DON’T BE TOTALLY SELF-SUFFICIENT – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #71

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 71: DON’T BE TOTALLY SELF-SUFFICIENT This and the next two ideas link to how you and your boss work together (whoever your boss is: in a large company it is likely a sales manager or director). By its nature the field sales job is one in which people … Read more

EN ROUTE TO SUCCESS – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #70

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 70: EN ROUTE TO SUCCESS Productivity is important, and the nature of a field sales job dictates that there is inevitably some idle time. There’s time spent travelling to the customer (and trying to find some where to park), time ahead of a meeting waiting for people in … Read more

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM A FRIEND – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #69

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 69: WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM A FRIEND Who else can help you improve your selling? Idea From a training company… A mentor is someone who exercises as low-key and informal developmental role. More than one person can be involved in the mentoring of a single individual, and … Read more

GET OUT OF HERE – 101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #68

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 68: GET OUT OF HERE A break can do you good. The right sort of break can do your sales results some good. Idea From the world of training… Here is something that will perhaps be regarded as something’s of a luxury. But it can have real value, … Read more

ADMIN RULES OK – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #67

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 67: ADMIN RULES OK Selling to people is a personal business, often one to one; it is dependent to some extent on personalities and relationships. It is influenced by how the sales person approach matters, the techniques they use, and such things as the perceived degree of pushiness. … Read more

UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER’S CULTURE – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #66

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 66: UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER’S CULTURE The world is large and varied, and so are the customers in it. At home or board, sales people should study how culture affects personal relationships. Idea As an example consider a single country, albeit one that many appear somewhat alien to Englishmen like … Read more

DRAMATICALLY MEMORABLE – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #65

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 65: DRAMATICALLY MEMORABLE No doubt you work at creating a positive persona and profile for yourself with your customers. If you do so, they will think of you as professional. They may know other details about you too: where you live, something of your family, the fact that … Read more

WORK THE LOGISTICS – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #64

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 64: WORK THE LOGISTICS Sometimes it is difficult to meet with customers. The locations are far apart, and compromises must be made about when and where you get together. This is especially the case when relationships are good. I deal with one person on a regular basis, but … Read more

WHEN THE CUSTOMER DOES NOT LIKE YOU – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #63

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 63: WHEN THE CUSTOMER DOES NOT LIKE YOU It would be a dull world if everyone were the same, so it is no great surprise that we do not get on equally well with everyone we meet. This does not matter much, if at all, in some circumstances. … Read more

ASSESS COMPETITOR’S SALES PERFORMANCE – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #62

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 62: ASSESS COMPETITOR’S SALES PERFORMANCE A key challenge is selling is to handle your sales meetings in a way that buyers find they like. They should ideally like it better than the methods of other sales people with whom they deal (either direct competitors, or people who sell … Read more

NOT AT YOUR CONVENIENCE – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #61

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 61: NOT AT YOUR CONVENIENCE Sometimes sales people fail to achieve they want, not because they fail to assess what would work best for the client , but  more because the best way to sell the product or service is inherently a tad complicated whether an idea works … Read more

ENHANCE YOUR PROFILE AS A PROFESSIONAL – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #60

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 60: ENHANCE YOUR PROFILE AS A PROFESSIONAL All sales people want to be seen as professional. That’s sensible enough, but “professional” is an umbrella term, and we must ask what characteristics are perceived as making someone seem professional, and making people believe that they are. In part, achieving … Read more

MAXIMIZE YOUR COLLECTION USEFUL INFORMATION – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #59

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 59: MAXIMIZE YOUR COLLECTION USEFUL INFORMATION Information is power, as the saying has it. In selling this is certainly true, and it follows that the finding –out process –identifying customer needs is – is a key one. Not least, it helps in dealing with competition. If you find … Read more

PROMISES, PROMISES – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #58

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 58: PROMISES, PROMISES We all like it when someone makes and keeps a promise. We expect them to keep it, and it is, well, nice when they do. In selling and doing business with customers many promises are made: to deliver on a particular day, allow time for … Read more

AVOID GIVING A DISCOUNT – Best Sales and Marketing Ideas #57

101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 57: AVOID GIVING A DISCOUNT Everyone likes a bargain. What is more, customers have been led to expect prices vary. Takes airfares and go to a dozen websites and travel agents, you will find yourself looking at a dozen different prices. Many of them are likely to be … Read more