Archive for June, 2008
« Previous EntriesMore Great Posts From the World of Sales Blogs
Monday, June 30th, 2008I like to “sharpen the saw” every now and then by keeping in touch with posts on the best sales blogs across the web. A couple of posts caught my eye this week:
Jeff Blackwell writes about Salesmanship and Empathy over on Brad Trnavsky’s Sales Management 2.0 blog. It reminded me of a conversation I had [...]
The Myth of Goal Setting
Thursday, June 26th, 2008One of the most often repeated stories to back up the importance of setting clear goals and targets is the “Yale 1953 Goals Study”. The story takes many forms - but essentially says that in 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. Twenty [...]
Blog Roundup #3
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008Some more posts on other sales blogs you might find interesting:
Sales Loudmouth Tim Rohrer talks about the role local marketing and advertising can play and how it needs to focus more on taking advantage of current customer behaviour than trying to change it.
Selling to Consumers guru Skip Anderson talks about the importance of positive energy [...]
We’ve Moved (again)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008If you haven’t already noticed - the Sales Excellence blog has a new home - and a new look.
I’ve moved the blog to a new (easier to remember) address - www.sales-excellence.co.uk - and upgraded the look and feel to a new theme.
Don’t forget to bookmark the new site and/or subscribe via the feedburner or email [...]
Topgrading for Sales
Friday, June 20th, 2008Brad Smart and Greg Alexander have just released Topgrading for Sales - a book focused on hiring and coaching to ensure you have only the best sales talent in your organisation.
The original Topgrading is probably the best book on recruitment and development published in the last few years - combining innovative thinking with solid research [...]
3 Quick and Simple Steps to Improve Sales in Professional Services Firms
Wednesday, June 18th, 20083 quick and simple steps that professional service firms (lawyers, accountants and consultants) can take to hugely improve their sales:
Cut the marketing and advertising budget in half
Take the money you’ve saved from this and use it to reduce the billable hours targets of your partners and get them to focus on business development activities instead
Ensure [...]
Ethics in Sales
Friday, June 13th, 2008A recent post by Colin WIlson - Are You Lying Comfortably - got me thinking about ethics in sales.
It’s something people new to, or outside of sales often worry about. How ethical is it to “manipulate” people with salesmanship to buy a particular product or service?
Positive Navel Gazing: Won Sales Analysis
Sunday, June 8th, 2008Almost every company I’ve worked for has done regular “loss reviews” when they’ve failed to win big bids. It was almost a knee-jerk raction by management - “how can this possibly have happened?” - despite the fact that the sales team often knew well in advance that they weren’t going to win.
What I see much [...]
On Passion
Thursday, June 5th, 2008The importance of passion for salespeople seems to have sparked the imagination of many sales bloggers recently - myself included. Reading the posts reminded me of my all time favourite Winston Churchill quote:
Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. [...]
Do I really need a USP?
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008It’s accepted wisdom in marketing and sales nowadays that every business needs a strong Unique Selling Point (USP). “Differentiate or Die” has become the clarion call of consultants across the globe, urging their clients to (pay them to) develop clever positioning statements showing how unique and different they are to their competitors.
But does it work? [...]
