We all know that finding and hiring good sales people has become a problem. There are just not that many good ones out there right now. They are either, retired, gone to work in other fields or like the old general himself just faded away. So what are you going to do? You need sales […]
Five Things You Need To Know To Be A Successful Salesperson
As I travel around the country, I often get asked what makes a great sales person. People want to know what the secret is to being successful in sales. Some of them tell me that they think it is much more difficult to sell today than it has ever been. Others tell me about customers […]
On Selling Contract Manufacturing Services
Contract manufacturing is a service not a product. As CEMs, we are actually building someone else’s product, someone else’s baby. Our customers are putting the fate of their companies in our hands. If we build the product incorrectly our customers will be the ones to pay. In the end they are the ones who have their name […]
Marty
Let me tell you about my good friend Marty Petersen. He was one of the most intriguing people I have ever met, and had the pleasure to work with. Marty was always all in whatever task he undertook. When I met him, he was handling the purchasing for us at Automated Systems, the PCB shop […]
Selling On Price Is How You Lose
If you prospect for price you are going to get price oriented customers. You are only going to “buy” your way into an account and yes, you are going to set the precedent for the life of that account. So says Mark Hunter in his great new book High-Profit Prospecting published by Amacom. And allow me to […]
Care About Your Customers And They Will Love You For Life
Years ago, when I lived in Milwaukee, there was a great, and wonderful airline by the name of Midwest Express. I loved that airline, it was the one airline that I was proud to be a frequent flyer on. To this day, I still have the leather travel wallet they gave out then you hit […]
Contract Manufacturers: Does Anybody Know Your Name?
Unlike PCB shops where there are now less than 200 left in North America, there are well over 1000 contract manufacturers of all shapes and sizes. Everyone knows the big guys from Celestica, to Flextronics, to Sanmina to Plexus all of them doing hundreds of millions to billions of dollars, but what about all the […]
Open-Minded Selling
Great sales people will try anything. There is a theory that goes, “Look at the way a person dresses today, and you can tell when he went to high school” Try it out, and you’ll see that most of the time it’s true. Khakis and button-down oxford cloth shirts? Pre-hippie days sixties. Gray haired ponytails? […]