Category: Management
A Bit of Advice From The Bad Guys
What would Atilla the Hun do? Over the years we have turned to a number of business experts, reading their words, and stealing their ideas. We have talked about Peters, and Godin, and Tracy, and a number of other business experts. and we have benefited from all of them. Now I thought it would be interesting to delve into the […]
The Best Companies Command The Best Prices
Being the best will get you the best prices. You have to be better than everyone else. You have to be better than everyone else to win the business; not only win it, but keep it. If you are good, very good, you can be good enough to get past the price issue. If your products and your services are […]
Getting Your Salespeople to Act As A Team
For the most part sales people are lone wolves. One of the reasons they choose to be sales people is the independence, they like to run their own race. I have found that the best sales people are truly the loners. Think of Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glenn Ross. While all the other sales people were drinking together and figuring […]
Do You Have The Patience To Be A Great Sales Manager?
I once worked with a company president who hired a salesperson in a new territory on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend and fired him before the Fourth of July weekend. Befuddled, I asked him why. He told me, “Look, the guy had not brought in a single order.” I asked if he had brought in any quotes, and he […]
What A Really Good Sales Manager Does
Okay, you’re the sales manager for a 15 million dollar board shop located in the Midwest. Your sales team consists of 6 direct regional sales people and five independent sales reps; together they cover the entire U.S. and Canada. Besides managing the sales team, you also handle the company’s marketing and yes, you are also starting to dabble into social […]
What’s Wrong With Just Sticking To The Plan?
It’s amazing how much can get done when you decide to stick with it Another year another strategic plan…or worse yet another month another strategic plan. Does this sound familiar to you? Well it does to me. The most difficult thing to do when you’re a strategic consultant like I am is to make sure your clients stay focused, that […]
How Well Do Your Customers Really Know You?
As always, it’s all about the customers and more importantly, it really gets down to what your customers think about you. I want you to really think about this for a minute or two. What do your customers think about your company? What do they think about how you do business? Would they recommend you to someone else who might […]
You Gotta Keep Trying
Even after 11 tries! I read a book the other day that said that you have to make at least eleven contacts with a company before they become a customer. Eleven contacts? Wow no wonder so many people don’t make it in sales? Eleven is about eight more than most people I know, try before they get discouraged and move […]
Demanding Customers Driving You Crazy? Good Problem To Have
There is nothing dumber you can do than getting mad at a customer. What is the point? These days when it is harder than ever to get a new customer and even harder to keep that customer amidst the barrage of competition coming for all sides there is nothing more counter-productive than getting mad at one of your customers. Look, […]
Taming The Extraordinary Sales Person
We spend a great deal of time talking about how to handle poor performing sales people, those who are not making their numbers. Those who just can’t seem to get out there and visit customers, those who just cannot seem to be able to get an appointment or close a sale. There are been hundreds of books and columns written […]
