If you stop and think about it, there are probably many companies you deal with automatically. You don’t stop to think about price, quality, service, or convenience – you just instinctively make your purchasing decision. We might be talking about your printer, your doctor, your real estate agent or your computer supplier. But then we [...]

For most of us, advertising is a little like prayer. We’re not sure it provides any benefit, but we do it anyway, just in case! Of course, one difference between advertising and prayer is that advertising costs you money. And, as a professional manager, your job is to maximise your return on capital. In other [...]

I’m always bemused by the exalted tone used by salespeople and management when discussing ‘qualification’. The presumption seems to be that this activity somehow adds tremendous value to the opportunity-management process. I suspect, in most cases, it does the opposite! From what I’ve observed, ‘qualification’ typically involves a salesperson making preliminary contact with a list [...]

I heard an amusing story the other day. I was talking to the Managing Director of a large manufacturing firm, with a force of 100+ salespeople. He told me about how he recently went on a sales call with one of these salespeople. After the appointment, the two of them returned to the salesperson’s car. [...]

It’s a common practice to categorise clients (or prospects) using an A/B/C rating (or similar). This practice may be common, but it’s rarely sensible! Organisations typically apply such a classification in an attempt to prioritise the allocation of sales resources (field or phone) to relationships under management. If those resources are abundant, this method may [...]

It’s often claimed that there are fundamental differences between major- and minor-account selling. Obviously, we’re not interested in the ‘selling’ here, so much as in the ‘sales process’. Here are some thoughts on this issue. If a minor opportunity is one that you can win in a single appointment, then a major opportunity is just [...]