John O' Gorman

From Sales Person to Trusted Advisor – Making The Transition

From Sales Person to Trusted Advisor – Making The Transition

Wouldn’t your job be a lot easier if your customers and prospects saw you as a trusted advisor, rather than a salesperson? Well if the answer is ‘yes’ then ‘Trust-Based Selling by Charles H. Green’s is a must read. Do Buyers Trust Salespeople? The reality is that the words ‘sales’ and ‘trust’ are rarely used […]

 John O' Gorman

Want to Build Trust? Then Minimise Buyer Risk

Want to Build Trust? Then Minimise Buyer Risk

Finding the issue of trust a little difficult to deal with? Well, look at it interms of the buyer’s risk can help. Specifically the risk of making the wrong buying decision and the consequences in terms of; embarrassment, annoyance and cost. Your concern for and efforts to reduce the buyer’s risk are probably the most effective […]

 John O' Gorman

Buyers Think Lean, But Can You Sell Lean?

Buyers Think Lean, But Can You Sell Lean?

We met with some pharma buyers around a barbeque recently.  Although the food was rich, the talk was of lean.  Lean manufacturing, lean distribution, lean marketing and of course lean buying! Naturally ‘lean’ is a word that appeals to buyers, more than sellers.  That is because rather than spending more it means: Doing more for […]

 John O' Gorman

Try Walking A Mile In The Buyer’s Shoes!

Try Walking A Mile In The Buyer’s Shoes!

Indeed, to understand the full complexity of the purchase requires that the salesperson ‘walks a mile in the buyers shoes’. That is because as the Spanish puts it ‘it is much easier to be in the bullring, than to talk about bulls’

 John O' Gorman

Big Name Suppliers Get The Boot

Big Name Suppliers Get The Boot

Yet another big IT project is in trouble reports the The Guardian.  The 750 million UK electronic border control project was awarded in 2007 to a consortium that included Raytheon, Serco, Accenture, Detica and QinetiQ.  Some 3 years later The Home Office has sacked The consortium and is seeking to award the contract to another. […]

 John O' Gorman

BEWARE: There Is Always A Buying Process

BEWARE: There Is Always A Buying Process

Just because the steps involved in making a major purchase are not documented, does not mean that there is not a process, even a sophisticated one.

 John O' Gorman

Buyers Have Funnels Too!

Buyers Have Funnels Too!

Sales people are not the only ones who have funnels, buyers have them too!  I will let the IT Director of a large multi-national explain: ‘Last year we had 300 million worth of projects for consideration across the organisation, but only a budget of 100 million.   That meant we were faced with some very hard […]

 John O' Gorman

Public Sector Buyers Ask ‘Where is the MEAT?’

Public Sector Buyers Ask ‘Where is the MEAT?’

In public Sector Buying Price Is Over-taken By Most Economically Advantageous Tender, but what are the implications for how you sell?

 John O' Gorman

Better Buying Here We Come

Better Buying Here We Come

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.

 John O' Gorman

Mass Scrapping of Public Projects Causes Seller Woe

Mass Scrapping of Public Projects Causes Seller Woe

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 […]

 John O' Gorman

9 things unforgiving buyers don’t like

9 things unforgiving buyers don’t like

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 […]

 John O' Gorman

How Misreading the Buying Decision Could Cost You the Sale

How Misreading the Buying Decision Could Cost You the Sale

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 […]

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