Effective selling is the result of strategic choices and operational systems, not sales efforts alone. Having a great sales force starts with sound business choices and creating operations around those choices. IDEA #1: McDonald’s didn’t become the largest hamburger chain…
Today almost every business conversation seems to start with how much things have changed. Selling is harder. Business is harder. Open any book and the first half seems to be filled with endless reasons competition is harder, whether it is…
“We must grow our revenue” is what every business owner is telling me these days. An annual survey of hundreds of CEOs places top-line growth as their number one priority for the past 5 years. That is sales folks –…
Today I was talking to a salesperson about how they get past challenging gatekeepers. He told me that he flicks a stack of index cards against his wrist to make a helicopter sound and tells the gatekeeper, “look I’m about…
We hear a lot about sales being a part of a “Wow” experience. That if we create great customer service and be memorable our clients will be loyal, buy more from us, and our sales will improve. I wonder if…
I just read a great book on Competitive Advantage by Jaynie Smith. It reminds me that most companies are saying the same stuff over and over. Want to know why customer’s aren’t excited about seeing you anymore, let alone buying…
Don’t you just love all that new technology that lets you watch movies like you’re right in the action? 3D movies that jump off the screen and into your lap. Exciting. How come then that selling has seemed to go…
Kind of a good news/bad news story here. Sales is about persuasion, about getting other people to think differently about their business, hec your business (and offerings). That can be a lot of fun. I remember one time getting of…
We all know that sales is challenging, ok hard. And it’s getting harder. Stress seems to be our daily bread. Want to know a secret that can make all the difference? Now I call it a secret because so few…
A couple of guys jumped in their truck and headed to the woods for a good day of hunting. As the truck screeched to a halt on a dusty trail the passenger jumped out. Blam, blam, blam. The sound of…