Tag Archives: Best Practices

Discovery: BEWARE! It ain’t the same!

January 12, 2012 – 4:44 pm

Asking deep, penetrating questions, then listening intently, really hearing the customer’s perspective, have long been the core best practices of great salespeople.  The context has always been “understand the customer’s requirements, issues, objectives and pain points.”  Personally, I’ve long been proud of my ability to ask good questions and to listen carefully.
Then I got to [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Process Thinking | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

How unwittingly annoying are you?

October 10, 2011 – 10:46 am

Every time I become aware that I have inadvertently annoyed a business associate (i.e., customer, co-worker, colleague, whatever) I try to write down what I did.  Writing about something fixes the memory strongly and permanently.  This is one of those situations.
Trust me.  You do this, and you are annoying.
Time management.  There is not enough time.  [...]

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

Mom was right!

September 20, 2011 – 9:53 am

During a recent interview on the Sales Thinker Radio Show, our guest made a very intriguing statement:
“Many of my references come from those I did no business with.”
It’s a cool story…  Listen…

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Differentiation | Also tagged | Comments (0)

“Work with those ready to be worked with.”

July 22, 2011 – 7:37 am

“Work with those ready to be worked with.”  Pretty simple advice.  Pretty sound too.  Especially when it comes to embracing new techniques, technologies and tactics for selling more faster.  Or selling anything for that matter.
As usual, I came by this powerfully pithy insight from contact with someone way smarter than me.  This time it was [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Best Practices | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Mom Was Right (…as usual)

July 11, 2011 – 5:37 am

During a recent interview on the Sales Thinker Radio Show, our guest made a very intriguing statement:
“Many of my references come from those I did no business with.”
Being my normal, articulate self, I responded by asking, “Huh, wha’?”  Dave Ogden, the CEO of AML Communications, explained.  “You’re solving their problem for them.  You’re letting them [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Differentiation | Also tagged | Comments (5)

“Talent is not a thing. It’s a process”

June 27, 2011 – 7:28 am

I wish it had been me with such a flash of insight. But it was David Shenk in The Genius In All Of Us.  He goes on to say, “Any ability is a process that involves building up skills.  And we have to have the resources, right attitude, lots of things have to come together.  [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Continuous Improvement | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

e-Rep Is A Great Idea, But I’m Too “X”

June 25, 2011 – 11:56 am

I’ve heard ‘em all. Every reason why creating and maintaining an e-Rep is a great idea, but not for me because…

I’m too busy
I don’t know what to blog about
I’m no tech whiz
It’s too complex
It’s too hard to learn how
I’m a sales pro, not a techo-geek
Blah, blah, bull-feathers!

Oh, and let me not forget my [...]

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

Anybody Care To Debate Me About The Power Of An e-Rep???

June 7, 2011 – 8:38 am

The examples of e-Rep power and sales effectiveness just keep on coming.  Listen to this story about how a totally off-topic sales call turned into a win.  Thank you e-Rep!

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Think About It | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

e-Rep Strikes Again!

May 7, 2011 – 9:35 am

Here’s the chronology:

11/25/04 – Initial telephone contact with company president
12/17/04 – The one and only face-to-face meeting (…with the president mainly, plus a brief conversation with the founder)
12/21/04 – Original proposal for a Sales Excellence Council
01/10/05 – Opportunity recorded in my CRM as “Closed-Lost”
01/10/05 through 04/18/11 – Not a single conversation or e-mail for over [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in E-Rep | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

e-Rep: Do You Know Enough To Build One?

May 5, 2011 – 7:02 am

Are there gaps in your skill set?  Well, of course there are.  All of us have gaps.  Some of them are not so harmful.  Some of them though, need to get filled.
Are your technology skills up to snuff?  Do you really know enough to create, deploy and effectively use an e-Rep?

[...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in CRM | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)