Topic

grapevine

A collection of 635 issues

Cheeky Cold Voicemail

Here’s a nifty little line a fella called Tom passed on to me from one of my customers. He reckons that 7 to 8 out of 10 people he leaves voicemail messages for when prospecting call him back afterwards. To work for you, I think it’s best if

High Street Haggling

Dom Littlewood [http://www.dominiclittlewood.com/]could have been yet another loafer along the never ending yellow brick road of reality tv self-help gurus. I fell across his current show when seeking visual chewing gum in ever-rarer downtime. Yet glad of that I certainly was. In this programme, he aimed

Don't Miss Out On Prospect Theory

A truly fascinating concept I’ve just been introduced to is critical to a rep’s success. Prospect Theory was uncovered in 1979 by two psychologists keen to explain economic decision making (Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky). Their findings were simply that people are less likely to do something that allows

Appealing to the 'Number Geek' Buyer

I know a girl that’s a self-confessed geek. She professes to be a maths genius and can do demon sudokus quicker than I can work out my body mass index. So it’s unsurprising she’d be interested in a Horizon show from the beeb on how numbers can

Japanisation Incentive

This technique rocketed salesrep retention from 50% to 97%, and made the area implementing it the highest performing one in their Group for a business information vendor a couple of years ago. It comes from the way car factory workers in Japan are financially rewarded when hitting their output targets.

IFSC; Another Sales Process

A fella selling information for a living talked me through his telephone patter the other day. Prospects tend to have to have what he sells, but replacing incumbents can be tricky. He’s developed a simple process enabling him to end conversations with a question to gain a meeting to

Having A Pro-active Reason

Met the Head of Sales at the UK’s 67th largest privately-owned firm this morning. Saw their rosta of 70 telesales providing IT kit for resellers. One interesting morsel I picked up, was that with a total client base of around 2,200, they’re expected to speak to each

Playing Personal Reputation

Thoroughly enjoyed speaking to a rep at one of my customers today called Sam. I always chuckle along during our chats on the phone. Especially when like just now he’s in gale-swept freezing Leeds and I’m in 30°C Cape Town 🙂 He certainly sounded like he’s on

The Lamb's Really Good

It’s so rare that when it happens I’m compelled to celebrate. Someone in retail knows how to sell. Gavin is the kind of South African that gives you hope the country can in fact survive the lunacy endemic in the current regime and give rise to a true

Turnaround One-Liners

Here’s an interesting initiative from inside a customer of mine. Their Sales Ops support has just gained an excitable fresh momentum from one of their best and longest serving reps being awarded a sabbatical, with nationwide remit to improve individual sales skills. One of the first things he’s