We’ve all seen a major sales initiative that fails to deliver the results expected, for example from a sales force restructure. But what’s the root cause of the failure? Here I will explore the reasons hidden in the background and … Continue reading
I have attended far too many brainstorming sessions which have not been framed to make them useful. The science is in. Brainstorming doesn’t work. When and why you need ideas In sales, we will want to come up with creative … Continue reading
I came across two particularly good articles on how to interview and screen a sales person. The first by Dave Kurlan provides an insightful list of 10 behaviours you’d want to see, and 10 bad ones too. He likes it … Continue reading
Recently I was explaining solution sales to a colleague who works in operations and I highlighted that a solution sales person should genuinely care about whether their proposed solution will actually work in the client’s environment. This was to contrast … Continue reading
Broadly, you can categorise what is being sold on a continuum between services and product sales. Within service sales there are further distinctions you can make. A new sales person who is asked to sell commoditised products like PCs or … Continue reading
Understand the characteristics of the services Training for a salesforce that is goaled on complex services or solution sales is markedly different to the training for a heavily product-oriented salesforce. Further, there is a distinction to be made with these … Continue reading
