101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas Idea 101: KEEP SEARCHING FOR AN EDGE As a final entry (and yes, I know it says 100 ideas on the cover, but I have made a point of emphasizing the usefulness of something unexpected), I would like to make a point about the dynamic nature of the sales … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 100: WHY ARE YOU CALLING? This book has touched on one of the perennial success factors of selling: preparation. Good records, clear thinking before a sales meeting, an agenda and more all help you to run the kind of meeting that you want, and those customers find useful. … Read more
101 Best sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 99: NEVER TELL OBVIOUS LIES It may be that selling involves some exaggeration, and occasionally a little white lie, but more than that runs risks. Tell someone that the battery life of some gizmo is twice what it actually is, and this description may help clinch the sale, … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 98: GO ON FOOT I’ve mentioned sales productivity elsewhere. It is a truism that the greater the amount of time you spend – primarily face to face – with customers, the greater the chance of your concluding deals and producing business. Yet there are so many hazards that … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 97: DEFINE YOUR JOB Different sales jobs are, well, different. For instance, one may involve much cold calling, another none. One may involve short one-off meetings, while others may necessitate a long chain of events all of which must be got right. Simply to say that job is … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 96: SHOW TO SELL Sometimes, with some products, you do better not to talk about something, but to show it – demonstrate it –working. Whether it is a photocopier or a car in which you offer prospects a test drive, the principles are similar. Idea Many people do … Read more
101 Best Sales and marketing Ideas IDEA 95: BENCHMARK YOURSELF You may be pretty good at selling (even though you say so yourself), but do you know how you compare with others, not just in your organization, but also more widely? Idea From consultants Miller Heinman … This company specializes in the sales area. It … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 94: THE SMALL PRINT Many a deal has founded on the small print. The customer likes the product, they want to buy the product, May even at some stages they intend to do so, and then – suddenly – they decline. Something about the terms of the deal … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 93: BECAUSE YOU’RE SPECIAL There is saying that a little flattery goes a long way, meaning that flattery can oil the wheels of relationships, and carry people with you. Of course, this is something to use carefully. If flattery is used like a blunt instrument, or in the … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 92: NO PROBLEM As I write this I am arranging a training course for a large multinational IT company, to be held in its office in Singapore. (I work there regularly). With participants assembling from five countries, and an HR manager who keeps tinkering with the agenda, there … Read more
101 Best sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 91: BIG STRATEGIES Not only are some customers different from others (it has already been stressed here that customer need individual treatment), some are also larger than others, in terms of either business received from them or potential. A big customer is sometimes satisfying and gratefully simply labelled … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 90: A TELLING SONG The idea here is important, but the example that brought it to mind is not strictly a sales one. First, some brief background: I have recently written a travel book (First Class – At Last!, Marshall Cavendish), which focuses on a journey from Singapore … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 89: THE POWER OF DESCRIPTION Everyone in selling must know the concept of features and benefits, and that, to use and an old phrase; you sell the sizzle and not the sausages. People buy something because of what it does for them, or means to them; that is, … Read more
101 Best Sales and Marketing ideas IDEA 88: BE PREPARED Every text about selling stresses the need for preparation, and the danger of trying to wing it. Yet there are occasion when many sales people do just that. They think they have everything in mind, and that no further thought is necessary. This area is … Read more
101 Best sales and Marketing Ideas IDEA 87: ON YOUR FEET Not all selling takes place in a one-to-one meeting. It can take place in many situations: in farmyard (always keep Wellington boots in your car boot if you’re likely to end up in this environment), in a noisy factory, or across the dinner table. … Read more