Topic

grapevine

A collection of 653 issues

Given The Game Away?

Met a decent chap this morning running a funky scene-setting business through lighting controls. Turned out they’ve only really one salesguy on the road, so not really a prospect for us (I’ve given the appointment-arranger suitable lashings whilst repeating the word ‘qualification’ in latin). He did recount one

Lessons from Stockbroker Scams

Waiting around for the Arsenal Man U showdown this Sunday, I skimmed the Sunday Telegraph’s Business section. Apparently, some shady cold-call operations are netting an obscene £600k a month conning unsuspecting gold-diggers. The scams come in various guises, including: * selling ficticious shares, even creating fake corporate websites to back-up

Another cold call approach

Searching for an evolution of a pitch for one of my products, I surfed the web to see how people may pitch something that’s brand spanking new. In doing so, I came across a small biz university site, and their advice on how to make a cold call [http:

Overcoming Reticence Bizarrerie

Here’s an interesting angle for getting your foot in the door. I met a decent chap at a prospect, called Stuart Berkeley who shared some happily experienced views of selling. We got to talking about how lazy buyers can be. Surely when your job depends on showing you’re

Robinson Sells The NHS

The Beeb’s approach over the past decade to pop-business shows is laudable. The only series I can recall being a dud was the Adrian Chiles pathetic ‘what do you do all day?’ nonsense. The rest all pursue a Radio4, Broadsheet type agenda, yet put across in plain English, and

Mercy Killings Early Doors

How soon into a new salesperson’s time do you terminate their contract on the basis of a lack of performance? Well, here’s a story to send shudders down any recruiters spine. It’s set just now in Jo’Burg. And as the world knows and connives, ‘affirmative action’

Funnelling Before Proposition

The New Year’s kicking in. All my customers don’t seem to stir from their slumber ’til next Monday, so I’m taking the opportunity to do those chores salespeople hate; housekeeping. During my tidying up, I’ve already come across some docs I picked up at a customer

Forecasting Focus

Fairly regularly I get to rant about the prevalence of all-too-abysmal forecasting routines. A pal of mine (congrats on the new baby, Bren!) currently has his charges attribute one of these tags to deals: 1. Drop Dead (you don’t miss this) 2. Commit (deals you feel will come in

Team Cold Call Incentives

A company I know have just appointed a new guy to their sales helm. I’ve heard plenty about his lack of talent, so we’ll wait for the results which at some point will tell their story either way. One of his early initiatives was to encourage more cold-calling

The Customer In The Right Story

Over a coffee this afternoon, I decided to read the emailed newsletter from one of my suppliers for a change. Y’know the thing? You get sent them regularly, but never bother reading them. I s’pose the difference with this one was that it came this time from their