Constant Follow-up
One of the most overlooked things in sales is the constant follow-up with clients You don't have the positional-power of a manager to drive commitments, you need the power of persuasion. Persuading Aristotle by Peter Thompson is a great book on understanding persuasion. He outlines that our communication needs to convey: Ethos, Pathos and Logos: Ethos is our own credibility or speaker's authority Logos is logic or rationale we use [...]
Put a smile on your dial
While completing my undergraduate degree in the late 1990's, I took up a door-to-door commission-sales job that was run by my surfer-entrepreneur housemate. His business offered a service to reduce the chance of someone's car being stolen by etching the registration number on each of the glass window panels of the car. This reduced the car from being stolen because it required the thief to change all the glass panels [...]
What Machiavelli can teach us about long sales cycles
If you are a student of politics then you would be familiar with Niccolo Machiavelli's book, The Prince. It's one of the best books on diplomacy and avoiding "rookie" political mistakes. In managing long sales cycles you should consider what strategy will help you keep the lines of communication open during the quiet periods. Every sale has periods where the customer is determining what to do. Regular contact will keep [...]
Get out of the weeds!
While selling into large organisations, have you ever wondered if the person you are dealing with is wasting your time? You keep calling them and they are willing to speak and meet with you. So it must be going somewhere right? And here is my typical MBA-learnt response: It depends! A prospect can be wasting your time for any number of reasons: They believe in your offering but don't have authority [...]
“Zero to One” will challenge your thinking
“The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Copying others takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace; they will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.” [...]
How “Bob the Builder” can help Sales People
I'm currently reading this book by Daniel H. Pink, To Sell is Human. Pink dismisses many of the selling stereotypes that rang true 50 years ago - but are no longer relevant. He also provides some great ways to build your confidence and to avoid that "traditional hype" that does not build enduring confidence. Check out this recent HBR Podcast with the Author. Here are some of the topics that should [...]