Category Archives: Sales
Why Can’t They Just Get Along? (Sales and Marketing, That Is.)
Why is it that, as a rule, Marketing and Sales work together so poorly? It should be clear that when two teams both work so intensively with potential customers, their work should be highly coordinated. Nevertheless, this all too seldom is the case. The Degrees of Separation Philip Kotler, Neil Rackham and Suj Krishnaswamy, in […]
On Sales and Corporate Strategy
Why don’t your sales organisation and corporate strategy speak the same language? Strategy Looks Great (on Paper) I’ve met with lots of companies with great looking strategies. When talking to senior executives they never forget to highlight the hours and money they’ve spent with top consulting companies to help them to put together the strategy […]
Can a Good Sales Organization Be Bad in the Customer’s Eyes?
In the spring and early summer of this year, when recruiting participants to the Finland’s Best Sales Organization competition, I talked to a lot of sales directors about what is the meaning of a great sales organization to a company. To my surprise, some of them were worried about what their customers might think, if […]
3 Things All Top Sellers Have in Common
Salespeople need a lot of different working habits, qualities and skills to succeed at their job. Some of the requirements of course strongly depend on the nature of the task. Large account manager role definitely needs different skills than a new customer acquisition or “hunter” role. However, there are some basic characteristics that I think […]
How to Sell When a Customer Is not Prepared to Buy Anything?
Often it is said that when selling to corporate customers – as opposed to consumers – you cannot create needs and that you can only fulfill existing needs. In principle, I agree completely: your customer won’t invest large amounts of money without a real identified business need. Why Change the Status Quo? All businesses and […]
CustomerCentric Seller’s 7 Steps to Success
Have a conversation about the customer’s situation instead of diving straight into a product demo. Best customer meetings are based on discussions with the goal to understand the customer better. Ask relevant questions to have a meaningful discussion with the customer. Sellers often like to demonstrate their expertise by offering their own opinions to the […]
Who Is Your Main Competitor, and How to Win Him?
Who do you consider to be your biggest competitor? Is it the market leader or the company down the street, with which you fight like cats and dogs for the the same customers? Wrong. I claim that your most important competitors are No Decision Inc. and Decision Delayed Indefinitely Corp. Surveys show that nearly 30% […]