Years ago, many years ago now, I read a book titled “Don’t fire them, Fire them up!” it was written by Frank Pacetta, an executive at Xerox at the time, and as the title states it was all about getting people fired up so that they would be great salespeople. The little book has stuck […]
When Playing it Safe is Dangerous
Sometimes playing it safe is the most dangerous thing you can do. They say that if sharks are not on the hunt and moving forward constantly, they will die. It sounds incredible until you stop a minute and think about it. In fact, I view business like this: If you are not growing, you are […]
Developing Great Employees
The biggest problem most of my clients face today is a shortage of good people. Actually, it is a problem common to all industries, right now. A Five Guys restaurant in Washington, stood ready to open for over a year before it actually opened, because they could not find enough people to staff it. Another […]
Good Trade Show Or Bad Trade Show, It’s Up To You
After attending the IPC Apex Expo trade show a few months ago I came to realize that there are two kinds of people: those who just come here, set up their booth and expect things to happen (and then blame the show organizers when nothing does), and those who make things happen and who think […]
How To Hire The Best
One of the questions I am most frequently asked is how can you tell who is going to make a great salesperson? How can you tell? What are the characteristics to look for in a person that will indicate that this person is bound for greatness in sales? What are you going to look for […]
Selling Against Price
I hate this subject. I don’t hate it because I’m scared of it, but rather because it reminds be that most of our customers pride themselves on their ability to find the cheapest products in the world to put into their products, which they also claim are the best in the world. How exactly […]
Never Forget That It’s People That Buy Your Stuff!
I know we sell technology, and technology is based on facts, on data, and on physics. That is all true, more than true actually. So being technical, and many of us being engineers or operations people (not me), we tend to want to deal in facts, the black and white of reality, that’s where we […]
It’s Only Common Sense: Selling Against the Big Guys
There has for some time now been and ever growing gap in annual revenue numbers between the large international board shops and the smaller local board shops. While most of the smaller North American shops are in the under $50 million-a-year revenue range, the big guys are now hovering around the billion-dollar range-a-year range. There […]
The All Powerful Referral!
Someone talking about how good you are is so much more powerful than you saying how good you are. A customer praising your product, is so much more credible than you telling people you have great products. And, a customer going on and on about your extremely great service will help you grow your business […]
Don’t Burn Those Bridges! (Ten Rules to Live By)
In sales and in life for that matter you are only as good as the people you know, work with and are friends with. You are only as strong as your affiliations. You have to know and be willing to work with everyone if you are going to be successful life. So with that […]