Category Archives: Sales

How to Differentiate Yourself from the Competition by Empowering the Buyer

The third core concept of CustomerCentric Selling states: People Buy from People Who Are Sincere and Competent and Who Empower Them. Let’s try to figure out what this means to the salesperson! In today’s competitive market, a salesperson must be sincere and competent merely to get the opportunity to compete. But possessing these qualities are […]

Take the Time to Diagnose before You Offer a Prescription

Imagine going to a doctor you haven’t met previously with a problem like lower back pain. The minute you walk into the doctor’s office and voice your problem she – without asking a single question about your condition – hands you a pre-written prescription and says, “take two of these pills three times a day […]

How to Have Meaningful Discussions with Top Decision Makers

In their book called CustomerCentric Selling, Michael Bosworth and his co-authors present their core concepts for reframing the concept of selling. The first principle they describe is “You get delegated to the people you sound like”. They Don’t Call High Enough – But Why? Sales managers often complain that their salespeople “don’t call high enough”, […]

Reframing the Concept of Selling

CustomerCentric Selling is strongly based on the idea of reframing the concept of selling. What does this mean?

Selling – Is It an Art, Science or Both?

The debate over art versus science in sales has been running for decades. A popular myth about selling has that it’s an art, which can be practiced successfully only by sales people born with the “gift of gab” and that science has nothing to do with it. But when you look at world’s top sales […]

Making Pipelines and Forecasts More Accurate

Even with today’s sophisticated CRM and SFA systems, sales forecasting is still more of an art than a science. Even after a sales manager has spent hours upon hours questioning her sales people about whether the deals in the pipeline are really going to close when predicted, it still involves a lot of guesswork. Because […]

Good Buying Experience Makes More Loyal Customers

What makes a customer buy from your company again and again? Is it your company’s reputation and brand, the excellence of your products and services or unbeatable value-to-price ratio? Or something altogether different? What Is Your Experience? A recent survey to about 2400 companies found that the above mentioned factors do have a significant impact. […]

What Does It Take to Be the Best?

In September 2010 the Best B2B Sales Organisation in Finland was selected in a competition arranged by Customer Centric Selling Finland. The winner was chosen based on a thorough analysis and with the help of a panel of experts comprised of both academics from the Aalto University and seasoned business leaders such as ex-CEO of […]

How Has Sales Management Evolved in 80 Years?

Sales management today has many nice-sounding methods and systems that create an illusion that sales management would have developed by leaps and bounds in recent years and decades. But it ain’t necessarily so. Instead, a lot of sales management methods that we consider modern are in fact close to a 100 years old. This Chevrolet […]

Are You a Sales Leader or a Leading Seller?

Sales management is not for the faint of heart. It’s ´more like constantly living between a rock and a hard place: the company’s management requires ever increasing sales results, the sales team needs a friend and a peer to give them advice and support – and customers want discounts.