Topic

grapevine

A collection of 656 issues

Hearse & Flowers

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

Laminate It

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

Hidden Jobs Market

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

Key Security Indicators

I came across Key Security Indicators (KSIs) from a former client of mine’s training workshops. They sought to develop customer retention policies, during the Winter of 2005. The idea was to identify potential areas of risk in their customer relationships. Could you pinpoint their strength, and then the degree

New Year New Sales Plan

‘Tis now about the time you get to go through that fun-filled activity as a rep of telling your boss what you’ll do over the coming year, and how you’ll do it. I recently came across a firm with a fine bit of tech kit. It’s in

Rip Up Next Year

Here’s something I picked up the other day. Involved chiefly in account management, a chap I know in the knowledge industries is tasked with both keeping revenue streams alive with specific clients, as well as growing them. He feels that intimacy is his greatest competitor lock-out. So, before each

Tetris From Russia From With Love

This an an hour-long documentary [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074pz0] I caught on a recent flight, originally shown by the BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3479989.stm] back in 2004. At time of blogging, Youtube also hosted it in 10-min snippets. What a fascinating

Consultant, Rep? Opener, Closer?

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2011/09/slipper-boot.jpg] A chap with twenty years sales experience was telling me over a pint the other day that he thought it extremely rare that a salesperson could be both a top consultative seller and a hard closer. He thought the skillsets

Bhajis Bring Bread

[http://www.saabelectrical.co.uk/] I got reminded of the joys of a smile when you walk into a shop the other day. In a fairly unglamorous inner city suburb I happened across an electrical wholesaler. They’d apparently grown well over the past decade. They were once in the

Sticktoitiveness

Donald Trump. Hardly the person budding entrepreneurs should be modelling themselves on. Still, he somehow commanded airtime on Skynews with Adam Boulton the other day. He was asked what it took to be successful in running your own business. Two main elements struck him. Neither are earth-shattering insight, true, yet