Topic

grapevine

A collection of 653 issues

Is Price Pitching A 20% Loser?

Working with a technology sales team recently, they were bemoaning that a contract won today would shrink by a quarter by the time of renewal next year. Yet in a world seemingly fixated on cheapness, they felt the value they provided gave both a merited premium and an offer of

New York School

Here’s two tips I picked up from a one-time New York commodities broker. First, he’d developed a one-line approach to emails. The question would be in the subject line. Below, he’d simply type; > Yes, No, Maybe So? And went on to tell me of a huge

Walk Into Reception

Here’s a story I just heard from a delightful Kiwi chap. He’d tried the usual cold calls and emails to opem up a particular buyer at a mining concern. He reckoned ten email messages had gone unanswered. Yet he was convinced they had a need which he could

Misplaced Customer Focus

One of the most provocative, contrarian pieces in a long while, the HBR blogs recently featured results of a five-year study in customer service. Stop trying to delight your customers [http://http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/01/stop_trying_to_delight_your_cu.html] pleads us to think again

Chasing Obsolesence

There’s been reams of writing on Kodak’s demise. Here’s a cracking insight [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/the-moment-it-all-went-wrong-for-kodak-6292212.html] from one such lament. For a firm then obsessed with ‘film’ the bosses were shown a new product. Which today we’d call ‘digital’; >

Tim Harford's Success Prep

[http://timharford.com/2011/05/failure-its-everywhere/] In the run up to the release of his latest book, The Undercover Economist shared [http://timharford.com/2011/05/failure-its-everywhere/] why and where he feels failure leads to success. Key finding; > I’ve concluded that adapting in the face of failure is

Check Solution Belief

[http://www.inc.com/sales] Small business information for the entrepreneur. That’s how America’s Inc. pitches itself. They have a section devoted to sales [http://www.inc.com/sales]. Unfortunately, it leans towards the kind of vagueisms that the rest of its articles steadfastly avoid. Rather than hear

Testimonial Structure

[http://www.bcg.com] Consulting behemoth BCG offer up testimonials on their website. They are unfortunately shorn of any real punch or memorability. Nevertheless, the structure they employ piqued my interest. When I regale glowing references, I like to lather the full story on nice and thick. The crises, the

Roger's Thoughts

Here’s a gem of a webpage I came across quite by accident. I know salespeople like to add the occasional killer quote to their presentations, but where do you find such nuggets? Well, here’s a chap [http://www.rogerdarlington.me.uk/Thoughts.html] that’s been writing up

Brainsteering

[https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Seven_steps_to_better_brainstorming_2767] Salespeople don’t often get to brainstorm. Marketing like to think they have the monopoly on being creative, right? Whenever those in sales sit in a room for a couple of hours to come up with ideas, it is usually