Salespodder (Page 348)

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Hit Hard And Fast

I’m involved on a project aiming to launch a technologically advanced product into an arena where legislation has removed any current viable options. There’s a yawning market gap compounded by substitute solutions being woefully inadequate. The entry-level version of the product will retail at around $40. It is

Gastropub Food Growth

Having recently spent many fun-filled days with, among others, a friend that owns a cool chain of London pubs as England somehow salvaged a draw in the Cape Town Test, I learnt plenty about the intricacies of running a gastropub. One insight was when an order in Capetonian institution, Forresters,

Initiator Or Finisher?

A discussion I enjoyed the other day was with a chap holding a doctorate in public administration. He described someone as having a reputation for being a project initiator rather than project finisher. Nothing wrong in that at all, except that the person in question erroneously thought of themselves as

Good Accounts Make Good Friends

This is a phrase I heard a highly experienced accountant say in a meeting the other day. Its context was that a partnership was in play between a producer and a distributor. The one that made the product had only got into the market in the first place by teaming

Sales Report Recording Trends?

I downloaded a frustratingly sparse and primitive white paper the other day on ‘sales 2.0’ which, for all its banal pronouncements, did feature one juicy observation: > “Cold calling, qualification, appointment setting, and customer service are important steps in sales, but they are not the best use of highly

The One Minute Sales Person Review

I recently came across these review notes for a meeting ten short years ago. The bite-sized book by American Spencer Johnson is widely known. Here’s what I wrote back then: Over 4 million people have apparently drank from the fountain of this guru’s knowledge. That said, there are

First-Run Placements Plan

News from a client of mine about how they successfully launched a new item during the past twelve months of torture. Their new product was a piece of IT wizardry, typically bought through leasing, worth around €30k. In their own words, they decided to separate their sales potential into: >

Never Get Distracted By The Commission

Talk of the huge sums of money on offer at the men’s tennis ATP World Tour finals ($1.6m to an undefeated victor for a week’s work) reminded me of a reflective anecdote recounted by ubiquitous 80s snooker champ, Steve Davis. He was asked if he ever thought

What's Your Top-Line Indicator?

A thoroughly enjoyable meeting at a client the other day uncovered a remarkably simple approach to funnel management. Selling a combination of fairly big-ticket items (mixing ‘hardware’ & ‘software’), the typical account manager monthly revenue target is 50k. Whilst obviously the main figure, there are two other numbers of prominence.

Tin Men, A Salesman's Review

A cheeky little movie from 1987, it’s really a tale of the search for revenge between two guys that meet at the scene of a car prang. Set in Baltimore, 1963, the backdrop is that all the players sell “aluminum siding” (metal paneling for a home’s exterior). This