SuccessfulWorkplace

My first software sales job and I’m twenty-five, selling CRM for Dataworks. It’s 1996. I had no skills; the only thing I knew was Sales was social; it’s about people. And I was persistent because that’s all I had. I wanted to get into software because I thought I needed to become more technical. I […]

How many of us, when asked what we wanted to be one day, said, “I want to be a salesperson”? No one. The truth is that most of us sell overtly or indirectly every day and 2014 will place even more importance on selling. As we automate more and more of the work environment, we […]

When I’m not traveling, I try to start my days by hanging with my family in the kitchen. That’s where all the action is in the mornings. And when it becomes too hectic in there, I typically retreat to my den with my computer and get on email. My wife, Tia, has the routine totally […]

Yesterday, I called into two CRM companies, to evaluate CRM for Storyleaders. I called into the main #s. I’ve actually done some work with both companies, but wanted to hear both sides, maybe get some different ideas. And I was kind of excited going into these conversations; thinking I would get good insights; maybe get inspired […]

A little over a year ago, I had a conversation with the tibbr product manager about his use of the social platform he was guiding through a rapid series of improvements. I was very curious to know why I rarely saw his posts on the corporate social media site, considering his role. He said something […]

We usually think of customer experience (CX) as a consumer-facing concept. In most retail companies, it is a full-time position that puts heavy focus on the physical interfaces to the customer (Web, social, stores, support). It becomes easy to believe that customer experience is a combination of marketing, sales and service. CX has an identity […]

If you weren’t already aware, having a story beats having data in almost every situation. In business we love ‘ROI’ but the true bottom line is that facts aren’t everything and a great story is far more powerful and evocative in the human brain that reams of data. A few months ago I wrote about […]

One of my friends thinks ‘Sales’ is about talking. Another person I follow on Twitter thinks it is about ‘convincing’ the customer. I wince every time I hear someone characterize an engaging, fluent, fast talking, bloke as ‘sales material’. Sales, as you might agree(especially if you are in sales yourself), is really not any of […]

Yesterday, I was going through my backlog of LinkedIn invitations, and I had a feeling of fatigue. Description: Overachieving, Highly Successful, Proven, Results driven, Strategic, Consultative, Solutions-Oriented, Problem-Solver, Goal-Oriented, with expertise in new customer acquisition, profitability enhancement, pipeline development and process improvement. Brings me to a conference I spoke at. The topic was “The Customer […]

The public wants both a seamless shopping experience across any retail channel (mobile, online, in store) and is happy to research online (AKA ‘webrooming’) and buy from a brick and mortar store. These were two of the strongest conclusions in the Seamless Retail Research released by Accenture on April 15th. This isn’t a shocker for […]

You know the drill… You’ve got an executive’s undivided attention for the length of an elevator ride. What can you say in that 60 seconds that will spark interest, provide enough detail to show credibility, and land a follow-up meeting? I recently attended an enlightening presentation by Rick Coplin and Greg Pugh of the TechColumbus business incubator on […]

Predictive analytics is big business now. Hand in hand with Big Data they represent one of the only ways to get to know your consumer market and understand how they’ll behave under conditions, respond to marketing and react to incentives. But the problem with all of this is that it’s a constant cat and mouse chase, consumers are […]

Managing a sales course this week and if there’s one thing I hope to instill in the class, it’s a message about intent. People smell your intent like a dog smells fear. Don’t believe me? Consider what happens each time you sit down on the airplane next to someone else. Whether you realize it or […]

In this day and age, most unsolicited business calls go unanswered. Modern sales and marketing professionals are up against savvy buyers that are more empowered than ever by easy access to detailed product information on the Web. Everyone is connected to the latest information. And if buyers don’t want to hear from marketers, they have […]