The challenge with talking about sales presentations is that it immediately invokes an image of a one way conversation. The only thing that can be worse is if...
Now, I’m no Anthony Hopkins, but training in acting and theater has definitely enhanced my sales career....
This new topic is presentations, which are not to be confused with pitching ideas. There are many things to look at when presenting and I am...
It seems strangely ironic that the end of our two week festival of posts on Pitching has been marked by the untimely death of veteran...
Image by flyfshrmn98 via Flickr One of the most difficult thing to get new (and even some seasoned) salespeople to remember is that...
It’s odd that when you are thinking of a subject you tend to see it everywhere. If you buy a brand new BMW, it’s guaranteed that you...
How long is your pitch? If it is more than a sentence it is too long. If it does not have a compelling slice that gets someone...
There’s nothing I like more than an exaggerated salesperson – except maybe a vigorous exaggerated salesperson (is my sarcasm registering with you? Popularity:...
There is no doubt that sales is about communicating, and as such sales is very much about semantics. For most people when they hear the word pitch they either think of...
Consultative selling is just about the only kind of selling anyone talks about anymore. We don’t push products - we solve problems....
I have a confession to make… I don’t like the title of this post… it’s not my title, but one that all the contributors to this site have to write a post on....
Without doubt, asking smart questions is one of the keys to successful selling. And for those selling complex products or services which require...
Your time in front of a prospective customer is extremely valuable. The hardest part of the sales process can sometimes be just getting...
My wife hates it when I talk to telephone sales people. She thinks I’m rude and she would rather that I just didn’t answer the phone at all instead...
You know, I was racking my brain thinking what to write about asking questions that hadn’t already been said. My fellow bloggers have pretty much...
These questions will throw you off course. Beware! Popularity: unranked [?]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "When a Question is Not a Question", url:...
Your value to your customer is not measured by what you know, but by the questions that you ask. You add value by making your customer think....
Using questions as a critical component of successful selling is nothing new. Even those that just pay lip service to it know that it is the right...
Do you find yourself giving 40% discounts in the second week of March, in July? if the answer is yes, then it is time to succumb...
During the late 90s and early 00s I made my living improving sales processes. I lived and breathed process maps, metrics, re-engineering workshops and implementation...
The challenge with talking about sales presentations is that it immediately invokes an image of a one way conversation. The only thing that can be worse is if it included a PowerPoint presentation read by the presenter. To me selling and presenting are two different things that only on occasion and under specific circumstances go [...]
Popularity: 5% [?]
It seems strangely ironic that the end of our two week festival of posts on Pitching has been marked by the untimely death of veteran TV pitchman Billy Mays.
My fellow Sales Bloggers have quite rightly highlighted the flaws in the pitching model - particularly that it is a combatitive model of selling rather than a [...]
Popularity: 14% [?]
Without doubt, asking smart questions is one of the keys to successful selling.
And for those selling complex products or services which require positioning or tailoring in line with the client’s business issues, it’s critical to use your questions to understand those business issues.
When I first started selling large consulting projects over a decade ago it [...]
Popularity: unranked [?]
Do you find yourself giving 40% discounts in the second week of March, in July? if the answer is yes, then it is time to succumb to the current economic state and surrender. If not, what are you doing to keep sales alive?
If it is too late and you are forced to drop price to [...]
Popularity: unranked [?]
Far too many salespeople turn to their boss or company for their personal motivation to be successful in sales. This is a huge mistake, as salespeople need to be responsible for their own motivation if they want to become successful.
You might have had a sales manager or boss that was an excellent motivator in your [...]
Popularity: unranked [?]
There are many characteristics to a successful sales
manager: integrity, product knowledge,
industry knowledge, people skills, strong communicator, closer, listens, smart,
and develops people. As a
current VP of Sales, what I want to focus this post on is when to hug (support)
your sales executives and when to punch (challenge) them. As a sales manager, I understand that selling
is [...]
Popularity: unranked [?]
If you desire to make more money and work less in you sales career, then it would be in your interest to invest time in learning how to properly qualify prospective customers. More than any other sales activity we perform, this separates the winners from the losers in sales.
The #1 reason most salespeople fail in [...]
Popularity: unranked [?]
Early in my sales career, I thought a referral was nothing more than getting a phone number and a name from one of my customers. After calling a few of these supposed prospects, it didn’t take me long to realize that this was nothing more than a glorified cold call. Check that, calling it glorified [...]
Popularity: unranked [?]
