Archive for September, 2008

Online CRM/Contact Management Reviews

Sunday, September 28th, 2008

Jan Visser’s SalesTeamTools is a great site. Lot’s of useful articles, features and resources.
One area I’ve found very useful recently is the section reviewing and comparing online CRM/contact management tools.
If your contact/prospect list is longer than a handful of people, you really ought to be using something better than a spreadsheet or your normal emai [...]

Forget Your Competition

Friday, September 26th, 2008

It’s really important to think about your competitors when developing strategy and trying to develop a unique differentiated position for your products and services.
But when you’re selling - actually communicating with customers - thinking about your competitors, or even your differentiators, can be a huge mistake.
What customers are primarily interested in, of course, is what [...]

Avoiding the “Treacle Effect” when Selling to Big Companies

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

Selling to large companies can often feel like you’re “wading through treacle”. Progress is slow at best, and it often feels like you’ve taken one step forwards only to take two steps back.
Often the challenge is not the company itself, or even their slow decision-making processes - it’s the salesperson’s lack of knowledge of how [...]

Free Webinar Today (17th Sept) on the Real Silver Bullet in Sales: Timing

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Over my (far too many) years in sales I’ve been inspired by many great teachers - from David Maister & Ford Harding in the world of Professional Services to Neil Rackham for major sales and Paul McCord for generating referrals.
One name I recently added to this list is Craig Elias. Craig is the creator of [...]

New Specialist Sales Blog - www.constructionsales.co.uk

Friday, September 12th, 2008

For those of you in the construction industry, take a look over at the construction sales blog. There are also some very good hints and tips which apply to many other industries too.
Personally, I like the idea of specific niche blogs like this. It gives the authors a chance to really focus their posts and [...]

Is Business Development Important for Small Law Firms?

Sunday, September 7th, 2008

The Law Society (in the UK) recently released their Small Legal Business Toolkit: a guide to “Setting up, managing and retiring from practice for legal SMEs”.
The guide is mostly very thorough - it’s 161 pages of A4 and covers topics from setting up and registering your practice, structuring your firm, tax, business planning, acquiring staff, [...]