Monthly Archives: July 2010

Quick Thought For Week of 7/18/10

July 18, 2010 – 8:07 am

Does a 17th century French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer have something to say to 21st century sales reps about “push” and “pull” and their relative effectiveness in getting commitment?
“We never understand a thing so well, and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.”  — Rene Descartes

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Quick Thought | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Piling On The Pile – Still MORE On The Most Useless Metric In Sales

July 17, 2010 – 3:38 pm

Dave Brock started the mudslinging at a useless forecasting metric, then Anthony Iannarino piled on.  These two guys are right on the money – again – and I can’t help but throw another log on the fire.
A common assumption by sales leaders…  Allow me to re-phrase:  A common dumb assumption by sales leaders is that [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Metrics | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Three Things That Kill CRM (…and how to counter them)

July 16, 2010 – 8:44 am

According to the best research I can find, roughly 2/3 of CRM implementations fail. How can this be? After so many years why haven’t sales leaders and CRM vendors figured this out?
On days when my patience is running short, my list of three CRM-Killers consists of resistance to change, intellectual laziness and fear of being [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in CRM | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Dunbar 150 – Dreamland 45,000

July 15, 2010 – 10:45 am

Two colleagues and I have decided to profoundly change the way B2B sales is executed.  (Really… We did…)
It all started last November at a barbecue joint in Birmingham, AL.  (Read about our Dreamland experience.)  At the time, none of us knew the other two also had the Don Quixote gene, ever-ready to embark on a [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in E-Rep | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

“Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.”

July 13, 2010 – 7:02 pm

Who am I to argue with General Dwight D. Eisenhower?   He made the comment in this post’s title regarding the Normandy invasion.  He was reflecting upon how little the actual battle resembled the D-Day plan; a plan that resulted from a truly stupendous effort on the part of the Allies.

[...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Best Practices | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

How Self-Absorbed Are Your Value Propositions?

July 13, 2010 – 6:15 am

What’s in it for the customer? From day one of a sales career, the necessity of thinking in that context is crystal clear. Everybody knows it. Everybody believes it. It’s intuitively obvious!!! BUT …sometimes the obvious is not so easy to execute…
Ready for another humbling experience? Here’s your mission… Randomly choose [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Value Propositions | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Quick Thought for Week of 7/11/10

July 12, 2010 – 9:22 am

Inspiration doesn’t just happen…

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Quick Thought | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Ask Why 5 Times

July 11, 2010 – 7:17 am

I know, I know, you’ve all heard the “ask why five times” cliché over and over and over.  Why repeat it again?  I’ll tell you why.  It’s because of a story I heard just last week from an extremely successful rep with more than 30 years of experience.
The story starts with our crusty old veteran [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Best Practices | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Frustrating? Sad? (…or Great News!)

July 9, 2010 – 8:03 am

I don’t quite know how to react to the feedback I’m getting on my series of selling with finance blog posts.  It ranges from comments like, “Excellent, this is so critical,” & “I commend you,” to “I wouldn’t waste my time reading this irrelevant-to-sales stuff,” and “Sorry, I skipped that post because I don’t understand [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Finance | Tagged , , | Comments (6)

ROI – For Pete’s Sake, Know What It Means!

July 8, 2010 – 5:52 pm

This is the fourth post in a series about selling with Finance, the Universal Language of Business.

Part 1: Do you speak the universal language of business?
Part 2: Selling With A “Net Cash Flow” Approach
Part 3: Cumulative Cash Flow + Payback = Committed Customer

Critical question:  Would a CEO, CFO or C-Whatever-O rather talk to you about [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Finance | Tagged , | Comments (6)