I had an interesting conversation last week with a professional buyer who joined a sales team selling into the transportation sector just before the markets went pop. Inevitably our conversation turned to 2010 and his very interesting resolution. Q: How has your organisation coped with the last 12 months? A: “We are alive and kicking and [...]
The first British executive has been jailed by a UK court for corrupting foreign officials, reported the Guardian Newspaper on 14th April 2010. It sends a warning to sellers everywhere that shady deals are no longer permitted. Receiving leniency for cooperating with the Serious Fraud Squad investigation, the senior marketing executive with a medical device [...]
The UK press puts UK public sector buying under the microscope resulting in some fascinating insights to the nature of public procurement decisions and an impetus for better buying.
Spare a thought for the many salesmen and women who are watching helplessly as anticipated commission cheques and purchase orders vanish as the new UK government reigns in public spending to the amount of a reported 10.5 billion of projects announced in the dying days of the outgoing administration. The cutbacks detailed in The Guardian [...]
Buyers have heard it all before, which makes them a little more demanding. In short they are less forgiving when salespeople make any of the following mistakes: Not knowing enough about your own products, or the customer’s industry. The number one complaint of buyers is a lack of product knowledge on the part of sales [...]
The straight talking TV psychologist Dr Phil Mc Graw would probably have a lot of say about the typical buyer-seller relationship. He might even go as far as calling some of them dysfunctional. After all, many buyer seller interactions are missing the following key ingredients: · Open communication · High levels of trust · High [...]
Key lessons from Neil Rackham’s ‘Major Account Sales Strategy’ ‘Major Account Sales Strategy’ by Neil Rackham’s is a bible for the savvy sales professional. It is as relevant today as when it was first published in 1989. So, we dusted it off and pulled out its key points. The key message of this ground-breaking book [...]
Relationships between buyers and sellers are often dysfunctional, often being motivated by fear. For the buyer that is the fear of being talked into buying the wrong solution. For the salesperson it is the fear of missing target. Rather than working together for a win-win outcome, both sides are often pulling against each other. However, [...]
In the present environment, salespeople are delighted with the opportunity to meet with anybody who expresses an interest. But, what exactly is the purpose of that first meeting and how to maximise its success? For example, how speedily can you qualify the opportunity? To help you we have pulled some of the key points from [...]
The good news is that the market for your solution is much bigger than you think it is. The bad news is that you need a completely new way of selling in order to capitalize on it. This is the message of ‘Selling is Dead’ by Marc T Miller and Jason Sinkovitz. From time to [...]
Have you checked your spam folder recently? No doubt it is full to the brim of Viagra ads, weight loss methods, casinos and such utterly worthless messages. However, today’s definition of SPAM goes far beyond that of traditional junk mail to encompass most of today’s marketing. That is to say most marketing is viewed by [...]
I talked to a manager in one of the leading telemarketing agencies today. He told me of new offices opening worldwide and the addition of hundreds of new telemarketers. Needless I wished him and his team well. It was the only polite thing to do. However, privately I shuddered. Here is what I was really [...]
The world of public procurement is about to be rocked by a little publicized initiative that threatens to be bigger than Facebook or Twitter. It could change the future of buying full stop!
The new UK Government has implemented a policy of openness regarding how the tax payer’s money is spent. But, what are the implications for sellers?
The reality is the most buyers are poorly rewarded for the time they spend with sales people, listening to sales pitches, or viewing sales presentations. With that in mind how are you going to pay the buyer for his or her time in meeting with you? Just what will the reward be? What is Your [...]
There was a time when the worst that could happen to a salesperson was that he, or she would lose the sale. But, even more dreaded are those sales cycles that are stalled. A stage cycle gets to the stage where a salespeople needs closure. That is a definitive yes, or no, that would enable [...]
Would you be surprised to know that many large organizations require a business case for purchases of as little as €20,000? Probably not. As one salesperson told us recently; ‘I have seen more business cases in the past year than I have in the previous 19 years’. With budgets being squeezed in response to the [...]
You know the song ‘you say tomato, I say tomatoe – let’s call the whole thing off!’. Well buyers sometimes feel that way when dealing with salespeople. For example, when it comes to looking at orders and how they are won, there is a fundamental duality between vendors and buyers. Here is why: Vendors are [...]
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