The bathwater. The baby. New is better.
Too frequently a “new” sales practice comes out that’s the next answer for every sales woe (and you should buy the book and attend the seminar too).
With the “new” comes the exhortation that the “old” was a failure, or else why would you need the “new”?
But some of the old sales practices (used appropriately) (more…)
1 comment May 12th, 2010
Sales people have strange beliefs.
Not you.
Some of them though.
They must have, judging by their actions with customers.
Here are a few interesting ones. What do you think? (more…)
Add comment May 3rd, 2010
Business is simple. It can be hard, but it’s simple…to understand.
Take selling service contracts.
Or, managing those who sell them.
Or, increasing sales.
It all comes down to dots. (more…)
Add comment April 20th, 2010
There is no low hanging fruit. Not anymore. Only incremental improvements
You’ve tackled the low hanging and enjoyed the returns. That leaves only incrementals.
The good news is you have an infinity of ‘em – the bad news is your time and effort.
Who has the time? Your competitor does. The industry leader does. The newbie-upstart-taking-the-world-by-storm does. (more…)
Add comment April 9th, 2010
Moving up the business food chain requires understanding nuances, whether as an employee inside or salesperson from the outside.
Yet there are business practices that occur 1,000s of times and we botch them as if we have our head in a bucket.
Simple little things, but with huge impacts.
Like this one: What’s the difference between a meeting and a presentation? (more…)
Add comment April 1st, 2010
60,000 = a rough ballpark* for the number of words a customer will read when reviewing four to six contractors’ sales proposals.
1 = the number of contractors a customer will select as their final choice in a bid process.
Of course other factors go into customers’ selections. However, the bulk of the details they’ll receive are in proposal documents. (more…)
Add comment March 26th, 2010
As a consultant, I’ve seen an unintentional decision playing out among large service contractors (those with dedicated sales resources) and smaller firms as well. Most of these firms are committed to improving sales, but they’re focused almost exclusively on improving efficiency, not effectiveness.
Sales effectiveness and efficiency can sound like vague generalities, but deciding which to improve first greatly affects the size of results and when they’ll be seen. (more…)
Add comment March 19th, 2010
I’m recovering from the flu and as you can tell by this post’s title my crankiness hasn’t left. So here are a few gripes about business dealings as seen from the customer’s POV (point of view), that’d be mine.
And if there are business lessons here, they’re about how we should be mindful of what we say, or do to our customers. Or we’ll get a message from them saying “What’s Wrong With You?” (which I’m fully expecting after this post). Here’s what we’ll look at:
1 comment March 10th, 2010
An article in today’s New York Times describes a possible change in the way federal contracts are awarded, and it specifically calls out facility service contracts.
Plan to Seek Use of U.S. Contracts as a Wage Lever
The Obama administration is planning to use the government’s enormous buying power to prod private companies to improve wages and benefits for millions of workers, according to White House officials and several interest groups briefed on the plan.
By altering how it awards $500 billion in contracts each year, the government would disqualify more companies with labor, environmental or other violations and give an edge to companies that offer better levels of pay, health coverage, pensions and other benefits, the officials said. (more…)
Add comment February 26th, 2010
Is the only benefit of sales personnel their ability to secure a signed contract?
Consider this; you’re the one responsible for bringing on new business, you’re boss oversees your sales efforts as well as all other business performance.
As a result, your boss looks at the bottom line performance of sales, which means what’s been sold this month. (more…)
Add comment February 18th, 2010
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