Topic

grapevine

A collection of 648 issues

Being Different

I just helped with structure and delivery for a key presentation at a large multinational, multi-day industry conference. The brief was to provide information on one particular current hot topic. During the session, five separate speakers would talk for 15 minutes each, be able to answer two questions straight after,

Another Slice Of Net Promoter

[https://salespodder.com/content/images/wordpress/2012/06/zone-alarm-nps-prompt.jpg] Here’s what confronted me when logging on to an old sofa laptop returning from some travels the other day. Courtesy of firewall software. Whilst it is of course nowhere near as slick as examples I’ve blogged [http://salespodder.

Hide Behind The Slide

I’ve not read the big Steve Jobs biog. Someone I was coaching through a pitch framework the other day though was. They commented on how the Apple CEO revealed his view on slide decks when returning to the ailing company for his stint in the late 90s. Apparently all

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