s computer gear from their stores. I

When spreadsheets replace crm

Here’s yet another tale of crm sublimation, gleaned at a large photocopier reseller in London this morning. There are five sales teams in the region, with three managers. The longest-serving of the managers is called Gary. He’s a bit of a whizz with spreadsheets by the sound of

Sniff Out Destructive Double-Booking

Heard about some dubious practice that’d gone on in car parts wholesale that made me chuckle and gasp at the same time. It goes without saying that if such shenanigans can go on in your place, close the loophole…. Re-Booking Tactic One: Inside a branch, one fella was renowned

Avoid Golden Envelope Cultures

I was let in on the privilege that Golden Envelope Cultures do not work. This means environments where to keep valued employees, you give them more money every time they voice ambitions to move on. The wholesale/distribution guys I met that told me this took over two years to

Given The Game Away?

Met a decent chap this morning running a funky scene-setting business through lighting controls. Turned out they’ve only really one salesguy on the road, so not really a prospect for us (I’ve given the appointment-arranger suitable lashings whilst repeating the word ‘qualification’ in latin). He did recount one

Lessons from Stockbroker Scams

Waiting around for the Arsenal Man U showdown this Sunday, I skimmed the Sunday Telegraph’s Business section. Apparently, some shady cold-call operations are netting an obscene £600k a month conning unsuspecting gold-diggers. The scams come in various guises, including: * selling ficticious shares, even creating fake corporate websites to back-up

Another cold call approach

Searching for an evolution of a pitch for one of my products, I surfed the web to see how people may pitch something that’s brand spanking new. In doing so, I came across a small biz university site, and their advice on how to make a cold call [http:

What Are They 'Open' To?

I got sent to another new biz first meet on Tuesday, and to prove I get all the glamour jobs, the company was on London’s dreaded North Circular Road, near Walthamstow stadium. And it was pouring with rain as I waited for a bus from the central station, eating

Attack Like Norman's Shark

I remember thinking Greg Norman was great. In my formative years, my sporting heroes were all True English Leaders; David Gower, Trevor Francis, Seb Coe. Legends one and all, with similar charismatic, elegant and unconventional qualities. Then I discovered golf. England could only produce personality-devoid characters (although amazingly Nick Faldo