As a seller, what’s your job?  Are you working to close a sale? Feed your family? Continue living in the style you’re accustomed to? Be the best? Make a name for yourself? Keep your job? Meet your quota? Your ego?
What would need to be true if your priority were to truly serve a customer? Would […]

I use the USPO to pick up items people buy from my on-line store. It’s a simple process: I push a few buttons, and the package is scheduled to be picked up at my front door in about 3 minutes or less.
Yesterday, I left the office and noticed a mailer sitting there: it was to have been picked up […]

I was speaking with a colleague today who complained that although he understands his customer’s needs – does surveys of every aspect of their decisions (how, when, what) so he ‘knows’ how and what they buy – and creates marketing materials positioned to address those needs and segments, the buyers still didn’t behave in a way he believes […]

I often hear sales, marketing, and change management folks talking about ‘understanding the customer.’ But what, exactly, does that mean?
On the face of it, it’s a no-brainer. Of course  it’s vital to ‘understand the customer.’ But it’s not so simple as just ‘understanding’ as there are so many facets to this. I must admit that when I hear […]

What is the difference between selling to an internal customer and selling to an external customer?
Nothing.
At the end of the day, there is the buyer, the seller, and the solution. The influencer, the influenced, and the idea, or request. Regardless of the moving parts, one person wants another person to buy in to something that […]

My friend Jill Konrath returned from the recent Sales 2.0 conference and told me of a complaint she heard several times from attendees: “Customers don’t know how to buy.”
This, said by sellers blaming buyers for not behaving as sellers would prefer. Or not responding appropriately to seller’s selling patterns.
Let me reverse the issue: Sellers do […]