Topic

sales knowledge management

A collection of 49 issues

Sales Report Recording Trends?

I downloaded a frustratingly sparse and primitive white paper the other day on ‘sales 2.0’ which, for all its banal pronouncements, did feature one juicy observation: > “Cold calling, qualification, appointment setting, and customer service are important steps in sales, but they are not the best use of highly

Monty's Insight

I caught a chastening documentary on how the Allies managed to prolong the war in Europe and needlessly increase the pyre of bodies, due to internal strife, egos and mistakes of the commanders towards the end of 1944. In a narrative where no leader escapes blame, here’s a quote

Lessons Learned Exercises

The head of the army, Sir Richard Dannatt, announced his 3-year tenure will end in August. During the round of subsequent media appearances, I caught that he’d just “kicked off” a “lessons learned exercise” of the operation in southern Iraq. This begins now as one had already been done

Chandler's Plea For Integrated Learning

I think we all acknowledge that traditional training – typically a day or two scattered around the year on almost random, standalone topics – does not yield results. Yet common ground is hard to find on any precise nature of a preferable on-going model. My personal approach is to deploy a recording

Sales Reporting Opportunity Cost

Here’s an interesting discussion I had the other day. A company with a field-based salesteam bought salesforce.com a while back with the usual lamentable side-effects. Then they wanted their post-sale delivery people to fill out a new form on potential lead opportunities that their privileged access detected at

Wiki Wacky Wonky

Imagine this scenario. You meet someone involved in sales management. Their current gripe does indeed appear to render them unusually grumpy. They instituted a kind of wiki. The idea was that the sales people in the field would create and add to the collective knowledge of the team by sharing

Knowledge Growth Priorities

I experienced the disarming event of being ‘flamed’ the other day. As I felt sure that the flamer could perhaps modify their stance upon a moment’s reflection, I sent a courteous and considered response. The episode prompted me to look up their website, and I found a tasty morsel

Cloudforce London

I’ve always wanted to admire salesforce.com crm. Yet I remain unconvinced that their flagship product helps salespeople in my b2b solution arena in the ways they suggest. My experience needs context. This is that traditional sales automation software is even worse. And that I firmly believe support of

Improving Team Skills

I recently read a frustratingly impenetrable article [http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/08407?gko=31376] which had piqued my interest through its broken promise to provide insight from the doyen of knowledge management, Ikujiro Nonaka. Every single salesteam I encounter struggles with how to unlock the nous of their

What Info Is Thin On The Ground?

From the blog of a London Business School strategy prof, I happened across an explanation of how people become seen as beacons of killer info [http://freekvermeulen.blogspot.com/2009/01/information-overload-and-how-to-deal.html] . When I deliver solutions aimed at spreading best-practice throughout each nook and cranny of a salesteam, the