salespodder

salespodder

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Who can sell?

I crossed paths with a chap who’s company I enjoyed a few years back called Tom Hannon. He was the MD (having been promoted from Sales Director no less, that rare, but heartwarming scenario for us mere reps) of a large British-founded erp software vendor (the financials, order processing

Insanity Defined

Was reminded of a top bloke yesterday. Dennis Brown, sadly no longer with us, was a larger-than-life natural born salesman, who started his career selling towels on Mancunian market stalls before setting up a highly successful chain of baby goods stores. The flagship one I believe remains in the hands

Dragons going Forth

The 4th of the current series of my fave show (Dragons Den [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/programmes/?id=dragons_den] on its 3rd series in England) had its usual collection of lunatic ideas, near-misses and funding secured. Here are the relevant sales-y pieces: * when someone mentions money, a

A Measly 607 Quid

I bumped into a neighbour of my sales team’s London office who sell NLP-type training (Rebecca and Rachel) and we got chatting on their industry and the lack of funds people put aside to train their people. The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development is their professional body, and I’

In One Ear...

There’s a fella I’ve a lot of time for that I’ve not spoken to for ages and, knowing that his lovely wife is about to be a mum, I was knocked off my chair when a former colleague of his informed me he’d been “gased” by

Quick Success Essential

Demo’d to a guy at global express parcel carrier, TNT, the other day. He hailed from the genre known in my youth as ‘Sales Ops’, and did indeed seem to have a good grasp on what his immediate issues were with the 400 or so people around the sales

Militarily speaking

Met with a top sales manager from one of my fave customers today, called Ken Welsh. His only error of judgement seems to be supporting Norwich City. I’ve talked with him in the past about his passion for military history, and applying the lessons in sales. A meeting with

When dust settles….

I was eating lunch outside in the pleasant Oxford sunshine Tuesday, where they’ve done a terrific job renovating the area around the City Hall and Castle. I became conscious of a sales conversation on the table next to me, which appeared to be winding up. Hands were being shaken

Dragons Dent more ill-prepared

Still addicted to my favourite show, more on frolics from inside the Dragons’ Den. I thought I was going to miss it, as over the preceeding weekend a London-Summer thunderstorm saw lightning knacker my aerial, but rescue came from the bbc broadband offerings which, although lamentably sparse and currently impossible

Should Mavericks Be Tamed?

Had a cracking weekend with pals of mine in Manchester, and on the flight down (sounds extravagant but was unbelievably both half the price of the train, and half the journey time by car!) I suffered the bland sandwich that is BA’s in-flight “high life” (who are they kidding?