What does your customer list look like? Have you sold to a diverse range of organisations or have you got a highly specialised portfolio? Ask yourself whether this was through design or just how it is. Unless you are tasked with developing a vertical sector or territory it is likely that you have a mix [...]

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I’m sitting at Heathrow Terminal 5 waiting for my flight home to Newcastle.  I am tired.  Tired in a pleasant way because I’ve spent the last few days on a narrow-boat meandering down the river Thames around Oxford with friends.  The excuse for this trip is the impending marriage of a good friend at the [...]

Filed under: Training & development | 1 Comment »

Finding and creating sales is tough, particularly in this economy. So much time and effort is spent developing an opportunity yet little thought tends to go into the construct of the deal. Research has identified some troubling statistics. For example: Just 5% of organisations believe their sales people negotiate effectively A whopping 85% of organisations [...]

Filed under: High value selling, negotiation | No Comments »

I spent time with a new client earlier this week whose sales force is 90% telephone based.  What impressed me was the volume of calls going out (okay, that’s the job – I know).  However, this got me thinking about my experiences over the last 8-10 years where ‘activity’ levels often (not always I hasten [...]

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