Archive: Closing
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Nov 07, 2010
2 CommentsConsultant or closer?
The last bubble (the tech one, not the real estate one) was all about solution selling, trusted advisors, and consultative selling. To me, it seemed sometimes like a lot of talking and PowerPoints but not much selling. I definitely over-reacted to all the solution selling propaganda…. it seemed to me like people were just looking...
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Jun 01, 2010
No CommentsIn challenging times, “velocity” matters!
Early this year I read an interesting article from John Cousineau’s blog entitled, “In Sales Productivity, Velocity Matters”. It was interesting and also described something that I believe wholeheartedly. The speed with which you act is the most important factor within your control! In good times this may seem to be less important, but when...
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Mar 31, 2010
No CommentsWhat if?
“What if? What if I call them, ask them to buy, and they say the budget is gone? Can I offer them another 10%? How about pricing terms? What if they want another demo? What if they cannot get it signed and need a coupleore days?” I hear this (and have said it) more than...
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Feb 10, 2010
No CommentsOK, you’ve won the deal
You’re negotiating with a customer – in person or on the phone. You’ve won the deal – a long slog. You’ve set them up well with your pricing, and you are going to get some good value for the deal. The customer chooses you, and then asks one question, “Is there anything else you can...
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Jan 28, 2010
No CommentsSell provocatively
I read this post about selling provocatively in the Selling Power blog. The comments on tightening in budgets are absolutely true – I have seen it in action. Business is just being done in a different way now than 2 years ago. 2 years ago, we focused on all the classic solution-selling, Sandler-based techniques we...
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Jan 19, 2010
2 CommentsScariest question in the world
I saw this tweet from the Go for No people about just not being afraid to ask a question. I’d say it even stronger…..ask the question you are most afraid to ask. You know what the question is when you are talking to someone. You’ve probably tried to ask “around” this question a bunch of...
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Jan 06, 2010
No CommentsAvoid the single track
Avoid single-track selling in sales - this Dilbert post gets it absolutely...
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Dec 18, 2009
No CommentsTake the deal!
I was working on some deals, and I came across a small deal. This company fit our ideal profile perfectly – we did the sales work and moved to close. At the same time, I was working another deal – this one was much bigger. it was also a perfect deal for my company. We...
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Dec 12, 2009
1 CommentZen selling?
I was talking to some salespeople about techniques to figure out what is up at a prospect. You’re working with them for a while – they show some interest – you do some selling – and then everything gets quiet. What can we say or do to get things going? We also had some cases...
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Nov 17, 2009
No CommentsForecasting for you
Forecasting kinda sucks. No one really has control of our customers – I don’t believe any one of us can make them buy. Still, we should have some idea when they will buy, right? Here’s another way to look at it – treat forecasting as a part of your selling process. Forecasting is a way...
