Whenever I say to someone ‘I’m a salesman’, it seems to put them on their guard. Why? Probably because the reputation of salespeople generally, is framed by the reputation of salespeople in western culture. We’re not know as philosopher poets. We’re infamous for all of the Ponzi, pyramid, get rich quick scandals that we never…
An audience’s willingness to act on your recommendations frequently depends on the severity and breadth of change you’re suggesting. In other words, your audience’s response to you, rests on how serious your audience thinks the problem is and how dire the consequences of inaction. ‘It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory. ‘…
Holiday reading, staying in a friend’s lovely home in the green mountains north of Barcelona, Spain, I’d finished the crappy novel and trashy magazines I’d bought at the airport on the way out. What next for my idle mind while the kids were splashing in the pool? I was ‘mooching’ in the library, and I…
I was working with clients from a major UK insurance company last week. They are intelligent technical experts working as high end internal consultants looking to deliver real, tangible results through, process, technology and operational improvement. We were looking at the kinds of pitches that they do when asking for funds to deliver these amazing…
I was a loyal Napster fan- I subscribed for 4 years, and then I saw a press advert for a new offer that was £3 per month cheaper than my rate. I rang up and tried to sign up. I couldn’t. I spoke, at length, customer services person and after much frustrating chatter, the guy…
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. – Napoleon Bonaparte
Because they talk about their products and services from the wrong perspective. Inexperienced ‘sales’ people have an unfortunate tendency to talk from ‘inside to out’, rather than from the customer’s perspective in. Often the pitcher will start by describing their product and how it works before they get on to what it will do for…
Sometimes it’s much easier to pitch with almost no hope of actually winning because you can be. Er… honest. I was involved in a pitch a couple of years ago, right at the hard start of the bad times, where we were asked to take part in the process as an afterthought, to make up…
I’d always be very nervous when one of your team bounces into your office at the gloomiest of times and says, ‘There’s a £4 million opportunity at Lapsang Souchong Ltd, we ought to go for it…’