Topic

grapevine

A collection of 635 issues

Renewing Dampened Enthusiasm

We’ve all been there. You’ve a new idea that you’re convinced your bosses will love. A new product you know will change your customer’s life. Excitedly, you deliver an impassioned pitch. Their response? Yawns, at best. Demoralisation crushes your pride. There are countless examples of world-beating

Post Neo-Classical Pitching

We appear to have bumbled into credit crunch followed by financial meltdown. The left-of-centre governments of Clinton and Blair over a decade ago, to little Opposition, led the encouragement of lenders to allow people to borrow mountainous sums, with little recourse to whether the interest payments could be maintained, let

Thaw Spend Freeze

I suspect that virtually all of us are experiencing that the credit crunch is biting. I had a couple of cheekies after stumps with a pal of mine Thursday night who’s responsibilities include managing financial risk and reducing borrowing costs for one of the most well-known global luxury retail

Implementation Hand-Holding

I was reminded recently of an all-too-often overlooked part of the sales cycle; implementation. How often do we cringe when hearing of ‘salesrep-sold-and-ran’ tales? Ink barely dry, commission already spent, and the customer left in the lurch as a new set of faces takes over part-petrified, part-clueless? The ‘spin’ exponents,

Another Forecast Spreadsheet

One of my customers shared with me the parallel reporting that has since resoundingly taken the place of their ditched Goldmine crm. It’s a single worksheet they call the Schiffman Board. It seems that with usage of Goldmine having tailed off to practically no use at all, a new

Are You A True Choice Architect?

I gained recent exposure to the current big-buzz right-wing think tank concept of Nudge. Rather than telling people to do things, it advocates instead that you let them make their own journey to where you suggest they go. Key to the concept is the use of influence as a Choice

Tech VC Pitch Tips

Most reps I know don’t get über-geeks. Whether it be the billionaires that strike gold ten minutes after founding internet giants like Google, Myspace and Youtube, and the similarly vulgar-rich from pre-web software land-grabbers like Gates, Jobs or Ellison, or right through to the ‘kid’ that sits in a

Your Personal Channel-Force

Spoke with a pal of mine working inside the colossus that is IBM. Salesteam morale has just taken a bit of a battering, as the structure of all sales contracts has just shifted due to economic slowdown fears. Whilst Management claim the high-achievers will do better, the water-cooler chat is

Proposal Review Chuckle

I’ve always considered the proposal review meeting an essential part of decent-ticket solution sales. Getting key execs on board and putting yourself ahead of the pack is a must, and showing your in-depth understanding of where they want to go and how your usps alone can take them there

Contrary Training Impression

I just had a thoroughly enjoyable chat on the phone with a new rep at one of my customers. After several years selling internet services in both America and England, followed by a two-year stint selling art with his wife, he’s back in the corporate saddle and loving every