February 19, 2011 – 3:02 pm
Here’s the scenario: The company is a B2B distributor of printing equipment and supplies. It was founded by a team of three people with a financial backer 14 years ago. In 2010, their 52 sales reps brought in just over $60 million in revenue. Annual sales growth has settled in right around [...]
December 2, 2010 – 7:05 pm
“Philosophers are people who know less and less about more and more, until they know nothing about everything. Scientists are people who know more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing.” — Attributed to Konrad Lorenz
Most sales reps are quite adept at having a conversation with [...]
August 26, 2010 – 7:54 pm
There is always a danger in focusing on the tools used to get a job done. (We all know the cliché about the six-year old with a chain saw…) That said however, a robust CRM system just might be the most powerful tool a sales team can have.
A highly functional CRM system [...]
August 24, 2010 – 8:49 pm
As a group, sales managers are not big on “managing by the numbers.” Only a very few use more than a half-dozen or so measurements to monitor the quality and effectiveness of sales performance. Most rely on two, revenue and profit. They are the ultimate indicators of success, right? Why would [...]
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 [...]
I’ve blogged before about the work ethic displayed by my client in Mexico. They also have an innate sense of customer-centricity that can provide a lesson to us all. (By the way – I urge you to read this all the way through, AND collect a few case studies from your own team, before you [...]
The title of this post is a quote from William Gibson. Whoda’ thunk a science fiction writer would have such a compelling insight into the power of the E-Rep?
(You remember E-Rep, right? Your electronic alter-ego? You’re working diligently right now transferring all that unique knowledge and insight currently trapped inside your brain to your blog, [...]
Friendly violent debates are really a lot of fun. They’re also the best way to practice selling complex ideas. Fortunately for me, there are lots of folks ready, willing and able to have no-holds-barred, free-for-all arguments about my allegedly brilliant ideas. One of my favorites involves the traditional “sales funnel” metaphor.
I still hold it near [...]
March 10, 2010 – 12:32 pm
Actually, I have been saying it myself; for over ten years now – for my whole career really. “It,” in this case being this blog post. It talks about process, it talks about metrics, it talks about best practices, it talks about CRM – daily use of CRM, it talks about sales and marketing working [...]
February 23, 2010 – 7:01 pm
Sales is notorious for being the most expensive yet least accountable department in just about any organization. It’s quite interesting to watch what happens when a sales manager increases rep accountability with a monthly territory review process.
Monthly territory reviews, one rep at a time, have always been a key fixture in our Sales Process Engineering [...]
