Salespodder (Page 418)

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Proof for Freakonomics’ Bagel King

I blogged some time ago about the usefulness of Leavitt’s book [http://salespodder.com/?p=46] for the salesman, and raved about it being a sterling read. I was in a meeting (in groovy offices near London’s Butler’s Wharf) pitching to a decent chap called Sanjay that’

Easy 1 in 6ers

In the early 90s I read a fascinating book all about how technology products need to alter their selling mindset when trying to break into the mass-market, once enthusiastic first-adopters had already jumped on board. It’s by Geoffrey A Moore, called Crossing The Chasm. My attention was drawn to

Overcoming Boondocks Mentality

I learnt a new word yesterday; boondocks. A pal of mine’s started selling in America, and when cold-calling (if they ever manage to get past the evil voicemail culture!) the fact that they’ve been successful worldwide appears to cut little sway. Apparently, being big in England means little,

Enter The Dragon

From the start I’ve loved this show. For those not in the know, this isn’t a pop-ideas show like American Inventor, Dragons’ Den [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/] uses 5 self-made multi-zillionaires who are pitched business brainwaves with a view to getting them to commit a specific

Forget the lame excuses

Bizarrely I’ve just been reminded of a piece of PR put out by a company selling sales software. It talks about the excuses sales people use for not getting sales. Apparent reasons to explain away failure include hangovers, personal crisis, car problems, reports eaten by the dog, cricket, bad

Anti-Biscuit Dunking Crusade

I’ve for a long time used term that represents the unacceptable face of selling and sums up sales peoples no-nos; Biscuit-Dunking. It was coined by often encountering this kind of situation: A salesrep has a number of visits to make this day, as they do everyday. Trotting along their

Stability Indicators

I sense a current trend emerging for sales teams to pay lots of money to get their sellers to focus on what keeps a customer for as long a time as possible. I’ve come across two recent examples of this, one with a local English, the other a global,

Buy On Price, Pay Twice

This is interesting for you if you ever face pressure from cheaper competition. I saw an interview with the awesome Seb Coe today. He’s the winner who (not only won Olympic Gold in Moscow & LA but also) delivered a stunning presentation that, following his amazing political manoeuvering, sealed

Avoiding the fob off

When I was a nipper, my sales team ran cold-call competitions a couple of weeks before Christmas. It was called the Goose Fat week. Whoever uncovered the most number of suspects won big, which meant finding people that planned to look into what we sold over the next twelve months

How to Dress

There’s such a difference of opinion in how a sales person should dress. With London experiencing crazy hot weather these past few weeks, with regular unheard of successive 30 degree days, I’ve noticed dress codes have finally become more sensible. It’s long been apparent that there really