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May 2008
Note: The April issue of Selling Power has been mailed to all subscribers. The magazine is available on 2,200 newsstands nationwide (check at your local Barnes & Noble store).
You can also order your single copy online now, or get your personal subscription today. Or, if you want to read the entire issue online now, you pay only $3 to get full access to this 100 page magazine. Click here to order.
Editorial
Gerhard Gschwandtner
Abstract:
This is my invitation to you to be my friend on Facebook. When you go to my page online, you’ll see photographs I’ve taken, my mug shots with Oprah and Bill Clinton, and you can check out my online friends, such as Marc Cuban and Guy Kawasaki.…read more
Managers’ Forum
Henry Canaday
Abstract:
Industry experts offer suggestions on selling in a down market and how best to coach new sales reps to adopt your company’s sales model.
Manage Your Sales Team
Geoffrey James
Abstract:
With more than $5 billion a year in revenue, XYZ Systems, founded in 1988, is one of the largest and most diversified computer services companies in the world. A global organization, it generates over half of its total revenue from sales to customers outside of the Americas, and approximately 41 percent of XYZ’s employees are located outside the United States. Similarly, many of its customers are global companies as well, with divisions in multiple regions of the world. This creates a unique set of sales challenges.
The first challenge is that doing business in different regions means coping with a wide variety of risks – foreign currency fluctuations, international economic changes, a new trade barrier or restriction, a sudden delay in transportation, not to mention the ever-present threats of terrorism, war, natural disasters, and epidemics. The second challenge is the need to create consistency in the way that XYZ sells to globally deployed customers.
Enter SAP CRM Consulting, brought in by XYZ management to help build a new and improved sales process and the system to support it.
Selling Essentials
Henry Canaday
Abstract:
Across all industries, at every level of sales, managers all face the fact that hiring is simply part of the job. No matter how managers implement the task of hiring, it comes down to finding ways to do it better. The stakes in performance, costs, and turnover are simply too high to accept anything less than the best. In this article, sales managers share what they’ve learned about what works and what doesn’t in selecting top reps.
Lain Ehmann
Abstract:
Even if you’re sure you’ve prepared for every possible eventuality at every call you make, it never hurts to have a plan for the last half hour before you walk in that door. Competitive athletes always have some sort of internal psyche-up routine before the big game. In selling, psyching yourself up means being absolutely sure you are totally ready to do business. To make sure you’re in top form just before every call, follow the advice of the salespeople and experts featured here and make every call the best it can be.
Bad New Blues • Once Upon a Time • Chris Howard, CEO, Chris Howard Cos. • Networking Etiquette • Needs Analysis • Kruger National Park, South Africa • Use Balloons • Gratifying Gatekeepers • Are You a Successful Failure? • Customer Loyalty • David DiStefano, CEO, Richardson • Cash in on Complaints
Gerhard Gschwandtner
Abstract:
While salespeople find it increasingly difficult to deal with worried buyers, and sales managers face the challenge of calming anxious salespeople, both are working hard to keep their own worries under control. Based on the teachings of Dr. Dominic DiMattia, a noted psychotherapist and business consultant, this article explains the potentially harmful consequences of exaggerating or ignoring the realities of a recession and relates specific steps you can take to help calm recession fears across the board.
Renee Houston Zemanski
Abstract:
Salespeople often jump for joy when a prospect requests a proposal. Of course, this appears to be a promising step toward a sale. It can, however, be the beginning of a long and frustrating process that leads to a big goose egg. When a rep spends countless hours working on an RFP only to find out a week later that the account went to the current supplier, or worse, the prospect used your proposal to price gouge some other supplier, it’s natural to feel used and abused. So what cards can a sales rep play up front? The deck is full of them. Lee Salz, president of sales consulting firm Sales Dodo LLC, and others help you winnow out the potential winners from the time-wasters.
Train Your Sales Team
Geoffrey James
Abstract:
All sales costs are based on two things: whom you call on, and what you do after you’ve called on them. If you’re calling on the wrong people, you’ll spend time and money on false opportunities that never had a chance of generating revenue or profit. If you’re calling on the right people and you do or say the wrong things, you’ll spend time and money on opportunities that might have paid off, but didn’t. Within those parameters, there are four primary strategies for reducing sales costs, and Donal Daly, CEO of TAS Group, helps outline those strategies here.
Cover Story
Gerhard Gschwandtner
Abstract:
It seems as if every five to ten years there’s a new “thing” that sweeps America and radiates out to the rest of the world. Some of these new “things” are pretty silly. Hula hoops anyone? Flower power? But some of them are downright revolutionary in their impact. TV, the Internet, email, to name a few. The current new “thing” has taken the country by storm, and while it has so far been used on sites such as Facebook, it’s now entering the business world, where salespeople are finding golden opportunities.
Features
Henry Canaday
Abstract:
Advanced Bionics had adapted the technology of its cochlear ear implants, which restores hearing to the deaf, to make a new kind of spinal chord stimulator, and it needed a sales plan to exploit this new product in a market that was practically owned by a diversified, $10-billion-a-year corporation. James Surek, Advanced Bionics vice president of sales, had a three-pronged sales strategy. Two-and-a-half years after introducing the new stimulators, the firm is doing $200 million in domestic sales of the product. Read all about Surek’s winning approach here.
Marji McClure
Abstract:
If you agree with these statements, then you may just have a problem sale on your hands:
- The potential buyer has the need, the budget, and the authority to buy.
- Your product or service matches the buyer’s need.
- The buyer has not made the purchase.
So what’s the problem? Diagnosing the problem requires that you first step back and put on your sleuth hat. Then calmly help the buyer sort through the issues. Here are some expert ways to make a seasoned sales diagnosis. Oh, and you may just find that you’re the problem, so be prepared to eat some humble pie…
Kristen Vose of Treeline
New Solutions For Managers
Kim Wright Wiley
Abstract:
Top performers can be notoriously hard to impress. These are the kind of people who have been there, done that – twice. They demand something that is new, hot, and so cutting-edge that they didn’t even know it existed before you told them about it. Top performers are not going to be satisfied with a compact car, a 24-inch TV, or a week at the beach…even if the beach is Maui. To inspire them, you’ve got to dig a little deeper.
Also: Incentives • CRM • Fleet • Leads
Ideas That Pay
Henry Canaday
Abstract:
A fast-growing electronics firm needed to improve and standardize its sales process. Over three years, the company trained call center reps, sales reps, sales managers, and the many other professionals who support customers in a unified approach to consultative sales. Under very conservative assumptions, the new approach yielded $30 million in new sales and, even after deduction of production and training costs, more than $1 million in net profit.
Advertising Index
Thoughts To Sell By
Forward this posting to anyone else you think could benefit from boosting their selling power.
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