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Best of Sales |
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Engineers Can Sell
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Applying the Scientific Method to the Sales Process
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Site on hold ? for now
I have a confession. I’ve been trying to raise money to start up an innovative manufacturing company for a spell and it looks like we’re going to close on our first funding round very soon.
As such, I have to put this site on hold due to a dramatic loss of any free time.
If anyone [...]
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Changing sales jobs (go out on top)
In this crazy economic environment, a lot of people are swapping jobs because the grass is always greener as the saying goes. Today’s sales post warns you not to stop working hard for your current company during your two-week notice and to go out on top of your game.
Work hard so that all your [...]
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One sales question isn?t enough
We’re all taught in Sales 101 to ask ourselves “Why would our prospect buy this product/service?” I’m here to tell you that this question is only the tip of the iceberg and if you leave it at this you’re only doing your competition a favor.
I can’t lay claim to the two follow up question [...]
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Delivering really bad news
I think we all know that when there is bad news brewing, like say a shipment will slip by a week, you should let your customer know ASAP. That’s a no-brainer and not worth talking about.
But in today’s economy it is worth talking about how and when to deliver REALLY bad news. For example, I’m [...]
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Easy on the email
I love email - it’s one of the few tools that you can use at 2:00 in the morning to communicate to your customers.
I’ve noticed over the past few years, however, that the size of emails is rapidly growing. It wasn’t all too long ago that it was foolish to try to send an email [...]
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Don?t move in even percentages
You’re about to close a deal with an enormous company and the buyer tells you that the $100/widget price must come down if the deal is to go through.
You’ve let your sales funnel dry up and you need this deal to make the quarter. Without hesitation, you drop to $95 (5%) and assume the deal [...]
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Sales leads from odd places
I get asked a lot where I get my sales leads from. While there are plenty of standard answers - mine is typically “Where other salespeople aren’t looking.” Here are two quick examples.
For example, what industry to you sell into? Let’s say that it is in novel materials for semi-conductors. Why [...]
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Ask open ended questions
We often preach how important it is to “ask open ended questions”. I recently realized, however, that many don’t really know what is meant by this sage sales advice - so we’re going to set the record straight right now.
Open ended questions simply refer to questions that can’t be answered with a single word such [...]
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Top 5 Sales Mistakes
We set out to prove that our oft claimed strategy of integrating the buyer into your sales process at the very beginning of the sales cycle provides deep rewards down the line. By integrating buyers in your process early, we argue, you are gaining almost insurmountable advantages over your competition. Here are just two [...]
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Sales process example
This example is a real-life one lifted from my own experience. We had an idea that recycling expensive metal used in the investment casting of aerospace parts would be a useful service to offer. Metal prices were at record high levels, and these guys used hideously expensive metals like rhenium and silver, to [...]
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