Archive for the ‘From the Field’ Category

Weasels

Two weekends ago, I got to take my youngest daughter to a 4 year-old’s birthday party. I’d forgotten how elaborate some of these parties get, and this was a nice reminder. The parents of this little boy had hired an animal trainer to bring some critters and let the kids see them.

The highlight of the show was a weasel that did tricks. I had never seen a trained weasel and so I asked the trainer how he did it. The story he shared was interesting: “I learned a long time ago that the key to weasel training is simply teaching them what they are not allowed to do first, then helping them figure out what they are supposed to do instead.” (more…)

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Selling Isn’t Debate: Confessions of an Engineer in Sales.

I used to be an engineer before I transferred into sales in 1988. I’m guessing you’ve heard jokes about engineers in sales. Accountants, contractors, PhD’s, and lawyers don’t have stellar reputations in sales, either. Yet these professions generally are an intelligent lot. They are quite skilled at what they do, since our daily lives may depend on their specific calculations and recommendations.

Here’s how I used to sell: (more…)

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An Alternative to Traditional Performance Management, Part 1

Like a coach in pro sports, your primary function as a manager is to improve the performance of your team.

Unfortunately, traditional approaches to performance management may have initial success, but are difficult to sustain. (more…)

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Are Your Customers Buying from Your Company or Your Salesperson?

The good and bad of relationship-based sales.

The Good

Relationship-based sales methods are ideal. Most of the time those relationships are the only thing protecting you from competing solely on price. In sales training, we have a saying: “All things being equal, people buy from people they like. All things being unequal, people still buy from people they like.” (more…)

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Your Knowledge is Worthless… Until Someone Pays You For It.

In regards to your business, the expertise you have gained over the years is completely worthless… until someone gives you money for it. If you have a medical doctorate, all you really have is a bunch of student loans until you have patients, and get paid for your knowledge. (more…)

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Increase Your Communication Effectiveness 93%

When you get an email from a prospect with one of the following requests, what do you do?

Send me a quote for…
Provide us with more information about…
We’d like a proposal…
Forward us a brochure on…

If you thought, “reply by email,” you just put your prospect firmly in control of the sales process. (more…)

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Change Your Recruiting From D’Oh to Yahoo!

Even if you’re not hiring for the CEO role at a high profile tech company, bad recruiting can negatively affect morale, productivity and customer relationships. (more…)

Posted in From the Field, Sales Development, What Our Pros Know | Comments Off

Stop Cold Calling!

by Brad Massey

There are a lot of good reasons to pick up the phone and reach out to new prospective customers. When it comes to finding new business opportunities, the phone offers a high level of efficiency, is relatively inexpensive, and is a great way to gather valuable information that can help us find business.

However, cold calling isn’t really selling–it’s more closely aligned with marketing. In fact, let’s stop using the term “Cold Call” and replace it with the term “First Contact Call” (FCC). Use these FCC’s not to “make sales” but rather to qualify or disqualify further actions. After all, “making a sale” for most of us, takes more than one phone call. (more…)

Posted in Adapting Sales Techniques, From the Field, Motivation, What Our Pros Know | 1 Comment »