A slow economy does not have to mean fewer orders
As the economy slows, it’s likely that your firm’s order flow will slow too.
But, does it really need to?
For you to answer this question in the affirmative, two conditions need to be in place:

Your share-of-market needs to be considerable
Your sales function needs to be operating at […]

Few suggestions inflame passions faster than the suggestion that performance pay be abolished. It’s our contention, nonetheless, that, in an ideal environment, commissions and bonuses are likely to be in conflict with the goal of the organisation. Of course, traditional sales processes are not ’ideal environments’ and, as such, the traditional sales process serves as […]

If you have a salesperson, I challenge you to try this simple ‘time and motion’ study. Follow her around for a week and take note of the different activities in which she engages – and the percentage of her working hours that are devoted to each. My guess is that you’ll discover something like the […]

In a process built along the lines we advocate it is critical that salespeople pursue a ’sale’ at each business-development appointment. Now this sale may not be the achievement of the ultimate objective.  In many cases it’s just permission to move to the next step in the (standardised) opportunity-management process. It may be that salespeople […]

Whose responsibility, I wonder, is client retention? Most organisations believe it’s the salesperson’s. Consequently, many salespeople spend a disproportionate amount of their time on account management. ‘Account management’ is a polite way of referring to a process that involves driving from client to client, drinking coffee and talking about the football. In the US, they […]