Topic

academy

A collection of 125 issues

IBS Talking Points

The mention of IBS may send a teenager into fits of sniggers, but in the context of sales, I discovered the other day it can stand for Initial Benefit Statement. Hanging around in a conference room for a meeting to start, I couldn’t help but notice a few sheets

Choosing Sales Manager?

Heard about a fascinating-sounding lecture at London’s Institute of Directors. Several suited industrial captains were asked if any had ever appointed a new sales manager. Almost all put their hands up to say they had. Next question; ‘did you promote your best sales person into the role?’ and virtually

Sales Meeting Speed Dating

One of my prospects enjoyed an annual sales kick-off in Thailand last week. All right for some. Determined not to be the usual powerpoint poisoned session, one of the four global sales managers took the reins and asked if he could run one of the slots. He announced to the

Voicemail Approach & Getting Mobile Numbers

With the abundantly destructive voicemail culture prevalent in the global buying community, one way around this cold-calling prevention malaise is through the classic out-of-hours approach. Calling before 9 and after 5:30 will often lead to someone other than a doorman-bouncer-esque receptionist fielding your call, and putting you straight through.

The Sundown Rule

Introduced ourselves to a new manager at one of my customers today. He’d served food/drink retailers all his lengthy career by the sounds of it. Having recently joined his new employers (supplying drink dispense kit to restaurants/bars) he ran me through a presentation just delivered on his

Avoid Golden Envelope Cultures

I was let in on the privilege that Golden Envelope Cultures do not work. This means environments where to keep valued employees, you give them more money every time they voice ambitions to move on. The wholesale/distribution guys I met that told me this took over two years to

Another cold call approach

Searching for an evolution of a pitch for one of my products, I surfed the web to see how people may pitch something that’s brand spanking new. In doing so, I came across a small biz university site, and their advice on how to make a cold call [http:

Avoiding The Ugliest Process

Got reminded today of what a nasty little shock can hurt like, when a decent-looking prospect suddenly ran aground. I went on a sales training session run by the internal ‘sales ops’ guys of a software house I sold for in the early Nineties. One theme of the day was

Funnelling Before Proposition

The New Year’s kicking in. All my customers don’t seem to stir from their slumber ’til next Monday, so I’m taking the opportunity to do those chores salespeople hate; housekeeping. During my tidying up, I’ve already come across some docs I picked up at a customer

Forecasting Focus

Fairly regularly I get to rant about the prevalence of all-too-abysmal forecasting routines. A pal of mine (congrats on the new baby, Bren!) currently has his charges attribute one of these tags to deals: 1. Drop Dead (you don’t miss this) 2. Commit (deals you feel will come in