In a few weeks I’ll be in Minnesota working with a new client. The first time I visited the twin cities was in the mid 1980’s. It was August and it was 32 degrees when I arrived. You don’t forget something like that.
When I first speak with any of that client’s team members, or anyone in Minnesota for that [...]
Filed under: Humor, On the Road | 2 Comments »
What about an article on selling written by a top sales expert? Or the online edition of the Wall Street Journal? What about a research report providing you with an in-depth, comprehensive assessment of your major competitor’s strengths and weaknesses and advice on how to outsell them? If not that, what content would you pay for on the [...]
Filed under: Research | 4 Comments »
I read an article in Fortune about Gary Reiner, CIO of GE. He has a $4 billion IT budget. That got my attention. He also runs GE’s $55 billion sourcing function. Now I was really interested.
In the article Reiner talks about the relationship between sourcing and IT. He said, “On the direct side, we were [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Competition, Measurement, Sales Tactics, Technology, sales process | 3 Comments »
We’ve just published my interview with Brian Carroll for my sales thought-leader podcast series.
Wait! Brian Carroll is a sales thought-leader?
Absolutely.
All of us in sales face a significant and ongoing challenge. I’ve written about it again and again. It’s the lack of mutual understanding, alignment, and ability to effectively and jointly execute among many sales and [...]
Filed under: Marketing, Pipeline, Relationships, sales process | No Comments »
Before I started ESR, I consulted with a small company that sold a well-know ERP system as well as their own professional services to Tier 1 automotive supplier companies (Magna, Delphi, Dana, and Johnson Controls are examples of Tier 1’s). During one sales strategy session we found ourselves faced with a challenge. One of the salesreps was determined to get [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Buyers, Presentations, Sales Strategy, Sales Tactics | No Comments »
It’s July. It’s Friday. Here’s a treat for you.* We’ll get back to the serious stuff on Monday.
Over the years I’ve had many requests for the recipe for my world-class frozen margarita. (The “world-class” designation was unanimous among the dozens of volunteers visiting our margarita testing laboratory, adjacent to ESR headquarters.)
Ingredients:
2 [...]
Filed under: Humor | 3 Comments »
I’m lucky when it comes to presenting. I started playing the trumpet in front of audiences in the sixth grade. At that point I realized that grabbing an audience’s attention give me a thrill. Once I got into the software business, during customer presentations my instrument was the keyboard. Demos were my music. Later on, I delivered [...]
Filed under: Hiring, Presentations, Professionalism | No Comments »
Coaching is the component of a sales effectiveness initiative that is most often sacrificed when costs must be contained. (More accurately, coaching workshops and post-program reinforcement for first-line sales managers are what gets cut.) Considering that coaching is the most important single mechanism for reinforcing and sustaining the impact of learning, this is a big problem.
During a podcast interview I recorded Tuesday [...]
Filed under: Measurement, Methodology, Sales Training Companies, sales training | 4 Comments »
A lot has been written about how potential new employers look at a candidate’s Facebook or MySpace page. Walter McConnell made a terrific point about a different flavor of web presence in a comment recently on the Sales 2.0 Network Blog. Walter is talking about customers seeing a sales rep’s bio or profile on the web:
It’s widely accepted now that there [...]
Filed under: Opportunity Management, Professionalism, Relationships, Sales 2.0 | 3 Comments »
An org chart is invaluable in a complex sale. When I was coaching sales teams, I refused to help a rep with a deal unless they had an up-to-date org chart. If a rep can’t get someone in the account to give them an org chart, they should be able to build one with help from their contacts.
Org [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Big Wins, Buyers, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Relationships, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies | 6 Comments »
ESR publishes independent evaluations and comparisons of sales training companies and their programs and services. (Think Consumer Reports, JD Powers, or Gartner.)
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For the past twenty years I've focused my career on the area of sales performance improvement, sales effectiveness and especially sales training.
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