Yes, I’m talking to you. You knew exactly what I meant when you saw the headline: itinerant salespeople who move from company to company on about a two-year cycle. Of course they hope that this time will be different, that this gig will last. The problem is they are going to sell as they …
She was so close. She had worked to develop the opportunity for two years. She had created a couple of key relationships, and developed them very well. She had a good understanding of the customer’s circumstances and special needs. With help, she created a strong proposal and delivered it to her primary contact. Her …
Anyone who doubts that everything is changing must be in a stupor of some kind. From my vantage point, everything is changing. And the faster that things change the faster the value of what you currently know is evaporating. To a greater degree than ever before, sustained learning is now key to your success
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The task was daunting, no way around that. Picture yourself facing this: You’re responsible to grow revenue for a company that’s smaller than most of your significant competitors, has a narrower service offering, and no reputation outside its immediate locality. It has no structural source of competitive advantage. It’s a custom-manufacturing / service firm …
Carl (name changed to protect the guilty) stood in front of my desk, furious. He was clutching two fistful’s of paperwork. If he’d had hair, it would have been on fire. Carl was a salesperson, and had been for years. I was his newly-minted boss, and the target of his fury. And it was …
Some of what passes for “sales training” is just plain dangerous. Actually, I would label it: Highly Toxic. It is toxic to sustained improvement, to sustained sales growth, and to the careers of those who recommend, endorse, buy and implement it. It is chosen with the very best of intentions, but it is worse …
I love Bogart movies. And among my favorites is The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.Humphrey Bogart plays the character Fred C. Dobbs, a penniless American expatriate in Mexico who becomes a gold miner and strikes it rich with his two partners. Late in the film, trying to flee with the gold and losing his …