Posted on May 5th, 2011 by Dave Stein
When I travel to Ireland each year, one of the subjects I’m asked to cover is salesrep against salesrep competition. The way I see it, there are three levels of competitive information a rep needs to know. The first is about their competitor’s company—their size, locations, financial situation, reputation, etc. That’s all available on their [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Marketing, Sales Enablement, Sales Strategy | 3 Comments »
Posted on April 18th, 2011 by Dave Stein
This post is for all my new colleagues in Ireland—sales executives and directors, VPs, MDs, and CEOs who have been attending Enterprise Ireland and The Dublin Institute of Technology’s International Selling Programme. I’ve facilitated seven days of programmes with just one left to go. We’ve discussed sales effectiveness-building processes and strategies for building a sales [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Buyers, Competition, Opportunity Management, Presentations, Relationships, RFP, Sales Strategy, Sales Tactics | 6 Comments »
Posted on February 16th, 2011 by Dave Stein
Yesterday I had the pleasure of hosting an sales expert round table hosted by Focus.com entitled, What Advanced Selling Capabilities are Required to Win Today? Focus.com came to me asking what topic I’d like to discuss. The list is always long, but it occurred to me that a discussion among five experts in advanced selling [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Big Wins, Channel Management, coaching, Hiring, Interview, Measurement, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, social media | 2 Comments »
Posted on July 8th, 2010 by Dave Stein
Last week Miller Heiman announced Advanced ConceptsSM, their new multi-media, virtual learning offering. Clients who are using Miller Heiman’s content have been saying they want to take their application of the Strategic Selling process to the next level. The new tool provides content above and beyond what is typically offered in Miller Heiman’s programs. Miller [...]
Filed under: coaching, Methodology, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, Technology | 2 Comments »
Posted on June 7th, 2010 by Dave Stein
Braham Shnider is a pretty sharp guy. He’s president and CEO of Channel Enablers, a Australia-based sales performance improvement provider that specializes in channel management strategies and training. I flew my plane up to Norwood, MA airport a while back to meet Braham face-to-face over lunch. Fifteen-hour differences in time zones can make scheduling phone [...]
Filed under: Interview, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies | 5 Comments »
Posted on March 18th, 2010 by Dave Stein
Earlier this week I spent two days with a technology company client in New York City. As with every other tech company with which we’ve been engaged, I was asked about my opinion on demos. The discussion prompted this post. On the sell-side, the precise approach to demos will differ company-by-company, product-by-product. Selling iPhones? Demo [...]
Filed under: Sales Strategy, Technology | 3 Comments »
Posted on December 9th, 2009 by Dave Stein
I’ve been down with Swine Flu. First I thought it would just kind of breeze by… an H¾ N¾ kind-of-thing. But I did get the full rendition—H1N1 all the way. I’ve been in bed, taking care of minor things here and there, but can’t really focus my brain on a few challenging projects on my [...]
Filed under: Book Recommendation, Hiring, Sales Strategy | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 29th, 2009 by Dave Stein
As ESR continues to dig into the sales-related challenges of our clients’ companies, we often see a lack of understanding around the issue of relationships between sellers and buyers—often referred to as relationship selling. Here are some points to consider or debate (with me or among your team): Beginning in 2000, I heard sales leader [...]
Filed under: Buyers, Relationships, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies | 6 Comments »
Posted on May 27th, 2009 by Dave Stein
When the subject of hiring salespeople comes up, the Rolodex, virtual or otherwise, isn’t far behind. A salesperson’s business networks are only of some value. Certainly not as much value as many candidates would like their interviewers to believe. In my experience, a candidate’s business network is only one component of their overall Personal Capital. [...]
Filed under: Hiring, Sales Strategy | 7 Comments »
Posted on May 18th, 2009 by Dave Stein
Years ago, as VP of marketing, I was responsible for industry analyst relations. Early on I made plenty of mistakes, but as time went on I figured out how to effectively manage my company’s relationships with industry research analysts, resulting in correct positioning, sales leads and plenty of positive coverage. I vividly remember the penalty [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Industry Analyst, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies | 4 Comments »
