The four elements–water, fire, earth and air–are reflected everywhere: in landscaping, architecture, design, martial arts and in many different philosophies. In my new blog series, we’re going to have a look at how they are reflected in sales. Let’s begin with the first element–water. It could be said that everything begins in water. According to ...
Even as sales people, I am sure I stand correct in assuming that a lot of us have found ourselves on the opposite end of a sales pitch and couldn’t wait for it to be over with. Then you sit back and ask yourself: “I wonder how many prospects viewed me the same way?” A ...
It used to be that a buyer was guided through a purchase decision, start to finish, by a salesperson. But a recent study by Corporate Executive Board, conducted on more than 1,400 B2B customers, discovered that, on average, B2B buyers make nearly 60 percent of a purchase decision–including pricing, solution research, establishing requirements, benchmarking and ...
“To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person” – Bruce Lee I had a very interesting conversation the other day with a former colleague of mine, Bruce Wedderburn (who will be featured in an upcoming expert interview), and the concept of self responsibility in sales came up. And as I reflected ...
In pursuing complex enterprise accounts, a significant challenge that sales teams face is long, drawn out sales cycles. Working a major enterprise opportunity can take months or even years–and even then it may or may not be won. As those precious hours, days, weeks and months go by, all the negative factors increase: doubts, risks, ...
Depending on which sales course you took, you as a salesperson were probably taught to identify and set meetings with buying influences–known as economic buyers, technical buyers or recommenders. While it’s important to engage a prospect company’s buyers, be sure to prepare for one more entity: your buyer’s reptilian brain. This particular buying influence isn’t ...
Last week I was looking to buy a new computer, an additional one I could travel with. I called a few companies to ask a few questions and get a few estimates. Not one who knows much about computers, I was relying on some advice and a little research I had done. When I narrowed ...
This week, I think the universe has been “telling” me to write this blog post. It must be a sign when I can look back at this week and recall 1 face-to-face meeting, 2 phone calls, and 9 (yes nine) emails–every one of them aimed at directly getting me to buy or getting me to ...
