I remember when I first started using email, probably ten years ago, feeling aggrieved when senders didn’t include the formal, verbose style of a traditional letter, instead sending punchier, to-the-point communications. After time I acclimatised to it and began to send such emails myself. Then the next change happened, people began to miss off the recipient’s name at the beginning and their own name at the end. Then the emails got shorter, right down to one or two words. Now different countries, companies, groups and individuals have their own norms.
(more…)

(Possibly my worst blog post title / picture pun ever…?)

I have been reading a fantastic book recently, that’s not at all about sales, however it brought my attention to the phenomenon of “Heuristic Anchoring” – a phrase guaranteed to make you sound either incredibly smart or pretentious, depending on which way you look at it.
(more…)

Over on the LinkedIn Solution Selling Alumni group Tim Sullivan asked “Solution Selling includes a structured dialogue model for consultative, diagnostic conversations with customers, called the 9-Block Vision Processing Model. Have you used the 9-Block, and did you find it effective?”

I couldn’t wait to give “my 2 cents” on this one:
(more…)

I think it’s fair to say that our jobs as sales professionals are as much about deciding who not to sell to as who to sell to. Qualifying-out the tyre kickers is a great time saver. These questions will help you do that. Crucial in this is attempting to identify whether there is a genuine pain driving their enquiry (if there is not, the opportunity is likely to drop out towards the end of the sales cycle when risk and spending money come into serous consideration)
• Why do this now? Why not next month, or next year?
• What happens if you DON’T (solve this issue)?
(more…)