From the monthly archives:

June 2008

The Myth of Goal Setting

26 June 2008

One of the most often repeated stories to back up the importance of setting clear goals and targets is the “Yale 1953 Goals Study”. The story takes many forms – but essentially says that in 1953, researchers surveyed Yale’s graduating seniors to determine how many of them had specific, written goals for their future. Twenty [...]

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3 Quick and Simple Steps to Improve Sales in Professional Services Firms

18 June 2008

3 quick and simple steps that professional service firms (lawyers, accountants and consultants) can take to hugely improve their sales:

Cut the marketing and advertising budget in half
Take the money you’ve saved from this and use it to reduce the billable hours targets of your partners and get them to focus on business development activities instead
Ensure [...]

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Ethics in Sales

13 June 2008

A recent post by Colin WIlson – Are You Lying Comfortably – got me thinking about ethics in sales.
It’s something people new to, or outside of sales often worry about. How ethical is it to “manipulate” people with salesmanship to buy a particular product or service?
I think one of the toughest areas is in the [...]

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Positive Navel Gazing: Won Sales Analysis

8 June 2008

Almost every company I’ve worked for has done regular “loss reviews” when they’ve failed to win big bids. It was almost a knee-jerk raction by management – “how can this possibly have happened?” – despite the fact that the sales team often knew well in advance that they weren’t going to win.
What I see much [...]

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On Passion

5 June 2008

The importance of passion for salespeople seems to have sparked the imagination of many sales bloggers recently – myself included. Reading the posts reminded me of my all time favourite Winston Churchill quote:
Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. [...]

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Do I really need a USP?

4 June 2008

It’s accepted wisdom in marketing and sales nowadays that every business needs a strong Unique Selling Point (USP). “Differentiate or Die” has become the clarion call of consultants across the globe, urging their clients to (pay them to) develop clever positioning statements showing how unique and different they are to their competitors.
But does it work? [...]

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