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quirky

ideas and experiences with a selling angle that come from left-field

Truly Meaning Sorry

I was talking the other day with the head of an Account Management unit. He explained the difficulties thrown up by having to handle the inevitable glitches of service delivery that crop up whilst you are trying to sell the next deal in. As can often be the bizarre way,

Cold Calling Regimes

What is the one part of selling that most sets apart management from reps? It’s got to be cold calling. You can run deeper than this too. Think less of call centre style measurement of how much time is spent on outgoing dials, rather being forced to pick out

Fresh Phoning

There are all sorts of synonyms for cold calling. Appointment making, canvassing, prospecting, smoke-stacking. There’s just four. The understanding though, is universal. Your approach is unsolicited, unexpected and probably unwelcome. Like many a pseudonym, alternate names are meant to make a dish more palatable. They are euphemisms. Cold calling

Colour Blocks

[http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/galleries/TMG8848046/1/Whats-the-colour-of-fashion.html] Here’s a link as it appeared in The Telegraph the other day which caught my eye. If you click through, it seems plenty of haute couture names associate themselves with a specific colour. I was particularly taken with the

Spiffs

I got asked for opinions on prospecting rewards the other day. I have plenty. In the 90s, I once awarded prizes among my salespeople on such mandated telesales days. Most bookings gets a gleaming pressie. Simple, right? The background was that for a while I sought to fill our collective

Would You Do Business With This Man?

Sales force dot com. They had a chance to break the mould, yet are they simply same old same old? I was privy to a big pitch they delivered recently. Their area head honcho revelled in his spiel. One question came from the floor that each attendee seemed to remember

Sharing The Pane

I learned about this neat fob-off when searching on cold call tactics. An East Midlands glazer that claims never to cold call show this press clipping [http://www.doorsnottingham.co.uk/nuisance.htm] via a lady called Lottie from Fulham: > My father, an extremely courteous gentleman of 80, on

Travelling Salesman Problem

It’s official. The humble honey bee has greater brain power [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/bees-route-finding-problems] than a field rep. How many sales managers will groan with agreement? Not sure how those of us pounding the streets will take this revelation, mind you. As the

Passion Before Reason

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume] At the start of my second ever day of sales training, the old sage conducting affairs wrote up on a flip chart the following teaser; the decision to buy is ____% emotional and it was open forum to fill in the blank with a

Steve Jobs Soundbites

When the man credited with disrupting at least three mega-industries died this week, the out-pouring of accolades was akin to that for a beloved rockstar. The most often played clip came from the above speech. Don’t settle. Only strive to do what you love. Stay hungry, stay foolish. It’