Sales Strategy and How To Build One

Regular visitors to our blogs will know sales strategy features strongly in our thinking, and especially as a fundamental component of Reengineering Sales Management. Our book explains in detail the why’s and hows of sales strategy, and even includes a template to get readers started on developing their own, to fit their business, in their [...]

If Only Politicians Could Think Like Sales Managers

With our economies stuck in the doldrums, economists always getting it wrong, and politicians not knowing what to do, somebody needs to bring new ideas to the conversation. To me, that sounds like a job for a sales manager. OK, that might sound like a bit of a stretch. Sales managers are great people. They [...]

Is There Stratagem in Your Sales Strategy

Is there a role for stratagem in your sales strategy? There is, but probably not the one you might automatically consider. The objective of stratagem in this concept isn’t laying a trap for your prospect. It’s laying a trap for your competition. One of the Principles of Professional Selling is Never Mislead a Customer. Fooling [...]

What’s Your Sales Model

What do we mean by Sales Model and why is it important? And isn’t this all a little too intellectual? Why are we wasting time talking about theory while, out there, people are spending money with somebody else? These are all good questions. If you are the sort of sales professional who can sell anything [...]

The Difference Between Selling Product and Selling Solution

Is there a diference between selling a product and selling a solution? Over recent years all sorts of marketing and sales people have transformed their pitches. Products were out, and solutions were in. Great news. Something different to talk about, and an escape from the pressure on features and price. Customers liked it. There’s an [...]

Your Sales Playbook

Your sales strategy is simply a playbook – what the sports coaches call the predetermined moves you’ll make in particular circumstances set by the opposition. For a sports playbook you need to understand and stay within the rules of the game. You need to research the opposition’s past performances, seeing how they exploit weaknesses. You [...]

What Sales People Can Learn From Supply Chains

Professional buyers can teach sales people a lot about selling. In fact sales people can learn a lot about selling, when they’re buying for themselves. But there’s one aspect of buying sales people will not learn on their own – the supply chains professional buyers build. Supply chains are interesting, because they seem to contradict [...]

Who Needs a Sales Strategy

Why do you need a sales strategy? Surely success in sales and sales management is all about tactics – individual responses to unique customer needs. No two customers, no two opportunities, and no two sales deals are the same. The only strategy any sales manager can make work is “whatever it takes”. Do whatever is [...]

A Role for Sales People in 2012 – Customer Experience

Is there a role for sales and sales management in 2012 and beyond? The traditional sales tasks in prospecting, pitching and closing seem to be redundant now the Internet has enabled customers to do their own research, and marketing to do the pitching. Maybe 2012 is all about transitioning the role of revenue generation from [...]