Salespodder (Page 411)

More issues

Lynch "Lap-Top Larries"

It happens all too rarely, I bumped into a pal at a prospect yesterday. Lovely to catch up, and it meant we cut straight to the chase. He described the company as an “awesome commodity distribution operation”. They’d just re-structured their salesteam, and one new charge is called Adam.

Red Arrow Focus; aka, squadron leader analysis

One of my valued customers runs a reseller event every year. At each one an ‘inspirational’ speaker is duly booked. This year’s was so good, most of the audience left the room wanting to join up. He was a squadron leader with the Air Force’s elite flying display

Does anyone use crm???

Another day, another prospect, another first meeting and yet another guy saying they’ll not bother again with crm. This time it was with the MD (and notional head of sales) of a trendy commercial lighting operation. Four years ago they came to the UK from Denmark with one salesrep.

Immediately State Uniques

Nothing new to those into their marketing ideas and all things ‘usp’, getting across what is unique is critical in the very first few seconds you speak to someone according to Richard Farleigh [http://www.farleigh.com], he of Dragons’ Den fame and “prolific investor” in UK small/start-up firms.

Persuading Kids To Eat Proper Food

There’s a ton of press in England right now about our epidemic of obese children. They’re all spending too much time on the internet, playing computer games, doing zilch exercise, and eating chips, pizza and sweets. What’s this got to do with my sales-help crusade? Well, an

It's Never All Or Nothing

I’m a huge advocate of spreading good news. Many sales teams get bogged down in mires of negativity, argument and insubordination. Surely a better place to be is where everyone is aligned to similar initiatives, and focus on joined-up accomplishment. Lamentably, this is rarely the case. One guy (a

"To Be Honest…."

This phrase has always irritated the hell out of me. When someone says this, it can often suggest the last thing they’re being is truthful. Yesterday I managed to get hold of a chap that I’d been referred to by someone I’d met last week for the

Beware The Snidey Salesrep

Met a fella at a huge car parts distributor. Good to meet him, as he’d risen to the top after starting out a van-driving sales rep aged just 17. He mentioned a couple of stories where recently he’d needed to reprimand a couple of his reps. Quality link-selling

Loving "the James Bond stuff"

Been doing quite a bit of repping recently, and in an oil industry software supplier, heard a heart-warning tale of how ‘service’ personnel were contributing to sales lead generation. These technical guys were in and out of customers all the time, yet their golden knowledge wasn’t being leveraged properly.

Dragons Fall On Den’s Sword

I’ve always got off on ‘pop idol for start-ups’ showDragons’ Den [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/]. And Wednesday, with the new series about to kick-off, my heroes are exposed as muppets. My disenchantment, which means I’m now ambivalent to the whole show, stems from knowledge of ‘one