Topic

quirky

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

Get Positive or Roll Over, Loser

I was having one of those semi-intellectual chats you have after a bottle of fine 12-year old single malt whisky, with a top pal of mine. He’s quite into reading books on business and gave me a hefty tome from 91, called The Great Reckoning by James Davidson &

It's Not About You

I’ve recently been trying to buy some new toys for my sales guys. And I’ve become infuriated beyond belief by the lack of care, appreciation and genuine interest the sales guys selling to me consistently showed towards me. For sure, they were all pally-pally. Cracked the funnies. Tried

Don't be a Magpie

Today I heard someone messing up, derided as a Magpie. Not knowing precise characteristics of said bird, fortunately the speaker immediately explained to the embattled salesperson for all our benefit. “You look from up on high, see something glisten and swoop down onto it, then move on when something else

Life On Mars persistence

I felt starved of genre-defining drama on TV since the turn of the new millennium. The 90s gave us innovative gems such as This Life, Between The Lines and Cracker, with even the Americans rising above their normal moral evangelism with the first season of NYPD Blue. But what’s

Ask for the order, please

I’ve been doing loads of interviews over the past ten days or so. And it’s really starting to do my head in. Spending a good while on the phone with potential candidates is a winner, yet even when they sound fairly good, it can all fall to pieces

Training isn't Permament

I’ve long got frustrated at salesforces that have a boat-load of training, which then never seems to make a difference. What typically happens, is that any info imparted goes in one ear and out the other. Actual ‘Recall’ of what was run through can be pretty low even the

Sigmoid Thinking

I had to run through some old notes from a few years ago earlier this afternoon to find something on how seismic shifts in sales strategy can be made to happen. I came across notes from two Directors, speaking at company sales conventions. Both were done around the same time

Glass Must Be Half-Full

I was at a sales meeting of a company with 21 reps the other day. There’s a legacy battle going on there, as historically many of the reps were actually Agents. That is, non-salaried employees, paid on a commission-only basis for their specific, exclusive territory. Now, you’d think

Seeking out that extra drive

Working on improving the communication around a global sales team earlier in the week, I was reminded of a terrific story from a former sales guy. The current President of this €150m business, a winner called Mark Kelly, started out life selling plumbing equipment. He took particular pleasure in beating

Valentine's day selling

Every restaurant’s fully booked tonight and all I hear on the radio is soppy love songs. Thankfully the usually banal chat by the djs is a bit better today. I’m in Cape Town and on my drive to work this morning, both Kfm and 5fm had a kind