How to Sell in the Summer
Summer is the most difficult time to prospect and land deals. Get ahead of the game now to max out your sales productivity. Read my Inc.com blog: How to Sell in the Summer
Latest "Sales Calls" Posts
The top 10 sales tactics that beat cold calling
Check out today’s blog on CBS MoneyWatch! Tired of cold calling? Read this…
(image courtesy of public domain images)
Smart Talk for Fast Times: 5 Rules
Check out today’s blog on Inc.com. Get faster, keep engagement.
Make a Great First Impression: 9 New Rules
Check out today’s blog on Inc.com – what you need to know to make a great first impression. Enjoy!
3 sales myths that are killing you (and you probably don’t even know it)
New blog on MoneyWatch today! Do you agree and which one are you the most suspect of? Check out the blog and then post your answers.
Photo courtesy of flickr Olivia Hotshot cc.
The Only 5 Things CEOs Should Do in the Sales Process
“That’s just stupid!”
I swear these words came out of my mouth before I could reach out and grab a hold of them and rein them in.
I was talking to a CEO prospect at an event in Seattle last week and in the course of a lively conversation, enhanced by a Tito’s Vodka martini and the jet lag from my flight from Atlanta, I gave my inner voice an outer voice and said, well, what I said.
He looked as if he’d just been slapped (by me). Then he smiled about as big as you can and said, “I know. I’m the one doing it and I don’t know how to stop.”
We were talking about CEOs who insist on being on all of their company’s sales calls. I outlined (quickly, lest the smile fade…) the big dangers of CEOs being on every sales call…
- Inflation. One of life’s simple definitions: the more there is of something, the less each unit of that thing is worth. Overuse a CEO and you have a problem — they don’t bring weight to the important conversations with a prospect or a client.
- Impatience. It is not a certainty, but it is frequent: CEOs want to make things happen and they can be impatient in a meeting. It creates an artificial urgency that can damage a sales call.
- Pricing. CEOs are terrible on pricing. Either they give away everything or they won’t concede on anything. In either case, CEOs are usually best regarding pricing when they are involved “out of the moment,” back at the office when time and distance from the deal make things a little more rational.
