Topic

grapevine

A collection of 635 issues

Back-Fill Banish Bulge

Here’s a funny thing I learned the other day. One global sales company I know standardised on salesforce.com. They originally only paid commission when a deal was properly reported on in their chosen system. Yet reps would do the expected, and only fill-in screens once the deal had

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=

Spam Trigger Words

I randomly came across this list of words. They should never grace your email subject lines. Apparently, their presence denotes spam [http://www.marketingresourceindex.com/trigger-words-to-remove-from-your-email-subject-lines-now/] . This naturally got me thinking. How many times do we send a mail to a prospect that feature these kinds of phrases? Here’s

Really Salespeople's Biggest Complaint?

It’s not often Selling gets a decent mention in the Harvard Business Review. And yet again here’s a piece that slightly misses its mark. My territory is too small [http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/04/fixing_salespeoples_biggest_co.html] is apparently our number one gripe. As

Zero Row

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2012/04/20120411-190257.jpg] Even though I’ve not been ‘at home’ in London for quite a while, the upcoming mayoral election is of great interest to me. If I were a penitent chap, I’d be praying for the right result. That does

Shark Tank Pointers

I was a real fan of Dragons Den. In its early days, when it was more about the ideas, and less about the egos on the comfy chairs. It seems America now has their own flavour. And judging by this Fast Co [http://www.fastcompany.com/1826393/7-entrepreneurial-lessons-from-shark-tank] piece, they’

Matching The Incentive

One for the sales managers. So I was talking to someone that a while back ran a sales incentive for a new product. The technology they were looking to shift was considered by the backroom team to be great. Management expected a real buzz. Then nothing. They had three prizes

Lucifer Effect

I’ve always had an interest in how to let the right team dynamic flourish. Ever since having practical exposure at Business School. This featured the works of Belbin [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belbin_Team_Inventory] with his eight types of team player (now apparently nine; I was always

The Power Of Habit

The Tom Sullivan show on Fox Business introduced me to Charles Duhigg [http://charlesduhigg.com/]. Promoting new book The Power Of Habit, his interview was a good one. He kicked off with this attention-grabber: > 45% of daily behaviours are not decisions, but habits That’s our brain trying to make

Changed Will

A seasoned pre-sales tekkie gave me a good saying the other day, happily fresh to my ears; > a mind changed against their will is of the same opinion still I like it. And not just because it rhymes (always a winner with quotes). I’ve worked recently in tandem with