Archive: Management
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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 09, 2009
No CommentsThe big production
I was thinking about how a sales team works with all the people involved in a successful sale. As we move forward in our selling, we always seem to be pulling more departments into our world and making sure we were all working together. Analogies are always the best way to learn something new, and...
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Nov 24, 2009
No CommentsCommissions are contracts?
I read in New York Magazine about the mechanisms behind the scenes about traders at bailed-out AIG. A big part of the article was discussing how bad the loss of key traders was to the unwinding of the AIG contracts. These people needed to get paid a lot, or you could not attract the talent...
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Nov 15, 2009
No CommentsHiring for the job, not for you
Recently went through a search for a new salesperson. I usually aim to hire someone that is a reference – it always works better. This time, I just did not have anyone. We cast the net pretty wide — I spoke to a ton of people. The process helped me find the right person –...
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Oct 07, 2009
No CommentsSell to customers, bosses, and partners
I was working with a customer on a specialized deal: new product on our side, deep discounts wanted by the customer, no purchase to next year, and with a reference agreed to by the customer. We worked out a good deal for the customer – it did require some amazing discounts. Everything looked good, but...
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Oct 06, 2009
No CommentsGetting people on the same page
OK, you’ve been selling for a few months. You figured out what is good and what is bad – you know who the ideal target is. You’ve closed a bunch – there is plenty more out there. Now, though, you hit a wall. Something is missing, and the people in the *^%$ department just aren’t...
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Oct 06, 2009
No CommentsLove ‘em and leave ‘em
All of a sudden, the economy gets better….the deals start coming in, and the entire sales team is happy. You’re the manager there, and everything is groovy. Salespeople call to chat….pretty soon you’re chatting about the nice “move” you did on that last call. Then, you think back about 2 months ago. The economy was...
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Sep 28, 2009
No CommentsBuilding a selling machine
I went home on Friday feeling pretty good about where things were. The team was selling more – the economy seemed to be a little better – I was much closer to hitting my targets. In traffic, I thought about what got me there. Sure, the economy was better……but we had some other changes. When...
