Topic

academy

A collection of 125 issues

Chief Execs Can Also Need Sales Tuition

So Radio 4’s flagship Today news show has a feature called Friday Boss. On Friday 30 November, this came on around 0620GMT. It featured Keith Attwood, Chief Exec of a firm now callede2v [http://www.e2v.com]. Previously known as the English Electric Valve Company, back in the day

Post Demo Questionnaire

Here’s something I was reminded of recently from my software days. I think it holds worthy application for any product that leads to a full-on presentation in front of an audience of more than two. It comes from my time creating a need from a standing start. Where a

Aimless Elevator Advice

I do love it when the Harvard Business Review publishes a Sales piece. Yet this recent one is a shocker. Not even the crimson crackerjacks get it right every time. They sought to inform us of what constitutes the perfect elevator pitch [http://m.hbr.org/12764/show/f4f0dcee7795da793a22f7c1e25a316c&t=

Bridging An Objection

Reporting back on a new business team’s collective objection handling routines recently, the CEO chipped in with a technique he termed bridging. In one sense it struck me as a modern way of moving on from the feel-felt-found form of words. It stuck in the memory of the Chief

The Stall Objection

Before Christmas I was privy to a recruitment interview. In the words of one candidate, here’s a final role play exchange. > Objection: Can we think about it for a month and let you know early in the New Year? Response: At the start of the year, companies put a

Get A Sense

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2011/08/tottenhamriot.jpg] My blood pressure boils just about every time I catch myself stupidly listening to BBC phone-in radio. In the aftermath of the weekend’s N London riots and looting, they even had a fella call in who’s first words,

Incumbent Checklist

Back when the Earth was flat, One training session I had wasHow To Protect Your Customer Base. Apparently, competitor reps were shady and sneaky and would stoop to unimaginable lows to break into our accounts. Although these papers I recently came across in almost dark and moist cobweb ridden storage

Crafting A Presentation

As my recent blogs have described, I’m in the middle of prepping a big presentation at the moment. I had a discussion the other day about how you construct such an event. There are many common errors that you can avoid. A major one is structural. In our case

Active Listening

I first came across the concept of Active Listening [http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm] back in the mid-90s. A sales manager led training session raised the question of its definition. I stepped up to successfully provide one. To me, it was always about gently summarising what you’d

Where Do We Go From Here?

I recently saw the moving quest of father John Kerr who’s son Paul was killed in 1992 by a drink-drive criminal, seeking to get the hard-hitting graphic adverts on mainland television that in Northern Ireland have apparently saved 15,000 lives. He was off to see the Minister, confident