Doing so makes you an order taker; you are little more than a shopkeeper waiting for the buyer to say, “I want a loaf of bread,” for you to jump into action. If you acquiesce to discounts based solely on your salespeople’s feedback, then you and your sales people have a problem; you, a business
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Effective sales management requires the manager to have his nose in other people’s business. The effective sales manager has his nose in his sales team’s personal business. “Do not bring your personal problems to work” is an oft-quoted admonition that rings sour to successful sales management. And personal problems could range from the mild, “My
How can you accelerate the sale? By establishing early in the sale, through asking insightful questions, the buyer’s real pain point. We buy a product or service to solve a problem. However, we rarely articulate the problem to the seller which makes his job that bit more complicated. For instance, we ask for a drill
Conforming to the rules, works against successful selling. The stickler for rules gets frustrated because he yields to them and gets mediocre results at best. Progressive sellers, on their other hand, while remaining ethical, take the rules as guidelines, not deadlines. Many times they will bend them to snapping point much to the irritation
To begin with, Nairobi is congested and all we have gotten for solutions are quick-fixes, just as quickly withdrawn. While the experts ponder viable options, plus being a concerned citizen, here’s my two cents on solving the dilemma. By-pass the middleman and focus on the end-user Next, for decades, banks had stubbornly positioned themselves as
Sales jokes are not just for the humour, but the learning, too. So, courage brother; like a humourist, do not stumble over vexatious beings. If you had ‘Njaanuary’ (no-money January) as your excuse not to sell, here’s something to lighten up your spirits- sales jokes from which we can learn the importance of courage when
Whereas the CEO runs a company, the Strategic Account Manager runs the account as a project. The strategic account manager that fails to remain strategic compromises the position and therefore, account. For instance. The CEO of say, a manufacturing entity, tells his company’s bank relationship manager (RM) that he needs a personal credit card. The
Keeping a consistently poor performer hurts the business financially and affects the team morale and therefore productivity. “How long should I keep a non-performing sales newbie?” The short answer to this question I get asked often is this: three months is too short, a year too long. If however his is an attitude problem, three
Sales people that buy into this, “Bado mapema” mantra struggle with jumpstarting their selling batteries, the more post their holidaying. Buyers have the luxury of excuses for not getting into the thick of (business) things in January but you don’t. The favourite ones include, “Bado mapema, boss” (It’s still too early in the year) and
Are you Kenyan enough? To be a ‘cool’ enough Kenyan, you must wait until the last possible minute, and then complain… A new year beckons, but not a new Kenyan I’ll bet. No. I won’t; I’ll guarantee it. So sure am I, that I’m writing this well before Christmas Day. After all, the peculiar Kenyan