RSSSales is resistant to change
Jan 29, 2010 Sales Related
Think about this: Dale Carnegie is the father of the current selling model. Why would I say that when there are such ‘new’ models as Permission Marketing, or SPIN, or any of the myriad selling techniques that have come along since 1937 when Carnegie published How to Win Friends and Influence People? Why would I believe this when the internet has become such a powerful force in sales?
Because we continue (against any rational measure) to focus ’sales’ on solution placement (yes, yes, that includes uncovering needs and understanding buyers) when we have all of the data we need to understand that 1. we close a small fraction of our prospects; 2. we waste a huge amount of time for the relative success we get; 3. buyers who need our solutions do not necessarily buy.
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Tags: change, Dale Carnegie, Permission Marketing, prospects, sales, selling model, SPIN
Change is necessary. How can we make it fun?
Jan 25, 2010 Sales Related, Top Posts
These are heady days. Global business changes, environmental disasters, political upheavals. Change, Change, Change. Maybe it’s time to have another conversation about what change is. And at the same time, maybe discuss why it’s necessary to know how to change, since change is the only constant.
It’s a myth that change is difficult. Indeed, it’s not the change itself that’s difficult, it’s the underlying systems issues that balk, not the new idea or request. Here is why – and there is a very specific reason.
Systems – those interdependent rules, roles, politics, assumptions, and relationships, that make up the teams and families, companies and groups that we each belong to – are designed to operate as a whole, with all moving parts bought into the idiosyncratic rule that govern that entity.
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Why can’t a buyer make quicker buying decisions?
Nov 23, 2009 Sales Related
Think about the last purchase you made. What criteria did you use to make the purchase? Choose the product and/or vendor? Choose the time of purchase?
I just bought my first Mac. I thought about buying one for years before I actually bought it. Lots of reasons, and they all made sense at the time. 1. I love love love (and still do) my IBM ThinkPad; 2. my ThinkPad works well, is very comfortable, and it travels well; 3. I don’t make largish business purchases until the end of the year when my accountant tells me I need to spend money – or not; 4. I don’t like to change what I’m used to if there doesn’t seem to be a need to.
I like cool technology as much as the next person. I bought the first writing-pad/computer pen (logitec – and it didn’t work). I bought Simon (remember Simon)? I actually have a drawer full of cool technology that has gone the way of the LP. But because I started with a PC, I had been scared that I couldn’t transfer my bazillion files over.
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Tags: buying decision, change, mac
Decisions are Never Emotional
Oct 30, 2009 Sales Related
Imagine if instead of believing that unexpected decisions are emotional, we assume they have a very specific reason, even if we don’t understand or agree. Then what? Is it just easier to believe the other person to be irrational?
Do you remember, back in the day, when docs said that women suffering from PMS were hysterical and they needed to have a hysterectomy (that’s where the word ‘hysterical’ comes from btw)? They didn’t understand the physiology underlying the physical issues, and relegated the problem to emotions.
My son has a neurological disease called Dystonia. There is no physical/medical test for it (although it’s very obvious what it is if you are familiar with it), and for many years people suffered with it and had to go to mental institutions because it was called an ‘emotional’ disease. In fact, when I lived in London and my son needed his perscriptions filled from our NY neurologist, our ’surgery’ doc (the UK medical model) told us he needed a psychiatrist, not meds for his uncontrollable spasms.
Historically, when we don’t understand the roots of something we assume there is an emotional component, with the underlying belief being that there is something ‘not quite right’ with the person experiencing what is outside our comfort zone.
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Tags: beliefs, buying decisions, change, decisions, emotional, irrational, systems, unconscious
“Dirty Little Secrets” launches tomorrow: 3 more secrets unveiled
Oct 14, 2009 Sales Related
Yesterday I gave you 3 ’secrets’ from the Conclusion of my new book Dirty Little Secrets: why buyers can’t buy and sellers can’t sell and what you can do about it.
An answers for those of you who have asked how this book differs from some of my other books, and then I’ll give you 3 more ’secrets.’
This book is very very different from Sales on the Line, Selling with Integrity and Buying Facilitation®. While those books talk about the buying decision process as being separate from the sales process and introduce some new skills, none of my previous books delve into exactly, EXACTLY what happens behind the scenes. I have thoroughly explained
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Tags: behind-the-scenes, book, Buy-In, buyer, change, Dirty Little Secrets, information, internal systems, off-line, solution
Birthing A Book
Aug 25, 2009 Decisioning & Change Management
I’m just putting the final touches on my new book which involves writing the text for the back cover, doing final proofs, chasing friends for testimonials. Although I write something every day, and have written hundreds of articles, many books, hundreds of blog posts, it’s not the same as a book. A book has some heft to it – not in terms of size, but in terms of the promise of it. And the time I have to weave my dreams onto pages that will hold them.
I thought I would write a brief sales book that announced my anger at the sales model for being so unruly, for allowing so much failure. So many sales people end up wasting so much time, not to mention buyers not getting what they deserve. I thought that I’d just have a good-old rant for 100 pages or so.
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