Topic

quirky

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

Optimum Length of Tenure?

Had a thoroughly enjoyable catch-up with an old pal of mine called Anthony (wierdly Tony to his other friends!) visiting London that currently works on retail merchandising in Kuwait. Apart from insisting we had to go for a meal featuring pork (absent from Kuwaiti shelves for the usually irrational religious

Chinese Pitching Dominance

Here’s a prediction from soothsayer salespodder; the Chinese will win big in business. I bet you’re amazed at my foresight, right?! You’ll probably know I’m one of the loyal Newsnight [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm] fanbase, and they regularly run

When you don't care about customers

More rummaging through old papers over my New Year break and I came across a reply to a complaint letter I received 12 September 2002 from PCWorld owners Dixons Stores Group. The background is that I (at that time) bought all my firm’s computer gear from their stores. I

Sniff Out Destructive Double-Booking

Heard about some dubious practice that’d gone on in car parts wholesale that made me chuckle and gasp at the same time. It goes without saying that if such shenanigans can go on in your place, close the loophole…. Re-Booking Tactic One: Inside a branch, one fella was renowned

What Are They 'Open' To?

I got sent to another new biz first meet on Tuesday, and to prove I get all the glamour jobs, the company was on London’s dreaded North Circular Road, near Walthamstow stadium. And it was pouring with rain as I waited for a bus from the central station, eating

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

Sales Call Log

Here’s a funny thing. How many sales organisations have a form that you’re supposed to fill in after every sales call? US mag Entreprenuer suggests one, as evidenced by this pdf [http://www.entrepreneur.com/uploadedfiles/images/formnet/sales_call_log.pdf] . Bear in mind this mag is

Does anyone love sales software?

With one of my boiler roomers recently becoming pregnant, I was sent into the cauldron of a new business first meeting yesterday. Having plenty of time on the train to prepare and dust off the festively enduced cobwebs, our meeting began with a discussion on the delights of crm. This

Avoiding The Ugliest Process

Got reminded today of what a nasty little shock can hurt like, when a decent-looking prospect suddenly ran aground. I went on a sales training session run by the internal ‘sales ops’ guys of a software house I sold for in the early Nineties. One theme of the day was

Reminding CEOs of Sales' Importance

London’sManagement Today [http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/public/home/] mag for me frustratingly falls between two stools. In that desolate middle ground, neither broadsheet nor tabloid, it simply doesn’t have the calibre of journalism associated with the wittiest of redtopping or well-contended quality. What it should do, is