Posted on March 23, 2009 by Dave Stein
A few weeks ago the folks at Kadient briefed me on their approach and their sales performance improvement tools. As you would expect, I posed the chicken-and-egg question with respect to what order a company should implement Kadient’s tools versus installing and implementing a sales methodology. I liked their answers.
I picked up a tweet from [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Competition, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Research, sales process | Tagged: Kadient, playbooks, Rich Berk, sales process | 9 Comments »
Posted on February 12, 2009 by Dave Stein
Hey, I have a proposition for you.
I had a really bad experience with Dearborn Trade Press (now Kaplan Financial Publishing) with my book, How Winners Sell, Second Edition. It’s no longer in print, although companies seem to be able to find copies somehow when I come in to present at their sales kick-offs and other [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Book Recommendation, Competition, Dave Stein, Sales Strategy | Tagged: competitive positioning, How Winners Sell, Kaplan Financial, Kindle | 4 Comments »
Posted on February 5, 2009 by Dave Stein
It was an exciting week. I started out in St. Paul on Sunday afternoon. I was there Monday and Tuesday to attend a few meetings with a special client, deliver a few presentations, facilitate some discussions and attend their annual sales awards dinner. It was two of the best [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Methodology, Professionalism, coaching | Tagged: chops, Lynn Nicholson, Maynard Ferguson, trumpet | 6 Comments »
Posted on January 16, 2009 by Dave Stein
I believe in checklists. Clearly the medical community just got the message as well. A study published online by the New England Journal of Medicine this week shows that adopting a surgical safety checklist (PDF) reduced deaths and complications by more than a third. From the Wall Street Journal:
Researchers collected data on nearly 8,000 patients [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, CRM, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Professionalism, Sales Tactics, Technology, sales process | Tagged: checklist, How Winners Sell, Hudson River, US Airways Flight 1549 | 11 Comments »
Posted on January 13, 2009 by Dave Stein
Followers of this blog are familiar with the high value I place on planning, competitive selling strategies, and political leverage for winning complex sales situations as well as for effectively managing strategic accounts. I was first introduced to Holden many years ago by Steve Slaughter, a salesrep who worked for me who had been through [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Big Wins, Marketing, Opportunity Management, Research, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, Technology, coaching, sales process | Tagged: Holden, Matt Martin, PowerBase Selling, Ryan Kubacki | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 7, 2009 by Dave Stein
One of the top firms among the 26 sales performance improvement providers ESR covers is Performance Methods, Inc. (PMI). Founder and managing partner Steve Andersen is recognized as a thought-leader in the demanding and often misunderstood area of strategic account management. (Listen to Steve in an ESR/Podcast.)
To understanding what a strategic account management methodology is [...]
Filed under: Account Management, Big Wins, Buyers, CRM, Competition, Economy, Measurement, Methodology, Professionalism, Relationships, Sales 2.0, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, coaching | Tagged: HP, Performance Methods, PMI, SAM, SAMA, Steve Andersen, strategic account management | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 29, 2008 by Dave Stein
Pick one or more of the resolutions below. Commit, execute, enjoy the results.
I’ll never hire another sales rep who can’t get the sales job done. First, completely understand the position and the skills and traits required to be successful. Evaluating whether a candidate meets those requirements requires [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Buyers, CRM, Economy, Hiring, Leadership, Measurement, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Research, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, sales process | Tagged: CRM, Hiring, Leadership, Sales 101, sales performance measurement, sales training, selling to senior executives | 6 Comments »
Posted on November 19, 2008 by Dave Stein
Geoffrey James ran a wonderful series of posts last week. He spent six months collecting nominations for whom he eventually determined are his ”Sales Gods.” I literally went to his blog first thing each day to see who he was featuring.
Although this post, What We Can Learn from “Sales Gods”, is the last post in the series, [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Leadership, Professionalism, Relationships | Tagged: Geoffrey James | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 13, 2008 by Dave Stein
Donal Daly, CEO of The TAS Group, wrote a great post (Early failure is better than late failure) on his company’s blog that is more than worthy of your consideration. (Disclosure: The TAS Group is a subscriber to ESR’s research.)
In the post Donal discusses the not-often-enough-overcome challenge of effective qualification. From the post:
When budgets are [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Competition, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Pipeline, Sales Training Companies, coaching | Tagged: Donal Daly, qualification, The TAS Group | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 7, 2008 by Dave Stein
No matter what side you were on, here are a few observations, affirmations and truths, post-election, with respect to selling:
Strategy and tactics are equally important. The purpose of executing tactics in a sales campaign is to drive a well-founded strategy. Tactics without a strategy is like playing darts with your eyes closed.
Message! Not messages, messages, [...]
Filed under: Big Wins, Book Recommendation, Competition, Leadership, Marketing, Professionalism, Relationships, Research, Sales Strategy, Sales Tactics, Technology | Tagged: buyer, Competition, messages, Sales Strategy, Sales Tactics, Technology | 3 Comments »
