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By Sharon Drew Morgen | Mar 12, 2010 Sales Related
Because the ultimate goal of sales is product placement, technology, presentations, pitches, and information gathering are based on discovering prospects with appropriate needs to fit the solution.
That means your questions are biased, the answers are biased, and the data you get is such a small subset of the necessary data that precludes buying decisions that sellers end up making costly assumptions: they’ll close ’soon,’ the buyer is a ‘hot prospect,’ for example. It makes it so difficult for sales managers to predict the real pipeline, and for sellers to know who to spend time with.
Think about it: when your baseline assumption is that just because you’ve ‘uncovered a need’ that you have a prospect, you have no idea who is really going to buy, or you would have closed a lot more business. Read More..
Recent Entries
By Sharon Drew Morgen | Mar 11, 2010 Random Thoughts
My son George is a Paralympian. This will be his 4th Paralympics. He’s had an interesting life: can’t walk so well, but boy, can he ski.
In the Salt Lake Paralympics, my son won a Silver and a Bronze. I’m hoping that this Paralypmics – his last, as he’s 37 and really an old coot – he’ll get a gold. He’s been training for it for years. I don’t know if you are aware of what athletes do to prepare for the Paralympics, but they train for at least 8 hours a day for years and years. It’s their lives: total dedication to being the best – a passion, a drive that is single focused and immutable.
George has been my hero. He has never let anyone stop him. I have a visual memory of him when we were on a ski holiday in Austria when he was 13. On his way to the restroom, he was hanging on to his ski poles and dragging his body across the deck of a chalet restaurant where we went for lunch. I knew there was a restroom just inside the door where we were sitting, a few feet away. I went over to my son and asked him why he didn’t just go inside the door? Read More..
By Sharon Drew Morgen | Mar 9, 2010 Cranky Tuesdays
I used to have a fabulous beloved insurance agent named Ray Mungia. In a world where customers are merely a number, Ray made me feel like I was his only client. When I had a blow out and my car went into a ditch, he found me money on my policy that I didn’t even know I deserved, and fought the good fight for me and won.
When he left to go into corporate sales, he left behind a mystery person as an agent. First there was one woman, then mysteriously another. No idea what happened or why. I just know that one person told me she had no idea who I was and that I had been switched by Allstate. What??? Then, I waited for this new woman to call me and introduce herself – for a year. I’m such a cranky person (but this is Cranky Tuesday when I get to be cranky, right?) that when all of the dozens of Allstate letters came through, I threw them away and began seeking another agent. At that point, it had become merely a price decision. Read More..
By Sharon Drew Morgen | Mar 8, 2010 Sales Related, Top Posts
Recently, I’ve noticed many folks using the term ‘facilitating buying decisions.’ First, let me state that we have a program by that title, that can be licensed to train in companies. It’s a very fun program, teaching sellers how to sit in a buyer’s seat and learn every aspect of how they choose vendors and solutions. Learners not only learn how their buyer’s buy, but I teach them the 6 most powerful Facilitative Questions to help buyers make a decision in their favor. Here’s a preview of one of the questions: How would you and your Buying Decision Team know when it was time to bring in an additional resource that will fit with the ones you’re currently using? Read More..
By Sharon Drew Morgen | Mar 5, 2010 Sales Related
I get approached daily by folks wanting to partner. I, too, attempt connections with maybe 10 people a day for the same purpose. So how do we know who is right for us to partner with and who isn’t? And how can we tell before disaster strikes?
Of course, we all make mistakes – like that time I partnered with a man in India (Ok, ok. I should have known, right?). The idea was to make me a recognized brand throughout India, and then have him represent me as a trainer and speaker. We were to share the costs. Except we didn’t. I paid my half, and then was forced to pay his, when I received a call from our publicist 5 months later asking me if I’d please please pay him. When I asked my new partner about it, he said, “Oh, right. Well, I didn’t like what he did.” He did a fabulous job, I said. “I agree, but he didn’t give me the type of follow up paper (outside the contract) I wanted. So I didn’t pay him, and I don’t want you to either until he does what I asked.” Next. Read More..
By Sharon Drew Morgen | Mar 4, 2010 Random Thoughts
BookPeople is one of Austin’s gems: one of the largest, most beloved independent bookstores in America. Floors and floors of books, many lovingly and conscientiously reviewed by staff, bazillions of magazines, store sections sporting interesting categories of books, trinkets for creativity and children, T-shirts and bookmarks that say “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read,” and booksbooksbooks everywhere. They adore local authors (they carry Dirty Little Secrets and years ago I did a reading with Selling with Integrity), and are an important stop along the book tour circuit for any author seriously intent on selling books (the Clinton’s were both here doing readings for their autobiographies, for example).
Tonight, I was absolutely blessed to hear Dave Eggers (author of many novels, short stories, screenplays such as the movie Away we Go, magazines, and newspapers) doing a reading on his newest book Zeitoun, and his two writer buddies Annie Lagang and Bill Cotter. And were they great. Read More..
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