Sales 2.0

Articles on sales prospecting

Getting in the door is hard

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Getting in the door is the #1 problem for most small companies I know.

When I first got involved in sales I was a sales engineer. I supported a technology sales force on their sales calls with semiconductor engineers. I always thought I was pretty amazing. When I got to these meetings I had many engaging conversations with these buyers that our sales team did not seem able to handle.

Their knowledge seemed so “thin” compared to my in depth tech mastery. I wondered “what do these sales guys actually do? Many of them earn more money than me and when I go to these meetings I do all the work.”

[Read more…]

Volunteer to be an insider

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I am the Chairman Emeritus of the Wharton Club of New York. I’ve been the president and the chairman. Over the years these titles have been very useful for my various business and sales endeavors.

Probably not surprising as that Wharton word carries some credibility and I’ve found having the title president or chairman of the largest alumni association for the school has some credibility too. [Read more…]

Help me! (Really)

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We sales people have evolved.

We don’t always pitch our product or service, sometimes we’re helpful enough to send over a white paper or blog post that may be of interest.

But as it goes with good ideas, content is getting overused. [Read more…]

How to get past the velvet rope

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Back in the day when I was selling technology to banks I used my social selling approaches to get a meeting with a super-senior executive in a super-large bank (you know it, but I can’t tell you which one on a blog post.)

It turned out this super-senior executive was a very nice bloke and I stayed in touch for many years. What actually happened when I called though is a I spoke to his assistant. So in reality I actually stayed in touch with his assistant–maybe more than I did with him. [Read more…]

How much pre-call prep time is just right?

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“This porridge is too hot!” she exclaimed.

So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl.

“This porridge is too cold,” she said

So, she tasted the last bowl of porridge.

“Ahhh, this porridge is just right,” she said happily and she ate it all up.

And so, it is with prospecting preparation time. [Read more…]

How to become a rich sales geek

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Testing is for marketing not sales.

Does that sentence seem logical to you? It doesn’t to me.

The more time I spend in sales and marketing, the more I see overlap between these areas. Now, sales people are starting to “geek out” and use software tools like marketers have been for the last decade, or so. [Read more…]