February 8, 2011 – 10:09 pm
Do you really know what your customers are thinking? Do you know what they value? Do you know which ones are complaining? About what?
David Line, President of InfoSearch International discusses how market research combined with intelligent statistical analysis can be used to build market share.
February 2, 2011 – 7:07 am
Readers of this blog have seen a lot about the indispensable value of metrics. First, ya’ gotta’ have a defined process. Then ya’ gotta’ measure it. That’s the only way to know if improvement has occurred or not, and at what rate. It’s the only way you can prove your dedication to continuous improvement. Show [...]
November 15, 2010 – 8:02 am
“A man with one watch knows what time it is; a man with two watches is never quite sure.” – Mark Twain
Yes, metrics are essential. BUT, make sure you’re sure what they’re telling you!
September 6, 2010 – 7:07 am
A comment on one of my recent posts about forecasting really got me thinking. Here’s the comment, “Managers, grow a backbone. Hold your people accountable and stop accepting excuses.” My knee-jerk reaction was violent agreement.
Then I started thinking… How effective is Atilla The Hun style management? How did I and would I react to a [...]
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 [...]
August 19, 2010 – 4:51 am
It’s quite instructive to examine the nature of offerings from the hordes of sales consulting and training firms. The overwhelming majority of them are focused on developing sales skills. Clearly, what sales managers are demanding is precisely that.
All well and good. I’m the first to violently agree that selling skills are fundamentally and critically important. [...]
August 15, 2010 – 7:24 am
“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” Winston Churchill
Don’t ever forget how easy it is to get lost in our own brilliance and lose site of the real objective.
This isn’t the first time you’ve read about The Universal Language of Business on this blog. Doesn’t matter what they sell or what their SIC code is, ALL of your customers are in the money-making business. All sales reps must therefore learn how to communicate effectively using Finance, the universal language.
And don’t tell me it’s [...]
Part of me feels really dumb doing this post. But another part of me is kind of proud. Yet another part reminds me that it’s bad form to self-promote in your own blog.
So I hope you’ll cut me some slack…
The dumb part is actually feeling great about and broadcasting the fact that The YPS Group [...]
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. [...]
