salespodder

salespodder

http://salespodder.com

Sigmoid Thinking

I had to run through some old notes from a few years ago earlier this afternoon to find something on how seismic shifts in sales strategy can be made to happen. I came across notes from two Directors, speaking at company sales conventions. Both were done around the same time

Future History philosophy

For the past few years I’ve known a fella called Mike Witchell, a sales manager at one of my customers. He’s one of the good guys, albeit with a dangerous obsession in motorcycle racing at the weekends. I’ve just come across an old email of his explaining

2nd hand car salesman essentials

Just watched a reality TV show (Alan Sugar’s Apprentice) pitting two teams against each other to sell cars in an enormous London car supermarket, They got initial training from an expert sales manager. His most-used phrase ended up being “End Of”, as he kept having to give bollockings and

Glass Must Be Half-Full

I was at a sales meeting of a company with 21 reps the other day. There’s a legacy battle going on there, as historically many of the reps were actually Agents. That is, non-salaried employees, paid on a commission-only basis for their specific, exclusive territory. Now, you’d think

Wheel Of Productivity

Came across this technique during the week which I think’s got legs. A fella called Dylan Jones was the only guy out of his 20-odd strong team that wasn’t pitching the new wonder-product they had by mere unique features and benefits. All the other guys are saying ‘look

Avoiding Feature Minutiae

I’m really enjoying some work I’m doing with a tool company at the moment. From a seemingly remote North Welsh town, they make and distribute anything from pliers, trowels, padlocks and the like. And they’ve made market leader into electrical wholesalers, so have clearly done things pretty

Seeking out that extra drive

Working on improving the communication around a global sales team earlier in the week, I was reminded of a terrific story from a former sales guy. The current President of this €150m business, a winner called Mark Kelly, started out life selling plumbing equipment. He took particular pleasure in beating

Best Sales Magazine

There is a paucity of reading matter for the dedicated sales enthusiast. Rags aimed at reps tend to veer towards one of two extremes; either they’re peddling the American self-help religions, or dumb-down to talk about gadgets and motors. So it is a pleasure to find that the best

CRM Implementation Tips I: Have A Dedicated Person at Helm

Have A Dedicated Person at Helm It is essential you have someone who’s primary responsibility is to oversee daily maintenance and use of your system. This person need not be as high as the Chief Exec, what is important is that they understand why the system is going in

Managing the Sven Way

Great to see England come back from a (wonder goal) behind to beat Uruguay Wednesday night. Still all coming together nicely for the World Cup of course. There was a documentary on about the manager’s approach to getting the best out of his players recently. I made some notes