Salespodder (Page 382)

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4-Phase El-Pitch

Occasionally I meander through the online broadsheet small business guides, and one such journey the other evening stumbled across an English perspective on the Elevator Pitch. First things first, it’s a Lift. Why use 4 syllables when just one alone is perfectly sufficient? Credit to The Times [http://business.

Within 2 Weeks Max

We’ve all been there. You excitedly book in a first meeting with a brand new prospect on the phone. It’s in your diary for a few weeks. You fire off confirmation of time, place and agenda. You make other plans fit around the date. Then inexplicably, when you

Your Personal Channel-Force

Spoke with a pal of mine working inside the colossus that is IBM. Salesteam morale has just taken a bit of a battering, as the structure of all sales contracts has just shifted due to economic slowdown fears. Whilst Management claim the high-achievers will do better, the water-cooler chat is

Competition Conundrum

One of my customers was talking to me about how, with only one other player in his market space, he was never quite sure whether to ask if the competition were on the scene with a prospect. My immediate reaction was ‘no!’, never allude the to opposition. Best to focus

Think Of A Nudge Policy

Political phrase de jour, nudge policies, took up residence in this week’s chattering class tv. The theory is that (by implication, centre-left) governments have for years wasted their time telling people what to do. Instead, they’re better nudging people in the required direction. A recent success along such

Proposal Review Chuckle

I’ve always considered the proposal review meeting an essential part of decent-ticket solution sales. Getting key execs on board and putting yourself ahead of the pack is a must, and showing your in-depth understanding of where they want to go and how your usps alone can take them there

Contrary Training Impression

I just had a thoroughly enjoyable chat on the phone with a new rep at one of my customers. After several years selling internet services in both America and England, followed by a two-year stint selling art with his wife, he’s back in the corporate saddle and loving every

Ensuring Renewal Tactics

I spoke to client of mine the other day who was frustrated. They felt (in England at any rate) the irrepsonsbile media were stoking the fires to talk ourselves into recession. He felt that this was encouraging his customers to say to him, at ‘renewal’ time, ‘yes, we’d like

Remember The Business Case

Here’s a great line I got in an email from a customer. We were talking about how to create a better style of Proposal generation for a breakthrough new product of theirs. “…we can often win without a perfect [business] case. That said, a good case never lost a

What Makes A Good Proposal?

One of my clients is having an overhaul of how they present Proposals to prospects. They’re conscious that attempts at making production of such compelling sales collateral easy for reps have failed beforehand. A previous English regime spent many long hours creating a standard document, from which a 71-page