Issue #87 All natural ingredients guaranteed... You Are the Product In enterprise sales, the product is often invisible - a vision, a plan, a few process charts and some operational targets. You're not selling something customers can easily touch or test in a demo environment. You're selling a transformation - a new supply chain, a reengineered IT backbone, a system that won't exist until you build it. So what do buyers use to judge your offer? They look at you. You become the product - at...
12 days ago • 4 min read
Issue #86 Which pencil should I use? 2B or not 2B, that is the question... Stop pitching. Start performing. If you want to close big deals, start acting like a world-class performer. Literally. We all know the metaphor of pitching, taken from baseball. But that’s a one shot, risky action and doesn’t reflect the reality of an enterprise sales approach. A better way is to think of complex sales as a performance, a narrative, skilfully acted out. What Does That Mean, Then? Konstantin...
19 days ago • 3 min read
Issue #85 Not so much "imposter" syndrome, as "kid with a water pistol" syndrome Old Psychological Patterns That Block Your Sales...(And How to Fix Them) We tend to think we can get better at sales just through new strategies and tactics. But often there is something older, deeper and invisible holding us back. Sales is emotional. The (true) cliche is that we decide with our emotions and then justify with our brains. Your client decides based on how they feel around you and about you. If you...
26 days ago • 3 min read
Issue #84 My evil twin - now starring in "Phantom Of The Opera" at Tyseley working men's club Selling Without a Mask Is a Competitive Advantage You can’t sell with power until you know who you are - without the mask. Sales isn’t just techniques, objection-handling frameworks and checklists (they are useful, though). Those are all just tools. But they’re not enough to close deals. Ultimately customers are buying you. In high-stakes enterprise deals, people need high levels of trust in the...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Issue #83 Can I interest you in our deluxe helicopter option? Turning “No” Into A Contract Selling is hard enough, but selling procurement services to procurement departments, in the public sector, has to rate right up there with scaling Everest without oxygen. I have done the first of these and will never try the second - I get dizzy if I go upstairs too fast these days. I remember one particular hospital group I sold to, despite years of therapy. Their procurement director was the smuggest...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Issue #82 These can be the same thing if you are prepared... Career Power = Choice I get asked for career advice a lot. I can answer most of the questions by sharing this story with you. It's about Alex, a guy I mentored for a few years, and it covers the basics of maintaining a successful career. Alex was sharp. Capable. The kind of guy who could figure out any problem thrown at him. But when he came to me, he wasn’t going anywhere. Alex just needed to think outside the box. His manager was...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Issue #81 3 Strategies To Unlock Profitable Growth Growing profitably means breaking the link between costs and revenue. If every time you increase sales your costs rise in line, then you are just making a bigger problem to be solved everyday. That may be growth, but it is not sustainable. A clumsy metaphor about expanding without cost control. The benefits of increased sales need to be realised as you grow or eventually the business will collapse under its own weight. The answer is the...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Issue #80 You have a few people who matter a lot The $2.2M Mistake Hiding in Their Strategy A prospect called me in to discuss a new warehouse. Sales were increasing, and they needed more space to handle the demand, a great problem to have, or so it seemed. When I analysed their demand over time, I saw that the increases had happened mostly at month-end. The rest of the month, they had more than enough space, staff, equipment, and time to process nearly double what they were doing. Time to...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Issue #79 Use it, it works... Enterprise Sales Engagement Plan This week I am going for the jugular, let me know if this hits for you, I appreciate your feedback on what you like. This is a five step plan for getting into a medium to large company, based on 15 years experience doing it for DHL. And 10 years having it done to me, when I was in ops and procurement. Objective: Get into a targeted account, position your solution as high-value, and drive the deal to close. Step 1: Qualify the...
2 months ago • 4 min read