Salespodder (Page 358)

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Two Influence Acronyms

Do you have any core key viewpoints when it comes to working out the extent to which you’ve managed to persuade people to your way of thinking? I heard someone mention their pair of such guiding principles today. They were simply: > DIY – do it yourself DTA – don’t

Managing Dissonance

In the rarity of English sunshine last Sunday, three of us were ambling around a village in Pennine foothills when the woman among us decided it was ice cream time. Clearly, there’s no argument when a lady demands such a treat so I was forced to join the hunt.

Forward Agenda Disruption

It’s incredible how many sales tips I pick up from people on Newsnight. I am one of the almost two million Brits that apparently hold this single beacon of quality news analysis (as opposed to the diet of rubbish served by the rolling news obsession, this century’s new

Change Success

A mate came ’round last night to sample some cheeky Islay malt. We were due to pop out to a nearby juicer, but I’m not ashamed to say I’m a little smitten with Mary Portas (no, not in that way, I’m not her ‘type’!), so insisted we

Buyer Pen-Top Trickery

Last night I shared a thoroughly enjoyable evening with a friend involved in a project to train up 15,000 buyers in the National Health Service in the dark arts of negotiation. When I asked him what his favourite techniques were, I’m sorry to report that he had a

Measuring Success

I’ve been forever refining my standard initial proposal format. Over the years it’s become shorter, punchier, ever-more written from the client perspective and, well, downright sexier. There’s always been a section entitled Return On Investment, or something similarly professional sounding. Then a delightful thing happened the other

Round The Room

I fondly recall mentoring a cubrep in the late-90s. I’m delighted to report his progress has been suitably stellar, currently residing in New York selling BI solutions on three continents. I went along with him to a widget box-shifter in the Midlands once ostensibly to say nothing. My aim

Binary Beasts

Yesterday I facilitated a thoroughly engaging solution sales workshop. The intent was to introduce a twelve-strong team to what entering this arena entails, given their historical emphasis on relationship and product orientated selling. The live projects this $40m team worked through typically shared around a dozen key players, long cycles

Evolving New Products

I came across a summary written by author Rosabeth Moss Kanter (first known to me for Change Masters and When Giants Learn To Dance) after her then latest insights on innovation earlier in the decade, “Evolve!” Although I do hold an interest in the subject matter generally, this summary struck

When Small Amounts Outweigh The Large

London’s Daily Telegraph stole an incredible march on its rivals by publishing the expense claims [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/] of UK MPs. Whatever your moral or political stance on whether the elected representatives are underpaid and overworked or cosseted fraudsters, you cannot deny that three