As a sales rep, you know better than anybody what your customers and prospects need to know. You’ve done your research. You know their issues, challenges and objectives. You know the value they could accrue by using your stuff. They just won’t take the time to meet with you and listen! Well, maybe it’s you [...]
My new gig as a business radio talk show host is turning out to be WAY more interesting – and potentially lucrative – than I ever expected. I’m beginning to think I may have stumbled into a big-time powerful sales strategy. And I think it’s one that can implemented by darn near any sales professional.
For [...]
Everybody knows that solving the customer’s problem is the key to making the sale. That’s most certainly true. Remember though, that huge advances in technology, communications and knowledge management have made many types of problem-solving a whole lot easier. Issues that used to occupy a senior, highly paid engineer are now handled by a rookie [...]
Screw-ups happen. Sometimes it’s our own goof. Sometimes it’s someone else’s goof, but we’re the party responsible. Sometimes we just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Doesn’t matter. When the customer is upset or simply has unmet expectations, somebody has to step up and handle the situation. Somebody has [...]
Here’s my contention: Finding yourself frequently acknowledging, “I don’t know,” is a signal that you have become a superior sales rep.
Huh?
Before you conclude I’ve finally lost it completely, allow me to note that I’m not referring to situations where the question is about your products or services. Those answers, you need to have. Customers will [...]
Perhaps it’s not politically correct to talk about the role of power in business. We all know, however, that dealing with and wielding power is a day-to-day reality for sales reps.
Step one is understanding the four fundamental types of power:
Position Power – derives from rank and/or authority. The title “CEO” carries more [...]
Guest post by Rick Howe, CEO of The Knotts Company
Be a Why-ner!
What is your best question when you are engaging a customer through your selling process and their buying process? Even though I am no longer on the front lines selling, I am still a salesman at heart and when I listen to salespeople [...]
The first draft of this post started with the recommendation that all sales reps should start a blog. After pondering a bit on the reasons behind the recommendation though, it became clear that a prediction was more appropriate.
All sales reps will blog.
I’m not sure when the prediction will come to pass, but, with the exception [...]
According to British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, 150 is the “cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships.” Simply put, you can’t have more than 150 friends and business associates. Establishing that 151st contact causes a weakening of some other relationship.
Obviously, it’s not quite that cut and dried. [...]
Every sales rep, manager and executive must have, use, add to and delete from an RSS Reader. It’s a truly outstanding means to feed your brain and ensure a habit of life-long learning. In my view, it’s the 2nd best one out there.
Given their power and how long they’ve been around, I had assumed pretty [...]
