Monthly Archives: July 2010
The Old 80/20 Rule Revisited
“Real [sales] professionals listen 80 percent of the time and talk 20 percent.” Rick Phillips, the author of the article “Don’t Pressure, Persuade” espoused this ‘fact’ in the Jan/Feb 2010 Selling Power Magazine. I disagree. If you take this statement at face value, you could actually sound more like an interrogator than a sales person.
Certainly we want to listen more than we talk but let’s step back a bit and think of how you may want to approach your potential customer before peppering him or her with questions. You Continue reading
Reggie Williams and Setting Goals
How valuable can a piece of paper be? I’m not talking about currency—just a piece of paper with words that you wrote on it. For some, it can mean accomplishing your lifelong dream. That’s certainly the case of Reggie Williams, a rookie playing basketball for the Golden State Warriors. It seems that Reggie learned the value of writing down your goals in order to accomplish your dreams. He took that advice to heart and says that was the key to attaining his dream of playing for the NBA. That advice he got was from me Continue reading
Being Remarkable
Maybe we should spend more time trying to be remarkable if we want to be more successful. I recently received a reminder of this when I got an email from Richard, a rep who worked for me years ago. It’s always great to hear from former colleagues, especially ones that pass on great ideas. Richard shared with me a presentation he created to address the need to continually strive for success, to put forth that extra effort, so that one can become “remarkable”.
We frequently talk about how you need to differentiate yourself, especially in sales. Continue reading
Meaningful Dialogue and the 6 Rules of Engagement
Here’s a big idea—without meaningful dialogue, there can be no selling! What exactly does this mean? In brief, it means that unless you engage in a substantive truthful conversation, an interaction that is purposeful and worthwhile with your customer, you are not likely to sell anything.
In our previous blog, we’ve discussed the engine that drives success in selling when you are in front of a customer—KMR: Knowledge, Messaging and Relationships. Meaningful dialogue is often limited to those situations where Continue reading
