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283 Resources for

Geoffrey James

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BNET Author Biography: Geoffrey James has sold and written hundreds of features, articles and columns for national publications including Wired, Men's Health, Business 2.0, SellingPower, Brand World, Computer Gaming World, CIO, The New York Times and (of course) BNET. He is the author of seven books, including Business Wisdom of the...; more about Geoffrey James »

BNET Resources

Get Your Customer to Sell for You!: Sales managers are always insisting that sale reps should sell high, but that's not always practical. Some organizations push buying decisions so far up the chain that nobody except a CEO is likely to get face-time with the guy who's got the cash. The most obvious...; Tags: Champion, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Sales, Geoffrey James; Blog posts 2008-05-09
How Balanced are Your Sales Skills?: Everybody in sales wants to have great sales skills, but not everybody realizes that sales skills come in three varieties. Psychological skills. These are what most people think of as sales skills. They include the ability to complete a successful cold...; Tags: Skill, Sales Skill, Sales Strategy, Sales Force Management, Sales, Geoffrey James; Blog posts 2008-05-08
The 7 Deadly Sins of Sales Teams: Selling is hard work, but it's even more difficult when the sales team starts exhibiting dysfunctional behavior. Here are the seven major sins of sales teams, along with some advice on how to cope: OVERCONFIDENCE. When everyone wants to make big...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, Sales Technology, sales, sales team, Sales Professionals; Blog posts 2008-05-07
Does Your Firm Have Too Many Numbers?: I was wrapping up a second mortgage with my local bank when I noticed that, for some reason, they were now using seven-digit telephone extensions. That meant that you had to dial an 800 number and then seven more digits to reach a particular person. ...; Tags: Telecom & Utilities, Geoffrey James, phone; Blog posts 2008-05-06
Research a Prospect...in Ten Minutes: A meeting with a prospect is more likely to result in a big sale if you go into the engagement armed with solid information about the prospect's firm. Fortunately, there's no mystery to market research. Here's how the experts build a quick corporate...; Tags: Geoffrey James, Cut-and-paste; Blog posts 2008-05-05

Better Questions = Faster Selling: Questions serve three functions in a sales conversation. First, they elicit more information about the prospect, thereby allowing you to learn more about how (and if) you can help. Second, they move the conversation forward, so that you can continue to ask more questions,...; Tags: Sales strategy, Customer relationship management (CRM), Sales force management, Advertising & Promotion, Geoffrey James, Sales Rep, sales; Blog posts 2008-05-02
Seven Myths That Screw Up Sales: If your sales success isn't where it ought to be, you may be operating under the weight of one or more persistent (and pernicious) myths about selling. Here they are: Myth #1. All qualified prospect are potential customers. Truth: Only certain...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, Myth #2, sales representative, sales; Blog posts 2008-05-01
Sixty Seconds to Sales Success: There are few silver bullets when it comes to achieving sales success. Here's one, and the best part is, that for most people, it will only take 60 seconds, because they won't get past the first question. This seriously valuable process comes from Greg Wingard, the...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, sales, Revisit; Blog posts 2008-04-30
Would You Buy From an Atheist?: All sales professionals understand the importance of integrity, ethics and morality in business transactions, especially when you're on the buying end of the sales equation. With that in mind, I'd like you to answer to following poll -- before reading the rest of the...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, atheist, sales; Blog posts 2008-04-29
How to Write a Sales Letter: Yesterday, in "World's Worst Sales Letter," I posted what I believe to be one of the worst direct mail pieces in existence. I've never written sales letters for real estate companies, but here's my rewrite, as promised (the numbers refer to my explanatory...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, sales, real estate; Blog posts 2008-04-24
World's Worst Sales Letter?: I just received a letter that is one of the worst examples of direct mail marketing I've ever seen from a major corporation. It's a real estate pitch, but the style and content is representative of lousy marketing everywhere. Here is the turkey,...; Tags: Geoffrey James, sales, real estate, direct mail; Blog posts 2008-04-23
How "Quid Pro Quo" Selling Works: I've recently been writing about selling "Quid Pro Quo," a concept popularized by sales guru Bob Beck, author of the book Mutual Respect. Beck believes that small companies must always demand that their clients make some kind of sales concession for every action that the...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, Bob Beck, customer contact, Quid Quo Pro, sales; Blog posts 2008-04-22
Stop Consulting for Free: Selling B2B is "consultative," but there's a point where you need to turn the meter on. The concept of "consultative" selling is that the sales professional should be adding value from the very start of the customer relationship. However, if that concept is taken too literally,...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, Selling B2B, consulting, sales, sales professional; Blog posts 2008-04-21
Will Your Sales Strategy Work?: There are as many sales strategies in the world as there are companies that have sales forces. Even so, it's extremely easy to find out whether a company has a sales strategy that's going to fail, regardless of the details. Just ask the...; Tags: Sales force management, Geoffrey James, sales, strategy, sales strategy, DOES IT; Blog posts 2008-04-18
Lead Generation Made Easy: I'm doing a set of three live webcasts for BNET about using online conferencing (aka webinars, online meetings, webcasts, etc., etc.) to speed the sales cycle. You've got to register for them, but they're free. The first webcast is "Increasing Leads with Web Conferencing"and it's about...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, sales, Webcast, Web conferencing; Blog posts 2008-04-17
Are You a Top Salesperson?: Think you have what it takes to be a top salesperson? According to Ron Willingham, author of Integrity Selling for the 21st Century, top salespeople, regardless of industry, share the four specific characteristics: Complete goal clarity. Top salespeople have clear, specific, written-down statements...; Tags: Geoffrey James, top salesperson, salesperson; Blog posts 2008-04-16
Can Sales Save America?: I just received a DVD of a fascinating new PBS documentary, "The NEW Selling of America," which claims that America's best hope for a better economic future lies in our ability to generate better sales professionals. Here's an excerpt from the promotional materials: In...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Manufacturing, Strategy, Geoffrey James, sales, New Selling; Blog posts 2008-04-15
How to Negotiate Final Terms: Many sales pros clutch when it comes to negotiating final terms. When the almost-customer pushes back, or comes up with a last-minute demand, the sales pro caves, afraid to lose the sale at the tail end of the process. The result is a deal that's less profitable, and a...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, sales pro, sales; Blog posts 2008-04-14
Seven Keys to Great Sales Questions: You can't understand a prospect's true needs and desires without asking the right questions during your sales calls. Here are the seven keys to productive "information gathering" when you're speaking with a prospect: Plan the conversation. If you don't know what questions...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Geoffrey James, sales; Blog posts 2008-04-11
Ten MORE Common Sales Mistakes: Last week I posted what's proving to be an extremely popular post, "Ten Common Sales Mistakes". In that post, I asked if I had missed any common mistakes and, as I expected, my brain trust (that's you folk) came up with ten more. ...; Tags: Sales strategy, Sales force management, Strategy, Geoffrey James, sales; Blog posts 2008-04-10