Disqus - Latest Comments for SkipAnderson

Re: 10 Principles for B2B Sales

SkipAnderson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:02:41 -0000

"Lacking a purpose and clear objectives WILL be a waste of time..." Yes, I agree Bill. There are many opportunities in the social media sphere for B2B businesses, but sometimes they aren't apparent when a company first dips their toe in the social media waters, but over time, more clarity can develop. Of course, a company can save a great deal of time and energy by hiring an expert in the field to lead the way and provide the purpose and clear objectives for the company, and the strategy to meet those objectives.

Re: How Would You Sell A Toyota Today?

SkipAnderson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:10:13 -0000

This is an excellent topic (damn, I wish I would have thought of it). Your suggestions are great. It's also important to know that every year consumers buy many, many crappy cars. If consumers were only interested in the best, well-made vehicles, there would only be 2 or 3 auto companies in existence (and up until recently, Toyota would have been one of those companies).

Re: Sales Leaders; Got Your Coaching Hat On?

SkipAnderson — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:16:27 -0000

Selling is not about pushing the sale; it's about pushing the prospect's agenda...which leads to the sale. So my coaching session with the commenter might start like this: "In what ways do you think successful salespeople push the prospect for a sale?" From there, the discussion can continue to assess the commenter's preconceived notions about the essence of selling, and I can then reframe those notions that I believe are inaccurate to help create a new paradigm (salespeople's behavior will always be consistent with their mental sales paradigm of what they believe they can and should do, so if you want to change the behavior, you have to change the thinking behind the behavior first).

I agree that salespeople need to get comfortable with making the client uncomfortable. This is great.

But that discomfort should be framed by the clients needs, or "agenda". Then it's not about the salesperson trying to push for a deal, it's about the salesperson trying to push for the well-being of the prospect.

Re: Sales Smack: Are Sales People on Autopilot?

SkipAnderson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:24:50 -0000

I'm too excited for the next Sales Smack that I have to start now:

Are salespeople on autopilot? Yes, some are, and many are during some portion of the selling process.

But worse yet, some salespeople are like the two Northwest Airlines pilots who recently overshot their destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul by 150 miles because they were looking at a personal laptop having a personal conversation allowing autopilot to take them on a sojourn into neighboring Wisconsin (http://abcnews.go.com/Polit.... Not only are some salespeople on autopilot, but they're also distracted and disengaged. Not good.

I'm looking forward to the next Sales Smack.

Re: 100 Raffle Tickets

SkipAnderson — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:31:43 -0000

I think I know "Bobby." He used to work for me selling furniture. Turns out his mom couldn't buy enough furniture to help him make his sales quota. Nice guy, though. Still lives with his parents.

Re: A Day Without Social Media

SkipAnderson — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:30:12 -0000

I would have posted this comment yesterday but I was offline all day.

Re: Don’t Confuse Suspects with Leads

SkipAnderson — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:15:11 -0000

Excellent points, Troy (would be a good title for a post on my blog, too!).

These concepts are very important to your business and your clients (and your prospects). But your post reminded me of a company I used to work with who was in such desperate need of leads that they encouraged employees to bring in any names to the sales manager. "Any and all names: people from church, people from the neighborhood, people at the coffee shop; anybody!"

Then, the sales manager would try to call and schedule appointments for a member of the sales team.

I insisted at the time that these were not LEADS, but were merely NAMES. Anybody can find names, but finding leads takes more effort and expertise. They eventually abandoned their ill-fated plan, but unfortunately, they didn't have anything to replace the old plan with.

Excellent suggestions Troy.

Skip

Re: Revelation vs Resolution

SkipAnderson — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:06:22 -0000

The online social network is new enough to most people that we can't help but look at it, wonder about it, examine it, theorize about it...

In time, it will become second nature to everyone. Perhaps salespeople and business people felt the same way about the telephone when it started to become part of the mainstream. Obviously, we've all integrated the phone into our daily lives by now, but we haven't quite done the same with our social networks online. It's too new.

Online relationships are just as valuable as other relationships! Yes, my network grew in 2009, and I agree with you Jim, I believe my network will grow exponentially in 2010.

Best,

Skip

Re: Happy To Say; “I Suck At That”

SkipAnderson — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 10:40:52 -0000

I suck at writing comments on blogs.

Re: Where’s the WOW! in Retail Stores?

SkipAnderson — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:02:21 -0000

Ben, great post. Retail has largely become a "me too" sector. I'm trying to change that. I see you are, too. Best of luck to both of us. They really need a double dose of WOW right now.

Re: Bookings vs Revenue w/ NEW Infographic

SkipAnderson — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:50:24 -0000

As a pure question about when salespeople should be compensated, I agree they should be compensated at bookingm in part, because it's a more effective motivation for salespeople (many or most of whom are or should be money-motivated).

The rest of the issue, to me, starts to cross the line that reflects specific duties of a specific rep in a specific company in a specific industry. My client companies are B2C (please don't make the mistake many people do and read "B2C" to mean "simple" or "not complex!").

Many B2C sales-customer relationships are single transactions rather than acting as an initial point of entry for ongoing business from the customer. If you look at sales through this lens, it suggests that some of the others' comments here aren't applicable, because discussions about "sales" are usually viewed through the lens of B2B selling.

Anyway, having said that, I always enjoy reading debate about age-old issues such as business development vs. account management, or sales vs. project management.

And, I agree with Dave Brock when he says "As a sales person, I want to be paid quickly, as a business manager, I want to make certain I get the revenue."

Your post is good fodder for discussion, Jim.

Re: Raising the Bar on Business Etiquette

SkipAnderson — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:16:56 -0000

I appreciate the thoughts about etiquette. I think we could all benefit from more etiquette at all levels of business interaction.

Re: Taking the Randomness Out of Your Sales Process

SkipAnderson — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:35:46 -0000

"You need more good conversations..."

I love that!

Thanks for the mention Bill.

Skip