Topic

grapevine

A collection of 635 issues

Sales Chief Exec Memories

As you’ll gather from my blogsite straps, a wish I hold dear is for more sales people to become chief execs. Flicking through an old back-up drive from 2003, I discovered a document from a thoroughly engaging chap I knew back then called Paul Morris. In 2004/5 I

Most Revealing Sales Stats

Here’s the meat on a mailshot promoting a September seminar sponsored by a mindmap software house. The figures are credited to a CSO Insights survey on 2009 performance. > The percentage of salespeople making quota dropped from 58.8% to 51.5% last year. Despite this drop, 85% of surveyed

Nudge Choice Reminder

I’ve blogged about choice architecture and the joys of nudging before (in 2008 [http://salespodder.com/are-you-a-true-choice-architect/] & 2009 [http://salespodder.com/selling-and-the-prevention-paradox/]). For 2010’s reflection I’ve just come across four delicious further examples from a Brand Republic blogger [http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/dtb/archive/2010/05/

Continuous Partial Attention

I’ve long been contemptuous of people that break-off mid-conversation to answer a random mobile call. Similarly, anyone replying to an email the instant it lands for no other logic than it has just flashed on their screen I hold in equal disregard. The latest Economist Technology Quarterly highlights [http:

Top Sales Outfit Secrets

Here’s a steer from a recent Selling Power article. The writer contends that the following five traits [http://www.sellingpower.com/content/article.php?nr=1&a=3] identify a world class selling operation. How do you fare on these? > Buyer Enablement – your focus is client goals rather than

Mangled Ericspeak

How not to pitch. I watched an American called Eric Daniels [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/eric-daniels] on newsbites yesterday. He had reason to be cheerful. The banking giant he currently runs was bailed out by the UK Government to the tune of £20bn. A welcome change in fortune

McKenna's Hypnotic Motivation

Doing the rounds on London promo-telly sofas over the previous weekend was Paul McKenna (wikipedia [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McKenna] & own site [www.paulmckenna.com/]). Regular readers of my blogs will note that whilst I am fervently not in the camp of self-help guru sycophancy, I am however fascinated

Interview Salary Query Parallels

Here’s an interesting angle on when to talk money. It comes from an MBA Careers Adviser called Angela Edkins. You sense there are parallels between when you discuss salary expectations when selling yourself in a job interview and when to mention your prices when selling your wares in a

Returns Metric Example

I caught a lady calledCath Hindle, from Tourism Tyne and Wear [http://www.tourismnortheast.co.uk/tourism-tyne-and-wear/], talking up the wonderful impact of £30m worth of spend over the past decade uplifting a previously derelict area. It now spectacularly links Newcastle and Gateshead in England’s far North East. The

Just Get Out There

I can imagine this is a heart-warming tale that every salesperson will applaud. And then pass it on to someone they know that are possibly going down a spiralling despair of a prospecting drought thinking that their luck’s run dry. Hail the 23-yr old [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/