Why leading an examined life is good for sales

‘Leading an examined life’ was voted as the Number 10 of Sales Trends for 2011. For many years you could lead an intuitive sales life because your product was your edge, but not anymore. With products replicated in minutes, the spotlight is well and truly on the specific ingredients of being an effective sales person and sales leader and managing oneself in volatile times. This all begins and ends with neuroscience. The latest scientific research into neuroscience confirms how we manage our brain. The brain is known to be like an electro-chemical …

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The Latest (disturbing) Findings From The World of Sales

For the third year running I recently had the privilege and pleasure of attending, presenting and acting as MC at the CSE11, Asia Pacific’s Premier Sales Leadership Conference – “The New Era of Professional Selling; The Pathway from Supplier to Partner Status”. Over 150 delegates from Australia’s premium companies attended and we heard from some of the world’s leading experts on sales capability, strategy and culture. There was much talk about the rapidly changing face of our B2B (business to business) sales world and how we need to build relevant and sustainable partnerships if we …

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The Practice of Confusion Marketing

I wonder how many people, business owners and consumers alike are experiencing excessive frustration, anxiety or even depression as a result of the Confusion Marketing tactics employed by some businesses? Confusion Marketing is the controversial strategy and practice of deliberately sending confusing marketing material in order to hinder consumers’ comparisons with other similar offers.

Many examples are to be found in the telecommunications, banking and finance sectors, where pricing plans, contracts or interest rate offers can be so complicated that it becomes impossible to make direct comparisons between competing offers. You will find that with companies that employ such tactics that …

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Death of the ‘Detailing’ Salesman

If you have been paying attention for a while you will have realized that a lot is happening and changing in the world of selling and buying. The internet and social media are the most significant game changes along with the commoditisation of products.

With access to so much information, the buyer has grown into a more sophisticated, well informed consumer, especially in the B2B (business to business) space. The savvy business person knows that many of those commodity purchases they have traditionally made face-to-face with a sales representative can now be made online thus saving …

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8 Top Tips To Stop Yielding and Start Earning

Do you experience difficulties asserting yourself with others in a sales context? Is maintaining positive relationships with clients so important to you that you are concerned these relationships may be damaged if you are perceived as pushy or intrusive? Do you hesitate to prospect, sell or self promote due to a reflexive fear of being considered too pushy, intrusive, or selfish? If you recognise any of these behaviours you might just be suffering from the debilitating behavioural issue known as ‘yielding’ which affects many sales people and keeps them from earning what they are worth. …

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Procurement & Value Managed

‘Procurement & Value Managed’ was voted as the Number 8 for Sales Trends for 2011. In 2011 we are seeing the development, thinking and sophistication of the Procurement Profession accelerate. This progression will surely see procurement on the front foot of supply chain management. Around 60 percent of major global corporations now have Procurement and Supply at the executive table alongside sales, marketing, finance, production, HR, IT, etc. Security of supply, environmental credentials, sustainable business practices, integrative processes and business cases will be up for discussion at the executive …

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Age Old Lawn Bowls Turns New With Social Media

Lawn Bowls clubs are innovating to attract new members, even running bare-foot bowls and speed dating bowls for new and existing members. If the sport of Lawn Bowls can embrace the internet and social media to reinvigorate its brand, increase participation, grow its members and lift revenues, then so can we all.

Lawn Bowls has been around for hundreds of years with its origins supposedly dating back to Ancient Egyptian times along with its cousins, Bocce and Pétanque. It’s often been seen as a traditional sport for older people with rigid rules and recognisable but rather unattractive white uniforms. I can …

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7 Signs That You Are In The Presence Of A Sales Narcissist

Stop trying to impress me. It’s a real turn off. I can make up my own mind about whether I like you; trust you; believe you, or not. You don’t have to make up my mind for me.

Despite this, you continue to dominate my space assertively trying to convince me of your merits. My logical brain shows me a well presented, confident individual yet my intuition, my gut, is telling me to be wary of you because I’ve seen people like you beforeand the result usually isn’t very nice.

If you haven’t worked it out yet it’s everything you pride yourself …

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Rethinking Sales Incentives – The Science of Motivation

‘Rethinking Sales Incentives’ was voted as the Number 8 Sales Trends for 2011. Incentive programs, commissions and bonuses have been synonymous with sales teams for at least the last 50 years. However throwing more money at sales teams to perform better, especially in these more complex and creative times may be a thing of the past. While the ‘carrot and stick’ approach has been reasonably successful for most sales teams in the twentieth century, especially when sales people were simply selling product, scientific research is showing if you …

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5 top tips on how to produce a winning sales proposal

A good sales proposal demonstrates real value; a quote just offers a price. Many sales people are required to produce a proposal or quote after an initial meeting with a client or prospect. This is a critical part of the sales process. Many sales people however, loathe producing proposals and consider it a chore believing they don’t get maximum value or return from their efforts. Often reduced to quoting prices or at worst just a ‘find and replace’ to change the client company name, sales people can do a lot better for themselves as well …

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