The sales cycle consists of the time that elapses between the customer initiating the buying process, and the point at which a decision is made on which product to buy. It involves the sequence of phases that the customer goes through when deciding to buy something. Search engine listings on...
The sales cycle consists of the time that elapses between the customer initiating the buying process, and the point at which a decision is made on which product to buy. The Internet can be a powerful sales channel for Business-to-Business (B2B) sales. The same can be used to facilitate completion...
Over the last two weeks, I've been talking about Manager-to-Manager (M2M) sales in B2B environments, and how real decision-makers want you to be responsible for results and consequently have no interest in products, even if repackaged as "solutions." If I'm right about that -- and the research...
For years, American businesses have treated sales pros as second-class citizens. That's about to end, though, because in the future that's rapidly approaching, solution selling will become the soul of B2B commerce. And that's good news for the selling profession. Let me explain:The Internet transforms any product...
More effective consultative selling (or, Solution Selling) requires that sales people get better at discussing and spotting business problems, and then offer product/service solutions that solve these problems for their clients. They can do this only if they understand the challenges of operating a business. Find out...
Confession time. When I went to my first big business conference as a callow youth, they had an open hospitality bar and, long story short, I ended up in the sack with a decision-maker for a potential customer. I wasn't in Sales at the time and certainly wasn't thinking about...
I was talking to a friend of mine who's been doing commission only no draw sales for most of his adult life. He's made a good life for himself, so I asked him the secrets of his success. He's not the kind of guy...
The Internet made the business world go all weird, in ways that nobody expected. Probably the weirdest thing that happened was the transformation of product selling into consultative selling. It totally blindsided the conventional wisdom of the business pundits and made all of them look like fools. ...
Warning: there's a reason why I included the photograph at the right. That reason is at the bottom of this post. But first, some business. BNET just published my three-section critique of MBA programs. (You can find it HERE.) ...
I was recently talking to Terri Sjodin, author of the bestseller New Sales Speak: The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Wiley 2006). Smart lady. She pointed out that a B2B sales presentation isn't persuasive (meaning it won't drive buying behavior) unless it...
A while back, SellingPower magazine was doing cover stories about celebrities who are good at sales. The most memorable were probably Arnold Schwartznegger and Jay Leno, but it occurred to me that selecting celebrities (actors, politician, debutantes, etc.) for sales jobs is a game that everyone can play....
In business-to-business (B2B) firms, the legendary conflict between sales and marketing stems from a difference of opinion about what marketing should be doing. Most marketing professionals believe that they should primarily be concerned with market research, building brand equity and creating marketing materials. Most sales professionals believe that...
Get Your Customer to Sell for You!Getting Your Customer to Sell...Political risk could be a concern for someone whom you ask to help you advance a deal. Every company, no matter what the size, has internal political forces that influence everything from who gets a promotion, to whose project...
Many organisations have deployed Customer Relationship Management CRM solutions. However, the data that goes into those systems is often an afterthought. This paper is designed to help you understand how you can approach the data issues relating to your CRM. The data market is now maturing into a combined set...
It's probably a bit too early in the day for this conversation, but here goes. The other evening my wife and I were talking about our respective days. For some reason, I got talking about the concept of "consultative" sales, where you ask questions, discover needs,...
Myth: Every sale has a single, all-important point where the deal closes. Truth: Some extremely simple sales processes have a defined close point, but complex sales processes (i.e. almost all B2B sales) have a series of points where the prospect makes a decision, even if it's just...
I've been thinking about this for some time and it seems to me that brochures are pretty much as waste of paper and ink, not to mention time and resources. I know that most marketing folk swear by them, but frankly, I don't think that...
Travis Van's "Catching Flack" blog post Bad Marketing Follows Bad Sales blames Sales for not doing a good enough job communicating with Marketing about the nature of the customer base and the characteristics of a qualified lead. While I understand his point, with all due respect, the problem isn't...
At the highest level, B2B sales is really M2M sales. If you want to build a strong customer relationship that's mutually profitable, you must be capable of managing some function of your customer's business better than the customer could do it alone. And that means you've got...
It's been said repeatedly that B2B sales is all about relationships. However, relationships are difficult to forge when you're cold-calling people who don't know you from Adam. The best way to get into a customer account is through a personal referral. Please note that a...
