There is an air of inevitability that at some point, in the not too distant future, many of the tasks now routinely handled by “salespeople” will become automated – in fact, it is already happening. Commoditization virtually eliminates seller-buyer human interaction and, at the time of writing this, it is a B2C “phenomenon.” It is […]
Key Account Management Is An Art, Not a Formula
One can often see two ways of managing key accounts that are certain to fail. The first is management by chance – there is no control and there is no plan. No one can explain why we are winning the business or forecast how long our success will last. We do not learn from our […]
Using Pareto’s Principle to Highlight the Current Malaise Within the Sales Space
I have to confess that I was 25 years old before I discovered Vilfredo Pareto and whilst I cannot claim that I experienced an epiphany of “Damascus Highway” proportions, it did cause me to make fundamental changes to the way I organized myself. I think even at that young age, I knew precisely what I […]
The FIVE Critical Sales Challenges Facing Every Company, Everywhere ….
I have been contemplating what I believe are the most significant challenges most companies are currently facing, and I have managed to reduce my list to just five. Challenge One: Finding Opportunities I am continually surprised to discover just how few companies have a formal business development strategy. The norm appears to be “If we throw […]