Topic

quirky

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

Sales Team Schoolyards

Can’t kids be incredibly cruel? The kinds of abuse and torment metered out in playgrounds by people under three feet high can be astounding. Usually, the nightmare stops before long trousers become the order of the day. Monday was another crazily hot day in London; it’s August in

Failings of hardwork & effort

Yes, yes, I know this is jokespam, but what the hell. One of my muppet pals sent me this, despite my telling him not to include me in such nonsense emails. It reminded me that fairly regularly customers of mine (all sales people) send me right dodgy stuff. It’s

Nothing better to do?

If you’re thinking of buying Leach Lewis Plant wares, consider this carefully. In clearing out a load of old files, I came across this amazing letter, in response to a pre-cold-call mailer. Their then top man, a certain J P Leach, deigned to pass on the pearls of his

Picking Up The Phone, part 712, a

How many times in my career have I had to grapple with the lack of telephone activity from a rep? Like just about everyone of us, the answer must be loads. Even to the extent of having days when you yourself just can’t seem to get motivated to have

Sports Psychology Lessons

Businessmen have long sought the wisdom of successful sporting greats, yet I just came across a fella that advises sports teams through business principles [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/6222777.stm] called Humphrey Walters [http://www.humphreywalters.com/]. What grabbed my attention was his attachment

Gandhi the Sales Guru

Battling against 70 mile-an-hour gusts in London the other day was a bit like walking at 45° when Cape Town’s Doctor visits, in that it wasn’t at all cold. But I thought I’d treat my self to a proper coffee at a place called Madiera Cafe near

Seeking Authenticity

Another day, another flight, this time suffering S African Airways. (It’s amazing isn’t it, when you complain in writing, all they do is send you a letter saying ‘sorry, hope you will use us in future’ – idiots, the answer is an emphatic “no”) In my seat pocket was

Promoting & Spreading Best-Practice

Ever since reading a couple of days ago about ‘sales knowledge management’ being a key issue for sales team leaders (the foot of this post [http://salespodder.com/is-your-selling-changing/]), I’ve noted a couple of entertaining happenings about the drive to get best-practices spread across sales teams. At one label-printing

Turn '10 Minutes of Fame' into Process

I’m often asked what other sales teams do to enliven sales meetings. Most follow a tried and trusted pattern; figures, roasting/champagne, admin, touch of training, marketing/production/operations update, specialist speaker. I visited a product-labelling business last week where it was one of the occasions I wondered how

Stand-Up To Meeting Madness

What’s the biggest waste of a rep’s time? Well, coming second of course, but post-deal fire-fighting and spurious meetings run this close. I mention this as I had a nightmare journey to Cambridge from London. A plastic bag wrapped around a power-line and all hell broke loose on