In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, there was an interesting marketing article on Wheaties. Most of us grew up with the marketing tag line of "The Breakfast of Champions" ringing in our head along with pictures of Michael Jordan, Dorothy Hamil, Michael Phelps and similar top level athletes featured in full color on the outside of the box. Wheaties actually taste pretty good! The problem is that although they are an iconic 91 year old brand, they no longer sell very well.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales enablement, sales effictiveness, sales boot camp
Recognition for this title to Seth Godin in his blog last Saturday. A Tufts grad, Seth has a knack for minimalism both in his blog content and in his persona. As I was reading his blog, immediately I thought of how important a statement this was for the sales people at most companies. And the reason for that are these disturbing facts below from a recent study at the Harvard Business School:
Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales management boot camps
Now that we've settled into the actual competition of the Olympics and moved past the media distractions of uncompleted hotel rooms and relentless weather reports of melting snow, the pure athleticism in Sochi is just outstanding. World records and gold medals are decided in hundredths of a second after skiers and skeleton sleds plummet downhill at 80 miles an hour while hockey teams play repeated rounds of sudden death overtime. So far, this Olympics has been both exciting and heartwrenching (my snowboarding friend, Lindsey Jacobellis ,falling) to watch.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, selling skills, sales training, sales management boot camp
With Valentine’s Day tomorrow, does it ever cause you to ask, “Who?", or maybe more fitting in the world of Sales, "What do you really love?”
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales management boot camp
Last Sunday, I was walking out to the barn and noticed that the big red thermometer read 6. Just by it's naked self...6. Certainly a lot colder locations over the last couple of weeks. -31 in Fargo, -19 in Albany, and yesterday,-8 in Chicago, but here in the woods of Bondville-Winhall (pop. 725), it was just plain old 6 without the pluses or the minuses. Just so that I would keep my sanity as I shoveled yet another path for the propane delivery guy to get to the tank, I thought about the relevancy of the number 6.
Tags: sales coaching, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales, sales management effectiveness, sales optomization, sales boot camp, sales management boot camp, sales checklists
Toward the end of a very hectic December, I was facilitating a series of 2014 sales plan reviews for the senior sales team of a new customer. It was interesting for me to note that in a few of the presentations, even heavily experienced salesguys commented that although this was their plan for the year, there "are a number of factors that are out of my control". Always the pain-in-the-neck, provoking guy that I am, I asked about those, and the responses were...
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales optomization, sales training, sales management boot camp, sales boot camps
If there were just three things that you could improve on and be super successful at during 2014, what would they be?
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales boot camp, sales jobs, sales management boot camp, strategic planning, sales checklists
Last Sunday, driving from early morning mass and on my way to my personal weekly reward, which is searching out sales at my favorite store, Home Depot, I noticed 20 feet ahead two turkeys feeding on late fall garden scraps on the left side of the road. As I slowed down, I also noticed this small yellow sign noting "turkeys crossing" over to the right. And then, as if on cue, 20ish turkeys hopped up on the stone wall, walked across the road right in front of my car and joined the others in the garden. Which, of course, got me to thinking about Sales...
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management boot camp, sales checklists
Just about ready for winta'. As part of my never-ending "drive-1,000-miles-a-week" travel schedule, late Thursday night and Friday morning found me in the towns of Colchester and Williston, VT. I thank the inventor of GPS every single trip when I head off with absolutely no idea where I'm going other than... "It's north (or some other direction) somewhere." A Mobil station dinner and a Hampton Inn breakfast later, I found that the management team at the Colchester and Williston plants were truly engaging, have complex opportunities, and I'm looking forward to our two day planning session in December.
Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales management, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management boot camp, sales boot camps, sales checklists
MassTLC (short for Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council) keeps doing everything perfectly! Having run a number of business associations such as SBANE, ACGBoston and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, I personally know how very hard it is to keep things new, exciting, and constantly refreshed. Members want to feel engaged, sponsors need to feel loved, and new prospects want to join only if "the cool kids" belong.
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales management, sales enablement, sales planning, sales effictiveness, sales management boot camp, sales boot camps
