Salespodder (Page 397)

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Your Heart Must Be In It

I’ve spent a large part of the past few days writing a business plan for a friend. Although to do a proper one (and lamentably few people ever attempt one at all preceding a new venture) is notoriously tricky, it’s a fantastically rewarding experience when you complete. I’

Remember to talk 'DHA'

I do like that House episode where the eponymous misery’s forced on a date with Allison Cameron. Before the big event, House gets advice from his pal James Wilson. And sweetly it has a cool reminder for first-time sales meetings. As House moans about the uselessness of performing ritual

Wanted, Urgent: Retail Sales Training

I often blog about how poor far too many retail experiences tend to be. In the places I’ve spent my time over the past couple of years, the problem can be compounded by migrating workers paid minimum wages by uncaring management (London, New York) and all-round general insouciance (S

Lesson From St Bob

Bob Geldof isn’t renowned for his subtlety. So I was surprised to hear him say on a tv documentary (The Pink Floyd Story: Which One’s Pink?) that in order to get the 4 band members back together again, after their acrimonious disintegration, he couldn’t bring himself to

Door Opening Dependency

Enjoyed reading an article in yesterday’s FT about Cheshire flooring entrepreneur Dawn Gibbons [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/09d03f16-ad86-11dc-9386-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1] . Part of it recounted the tale of how she met her favourite marketing consultant. It’s a great story of how he, Dennis Humphries

Understanding The Business Window

Here’s a technique one of my customers uses to align what they can offer to where their prospect states they want to go. They call it the Business Window, and in the words of their Head of Sales, Dave, a chap I’ve a lot of time for, the

Soak Up The Frustration

We all know the 2 biggest wastes of reps’ time; coming second & fire-fighting. So it was heartening to hear of a tale today where a rep at one of my clients went to sort out post-sales doldrums to great affect. The solution delivered had (unusually) proved unreliable. So rather

Less Big Picture

Loved the one-year-on Gerry Robinson back at the NHS show last night. I blogged on his findings before and again there are a couple of terrific pointers for reps. He gave a talk to NHS staff saying “it isn’t the big picture stuff” that creates success. Instead, it’s

Knock A Bit Off

It’s not often I get a sales lesson when in m’local chippy, but amazingly that’s what happened the other night. Working late, although not realising it as in London at the mo’ it’s getting dark just after 4 🙁 cooking lacked appeal. I popped down the road

The Luxury Of Choice

At a customer sales meeting recently, they ran a session on the pitfalls of Sam Salesperson. Sam was struggling. After one promising quarter, the next two missed target. The problem was an age-old one; not enough prospects. This proved to be a double-edged sword, for not only did it mean