grapevine

Via CNBC, I learn that although Asia is the place for growth, there’s a ‘talent crunch’. And the Number One talent gap? Salespeople. There’s an annual survey in this regard by personnel providers Manpower. They also interviewed the head of ERP firm SAP Asia, Steve Watts [video.cnbc.

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2013/05/hbr-April-2013-on-selling-genes.jpg] This kind of rubbish really winds me up. There I was, reading a Harvard Business Review bought between flights. Suddenly I got all excited. They were writing on Sales. Then I read the piece. All one hundred words [http://hbr.

Here’s a delightful phrase I heard on Thursday. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee were giving a VP of Google UK, Matt Brittin, a grilling [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/may/16/google-denies-disguise-operates-tax] . Nasty Google. They pay virtually no corporation tax in Britain. Perfectly legally, they perform all

I was in the room when this fascinating conversation took place. Between a S African accountant and his firm’s chosen outside IT helper. It appeared his hourly rate was R285. His client derided this as too low. The fixer then said he deliberately used this rate so that he

Many solution salespeople struggle with the concept of workshops. Specifically, when does a meeting with multiple attendees morph into a workshop? I recently heard one sage note “the more you put in [to a workshop] the more you’ll get out of it”. He should know. He used to organise

I’ve caught a run of business turnaround reality shows lately. I was struck by one action all the celebrity protagonists at the helm take. They always get out on the streets to confront potential clients. In one particular show, Über Chef Gordon Ramsay in his Kitchen Nightmares show faced

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2013/02/image.jpg] Here’s an exchange I witnessed in a coffee shop. > customer: do you sell that handwash in the bathroom? waitron: I think we do. And I think it might be around $9. customer: okay, it’s very good [awkward

Closes you should not deploy. Chatting away with some seasoned sellers at a conference recently, we got to discussing wince-inducing closes. One person mentioned a close he’d been told by a life insurance salesman. He apparently called it his “drive the hearse up to the house and let them

I was chatting away with a chief exec about his emergent new business sales process. As the jargon goes, we wanted something simple and snappy to wrap up all the critical success factors and key customer gateways for any bid. As we were in his office, he pulled open a

Reading a freesheet article written by acareers advisor [http://www.johnleescareers.com/] on a commuter train the other morning, I wondered how similar job seekers were to solution salespeople. > “Don’t ring people cold – get others to pass you on with an introduction, explaining what you’re trying to