As we entered this era of interconnectivity something unique happened, our ability to solve problems changed significantly dramatically and possible forever.
Simply our ability to solve problems immediately!
Example:
To solve the problem what does Immanuel Kant term ”Categorical Imperative” mean? Google it and you have the answer in less than 30 seconds, previously one had to wait until they got to a library asked a friend visited the university or took a course in German philosophy, read thru 800 pages of very complex German to possible get a glimpse of its meaning.
Today 30 seconds…
What other problems can we solve each day using the web?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
HEIDEGGER - a philosphy of personal liberartion
One does what one does and lives the way one lives and that this is mostly thru social conditioning, and we are in general unconscious and completely unaware of why we do what we do.
This self, that does what one does in an “unreflexed” way, is a kind of zombie like state without real free will.
We are what we take ourselves to be after the fact, we are basically how we interpret ourselves.
So how is one to evolve from this “public us” and crystallize an authentic life?
A dasien is always dimly aware of the way the world is “ungrounded” and that there is no real reason why one has to do things, this way or that way.
It isn’t because there is a rational reason why we should do things one-way or another , it isn’t because god ordering us to do things this or that and it’s not because human nature ordered us to do things this way or that way…
It’s all rather unsettling and give rise to “angst”.
So what is one to do about it?
One can either flee from it “angst” and move into conformity, even more and more into conformity until one has completely merged into a completely inauthentic state of being. Thus we find ourselves in the lives wondering why.
OR
One can be aware of this very fact, that there is no reason, no real meaning, nothing that will really define one’s life, no project that will fulfil.
It is the HOW you do things not the why, the why only leads in the final analysis to meaninglessness, one stops trying to fulfil oneself in that fashion hoping that attaining this or that will finally relive this angst, that there is no real grounded purpose and once this is realised one can be free to live authentically.
To hold on to angst and that will catapult one in to authentic living.
This does not mean you have to change anything, or give up projects or desires or drop out, it’s a realization of the HOW one could live authentically.
You no longer have to respond always to the general situation you can also respond as well to the unique situation.
You can stick with things without getting stuck in things, falsely thinking that this will define one’s life and finally give it meaning.
One can do what ONE does authentically while still fitting in to the situation one finds oneself in without the grief.
Not trying to get absolute meaning out of things, Accepting the ungroundedness of life and not having to conform to get respectability.
Truly a liberation of the soul and mind, making one flexible and joyful “Freude”.
This self, that does what one does in an “unreflexed” way, is a kind of zombie like state without real free will.
We are what we take ourselves to be after the fact, we are basically how we interpret ourselves.
So how is one to evolve from this “public us” and crystallize an authentic life?
A dasien is always dimly aware of the way the world is “ungrounded” and that there is no real reason why one has to do things, this way or that way.
It isn’t because there is a rational reason why we should do things one-way or another , it isn’t because god ordering us to do things this or that and it’s not because human nature ordered us to do things this way or that way…
It’s all rather unsettling and give rise to “angst”.
So what is one to do about it?
One can either flee from it “angst” and move into conformity, even more and more into conformity until one has completely merged into a completely inauthentic state of being. Thus we find ourselves in the lives wondering why.
OR
One can be aware of this very fact, that there is no reason, no real meaning, nothing that will really define one’s life, no project that will fulfil.
It is the HOW you do things not the why, the why only leads in the final analysis to meaninglessness, one stops trying to fulfil oneself in that fashion hoping that attaining this or that will finally relive this angst, that there is no real grounded purpose and once this is realised one can be free to live authentically.
To hold on to angst and that will catapult one in to authentic living.
This does not mean you have to change anything, or give up projects or desires or drop out, it’s a realization of the HOW one could live authentically.
You no longer have to respond always to the general situation you can also respond as well to the unique situation.
You can stick with things without getting stuck in things, falsely thinking that this will define one’s life and finally give it meaning.
One can do what ONE does authentically while still fitting in to the situation one finds oneself in without the grief.
Not trying to get absolute meaning out of things, Accepting the ungroundedness of life and not having to conform to get respectability.
Truly a liberation of the soul and mind, making one flexible and joyful “Freude”.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Bill hicks "Chomsky with dick jokes"
Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration – that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death; life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves... Here's Tom with the weather!
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
"Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)" - hosted by Professor Robert Harrison
Great weekly podcast from stanford.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Bad faith = wilful self deception for the outcomes of one’s life ( authenticity and inauthenticity )
Are we always the unfortunate victims of some else control over the choices we have made...
At the age of 40 one’s face can be owned, the rulling passions that have governed our lives will have taken physical form that of the choices one has chosen.
So how do we make choices its seems they are built on an edifice of every regressive choices, one that possibly where spontantious and possibly not well thought out.
MY WILL is linked to values setup early, possible not by choice but ones that possible where predetermined thru socializing and the zeitgeist of our times but still my responsibility for accepting.
We tend to live out those values without possible great deliberation on the choices once made...
We allow ourselves to das man (the they man) as an escape or fleeing from the overwhelm responsibility/ burden of possibility choices but that in its self is a choice and so one can accept the responsibility of the outcomes.
How do we wilfully cause ourselves to believe that which are untrue about one’s self... that’s what’s makes bad faith possible it seems
The whole enterprise it seems may be built upon bad faith...
Are we always the unfortunate victims of some else control over the choices we have made...
At the age of 40 one’s face can be owned, the rulling passions that have governed our lives will have taken physical form that of the choices one has chosen.
So how do we make choices its seems they are built on an edifice of every regressive choices, one that possibly where spontantious and possibly not well thought out.
MY WILL is linked to values setup early, possible not by choice but ones that possible where predetermined thru socializing and the zeitgeist of our times but still my responsibility for accepting.
We tend to live out those values without possible great deliberation on the choices once made...
We allow ourselves to das man (the they man) as an escape or fleeing from the overwhelm responsibility/ burden of possibility choices but that in its self is a choice and so one can accept the responsibility of the outcomes.
How do we wilfully cause ourselves to believe that which are untrue about one’s self... that’s what’s makes bad faith possible it seems
The whole enterprise it seems may be built upon bad faith...
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Outstanding Buiness dev and sales resource
businessballs
ethical work and life learning
Free career help, business training, organizational development - inspirational, innovative ideas, materials, exercises, tools, templates - free and fun.
Browse categories or use the search tool at the top right corner of every page to look for specific items. The main categories and index provide only a very broad view of this website.
glossary of sales and selling terms
glossary of sales and selling terms
This list is not exhaustive, and is not meant to be an endorsement of any of these techniques or terms. See the notice at the foot of the page.
accompaniment visit/accompaniment report - when a manager or supervisor or trainer accompanies a sales person while working on the sales territory, usually while meeting prospects or customers. Typically the manager would complete an accompaniment visit report on the performance of the sales person, which would be discussed, and suitable follow-up actions or training agreed.
account - a customer, usually a business-to-business organization; a major account is a large organization; a national account is a customer with branches or sites that constitute a nationwide coverage, which typically requires special pricing and senior sales attention.
active listening - term used to describe high level of listening capability and method, in which the sales person actively seeks to understand how the speaker feels, and what their issues are, in which the type of listening extends far beyond common inattentive listening. Related to empathy and Stephen Covey's principles of seeking to understand before attempting to be understood.
added value - the element(s) of service or product that a sales person or selling organization provides, that a customer is prepared to pay for because of the benefit(s) obtained. Added values are real and perceived; tangible and intangible. A good, reliable, honest, expert, informed sales person becomes a very significant part of the selling organization's added value, as perceived by the customer, if not by the selling organization.
advantage - the aspect of a product or service that makes it better than another, especially the one in-situ or that of a competitor.
advertising/advertising and promotion/A&P - the methods used by a company to publicise and position its products and services to its chosen market sectors, including product launches, image and brand building, press and public relations activities, merchandising (supporting and promoting the product in retail and wholesale outlets), special offers, generating leads and enquiries, and incentivising distributors, and agents, and arguably sales people. A&P methods are sometimes described as above-the-line (media advertising such as radio, TV, cinema, newspapers, magazines) or below-the-line (non-'media' methods or materials such as brochures, direct-mail, exhibitions, telemarketing, and PR); advertising agencies generally receive a commission (discount 'kick-back') from above-the-line media services, but not from below the line services, in which case if asked to arrange any will seek to add a mark-up.
appointment - a personal sales visit to a prospect, usually arranged by phone. See the appointment-making process.
benefit - the gain (usually a tangible cost, but can be intangible) that accrues to the customer from the product or service.
buyer - most commonly means a professional purchasing person in a business; can also mean a private consumer. Buyers are not usually major decision-makers, that is to say, what they buy, when and how they buy it, and how much they pay are prescribed for them by the business they work for. If you are selling a routine repeating predictable product, especially a consumable, then you may well be able to restrict your dealings to buyers; if you are selling a new product or service of any significance, buyers will tend to act as influencers at most. See decision-makers.
buying facilitation® - also known as facilitative buying, generally attributed (and registered) to sales guru Sharon Drew Morgen. Extremely advanced form of personal selling, in which the central ethos is one of 'helping organizations and buyers to buy', not selling to them. See collaboration and partnership selling at the end of the section. And see the super Buying Facilitation® resources available via Ms Morgen's Businessballs Space profile.
buying signal - a buying signal is a comment from a prospect which indicates that he is visualising to whatever extent buying your product or service. The most common buying signal is the question: "How much is it?" Others are questions or comments like: "What colours does it come in?", "What's the lead-time?", "Who else do you supply?", "Is delivery free?" "Do you use it yourself?", and surprisingly, "It's too expensive."
buying warmth - behavioural, non-verbal and other signs that a prospect likes what he sees; very positive from the sales person's perspective, but not an invitation to jump straight to the close.
call/calling - a personal face-to-face visit or telephone call by a sales person to a prospect or customer. Also referred to a sales call (for any sales visit or phone contact), or cold call (in the case of a first contact without introduction or notice in writing).
call centre - also called a contact centre (US = center) - a department for outgoing and/or incoming (outbound/inbound) telephone calls to/from customers, commonly now extending to email communications also if useful for customer service, but not extending to email marketing. Call centres can be primarily reactive (inbound) or proactive (outbound - covering telemarketing, telesales, and research), or both. Call centres can be in-house, part of the employed organization, or external, effectively a contractor or an agency. Most modern in-house or long-term out-sourced call centres are effectively customer service centres or departments, containing staff dedicated to telesales and customer services activities. Other types of call centre activities and operations can be concerned more with short-term telesales, telemarketing or market research campaigns. Run well a call/contact centre is a wonderful function. Run poorly call centres are a nightmare for staff and customers alike. Since the 1990s when the call centre function became de-humanised and obsessively cost-driven by many large corporations the nightmare scenario largely applies. Some call/contact centres are now such vast business units that they warrant being 'off-shored' (outsourced to countries with lower costs), which generally equates to corporate own-foot-shooting on a truly huge scale. A call centre which is inherently liable to upset customers due to inadequate levels of customer empathy and service is quite obviously utterly self-defeating. Staff turnover is unsurprisingly a major challenge in call centres.
canvass/canvassing - cold-calling personally at the prospect's office or more commonly now by telephone, in an attempt to arrange an appointment or present a product, or to gather information.
close/closing - the penultimate step of the 'Seven Steps of the Sale' selling process, when essentially the sales-person encourages the prospect to say yes and sign the order. In days gone by a Sales person's expertise was measured almost exclusively by how many closes he knew. Thank God for evolution. See the many examples of closes and closing techniques in the Seven Steps section, but don't expect to kid any buyer worth his salt today, and using one might even get you thrown out of his office. Use with great care.
closed question - a question which generally prompts a yes or no answer, or a different short answer of just two possible options, compared to open questions, which typically begin with who, what, where, when, etc., and which tend to invite much longer answers.
cold calling - typically refers to the first telephone call made to a prospective customer. More unusually these days, cold calling can also refer to calling face-to-face for the first time without an appointment at commercial promises or households. Cold calling is also known as canvassing, telephone canvassing, prospecting, telephone prospecting, and more traditionally in the case of consumer door-to-door selling as 'door-knocking'. See the cold calling page.
collaboration selling - also known as collaborative selling and facilitation selling - very modern and sophisticated, in which seller truly collaborates with buyer and buying organization to help the buyer buy. A logical extension to 'strategic' or 'open plan' selling. See collaboration and partnership selling at the end of the section.
commodities/commoditised (products and services) - typically a term applied to describe products which are mature in development, produced and sold in vast scale, involving little or no uniqueness between variations of different suppliers; high volume, low price, low profit margin, de-skilled ('ease of use' in consumption, application, installation, etc). Traditionally the 'commodities' term applies to the 'commodities markets' which trade and set prices for fundamental commodities such as coffee, grain, oil, etc., however in a more generic sales and selling sense the term 'commoditised' refers to a product (and arguably a service) which has become mass-produced, widely available, easy to make, de-mystified, and simplified; all of which is almost invariably associated with a reduction in costs, prices and profit margins, and which also has massive implications for the sales distribution model and methods for taking the product or service to market. Commoditised products are amenable to mass-market and large-scale sales distribution methods and models, as opposed to specialised or high-complexity products, which tend to require closer customer support and greater expertise and advice at the point of selling and installation, and commissioning and application, if appropriate. An electric battery torch is a commoditised product that is freely available, at competitively low price, 'off-the-shelf' at any supermarket (or via the internet); whereas a holographic projector is only available via a specialised supplier, at relatively high cost and profit margin, potentially without a similar competing product, and requires a significant degree of technical advice and support, and possibly user-training. Similarly, a microwave oven is a commoditised product, widely available, inexpensively, off-the-self from a retail store (or via the internet); whereas an integrated commercial kitchen is a specialised system, requiring a high level of sales and selling expertise, support and installation. Commoditised products sell by the millions; specialised products might only sell in hundreds or less. All consumer products and services become commoditised over time. Virtually all B2B products and services become commoditised over time. Colour TV's are cheaper than they were thirty years ago because they've become commoditised. Same can be said for mobile phones, home security systems, computers; even motor cars are becoming genuinely commoditised. In our lifetimes perhaps so too will houses and buildings.
concession - used in the context of negotiating, when it refers to an aspect of the sale which has a real or perceived value, that is given away or conceded by seller (more usually) or the buyer. One of the fundamental principles of sales negotiating is never giving away a concession without getting something in return - even a small increase in commitment is better than nothing. See the negotiation section.
consultative selling (consultation selling) - developed by various sales gurus through the 1980s by David Sandler among others, and practiced widely today, consultative selling was a move towards more collaboration with, and involvement from, the buyer in the selling process. Strongly based on questioning aimed at gaining useful information.
consumer - in the context of selling a consumer typically refers to a private or personal customer or user, as distinct from a business or organizational, or trade customer. Notably we see this term in the acronym B2C, which means 'business-to-consumer', which describes the type of business in which the transaction and relationship is between a business and a private 'domestic' customer. A household insurer, or an estate agent, are examples of B2C sales organizations. Retail is by its nature consumer business. A holiday company is a B2C business. B2B describes 'business-to-business' - which is trade and selling between businesses.
customer - usually meaning the purchaser, organization, or consumer after the sale. Prior to the sale is usually referred to as a prospect.
customer relationship management (CRM) - CRM is now a commonly used term to describe the process of managing the entire selling process within a department or organisation. Computerised CRM systems enable management of prospect and customer details, contacts, sales history and account development. Well known examples of CRM computerised systems are Sage's ACT!, which claims (as at 2006) to be the world's most popular CRM system, and Front Range's Goldmine. Chief elements of a CRM system (or strategy, since the term is used to describe the process and methodology as well as the system) are:
· compilation and organisation of data (prospects, customers, product, sales, history, etc)
· planning, scheduling and integrating customer development activities and communications
· analysis and reporting of all sales related activities and data
Good CRM strategy and systems are generally considered necessary for modern organisations of any scale to enable effective planning and implementation of sales (and to an extent marketing) activities.
cycle - see sales cycle.
deal - common business parlance for the sale or purchase (agreement or arrangement). It is rather a colloquial term so avoid using it in serious company as it can sound flippant and unprofessional.
decision-maker - a person in the prospect organization who has the power and budgetary authority to agree to a sales proposal. On of the most common mistakes by sales people is to attempt to sell to someone other than a genuine decision-maker. For anything other than a routine repeating order, the only two people in any organization of any size that are real decision-makers for significant sales values are the CEO/Managing Director/President, and the Finance Director. Everyone else in the organization is generally working within stipulated budgets and supply contracts, and will almost always need to refer major purchasing decisions to one or both of the above people. In very large organizations, functional directors may well be decision-makers for significant sales that relate only to their own function's activities. See influencer.
deliverable(s) - an aspect of a proposal that the provider commits to do or supply, usually and preferably clearly measurable.
demonstration/'demo'/'dem' - the physical presentation by the sales person to the prospect of how a product works. Generally free of charge to the prospect, and normally conducted at the prospect's premises, but can be at another suitable venue, eg., an exhibition, or at the supplier's premises.
demographics - the study of, or information about, people's lifestyles, habits, population movements, spending, age, social grade, employment, etc., in terms of the consuming and buying public; anyone selling to the consumer sector will do better through understanding relevant demographic information.
discipline - within the context of an organization this is similar to function, i.e., job role, although a discipline can refer more generally to a capability or responsibility, for example 'financial disciplines', or 'customer service disciplines', or 'technical support disciplines'. Discipline can of course mean separately 'control', others or oneself, which is certainly relevant to sales and selling, but not the reason for its inclusion in this glossary. In business-to-business selling of a complex strategic nature looking at disciplines (capabilities and responsibilities) can help to explore the different ways that people are affected by a change or proposition, which generally accompanies the sale of a product or service.
distribution/sales distribution - the methods or routes by which products and services are taken to market. Sales distribution models are many and various, and are constantly changing and new ones developing. Understanding and establishing best sales distribution methods - routes to market - are crucial aspects of running any sales organisation, and any business organisation too. Sales distribution should be appropriate to the product and service, and the end-user market, and the model will normally be defined by these factors, influenced also by technology and social trends. For example, commoditised mass-market consumer products (FMCG - fast-moving consumer goods, household electricals, etc) are generally distributed via mass-market consumer distribution methods, notably supermarkets, but also increasingly the internet. A lesson in changing sales distribution models, and the need for manufacturers and sellers to anticipate changes is found in the switching of book sales and CD sales from retail store distribution to websites, with the resulting demise of many retailers in those sectors. Future changes in sales distribution will see for example music transferring increasingly via online downloads, thus threatening those involved with or dependent upon physical shipping of products. B2B (business-to-business) sales distribution models have their own shape, again dependent on products and services, customer markets, technology, plus other influences such as economical trends, environmental and legislative effects, etc. Examples of B2B sales distribution models are franchising, direct sales forces (employed), direct sales forces (sales agents), telephone sales (call-centres, out-bound and in-bound), the internet (online website businesses), distributors (independent sellers who carry products and services of other manufactuerers and 'principals'), and channel partners and partnering arrangements (prevalent in telecomms and IT sectors).
ethics/ethical selling/ethical business - this would not have appeared in a selling glossary a few years ago, because the line between right and wrong was a mile wide. To certain leaders and companies it still is, although gradually, slowly business and selling is becoming more civilised. Honesty, morality and social responsibility are now crucial elements in any effective selling method, and for any sustainable business. In Spring 2008 someone left a message on my answerphone. The person said he was from 'central government', working on a 'policy piece' about e-learning, and could I give him a call back. I duly called back. After several sidesteps, the 'seller' eventually clarified that the purpose of the contact was to sell me some advertising in a directory, supposedly endorsed or approved by a 'government department'. This is a fine example of unethical selling, and unethical business too, since the seller was clearly following a company script and set of tactics designed to deceive. Unethical business and selling have always been wrong, but nowadays they carry far greater risks for those who behave badly. Consumers are wiser and better informed. Authories and the courts are less tolerant and more senstitive to transgressions. In all respects today poor ethics guarantee personal and business failure.
FABs - features advantages benefits - the links between a product description, its advantage over others, and the gain derived by the customer from using it. One of the central, if now rather predictable, techniques used in the presentation stage of the selling process.
feature - an aspect of a product or service, eg., colour, speed, size, weight, type of technology, buttons and knobs, gizmos and gadgets, bells and whistles, technical support, delivery, etc.
field - means anywhere out of the sales office. Field sales people or managers are those who travel around meeting people personally in the course of managing a sales territory. To be field-based is to work on the sales territory, as opposed to being office-based.
forecast/sales forecast - a prediction of what sales will be achieved over a given period, anything from a week to a year. Sales managers require sales people to forecast, in order to provide data to production, purchasing, and other functions whose activities need to be planned to meet sales demand. Sales forecasts are also an essential performance quantifier which feeds into the overall business plan for any organization. Due to the traditionally unreliable and optimistic nature of sales-department forecasts it is entirely normal for the sum of all individual sales persons' sales annual forecast to grossly exceed what the business genuinely plans to sell. See targets.
function - in the context of an organization, this means the job role or discipline, eg., sales, marketing, production, accounting, customer service, delivery, installation, technical service, general management, etc. Understanding the functions of people within organizations, and critically their interests and needs, is very important if you are selling to businesses or other non-consumer organizations.
gestation period - sale gestation period typically refers to the the time from enquiry to sale, the Sales Cycle in other words, (see Sales Cycle). Awareness and monitoring of Sale Gestation Period/Sales Cycle times are crucial in sales planning, forecasting and management, for individuals sales teams and sales organizations.
influencer - a person in the prospect organization who has the power to influence and persuade a decision-maker. Influencers will be generally be decision-makers for relatively low value sales. There is usually more than one influencer in any prospect organization relevant to a particular sale, and large organizations will have definitely have several influencers. It is usually important to sell to influencers as well as decision-makers in the same organization. Selling to large organizations almost certainly demands that the sales person does this. The role and power of influencers in any organization largely depends on the culture and politics of the organization, and particularly the management style of the two main decision-makers. See decision-makers.
intangible - in a selling context this describes, or is, an aspect of the product or service offering that has a value but is difficult to see or quantify (for instance, peace-of-mind, reliability, consistency). See tangible.
introduction - first stage of the actual sales call (see opening).
LAMP® - Large Account Management Process - sales acronym and methodology for major accounts management developed by Robert Miller, Stephen Heiman and Tad Tuleja in their 1991 book Successful Large Account Management (see the books at the foot of this page). Note that LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of Miller Heiman, Inc. Also note that LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See LAMP® and Strategic Selling® copyright details below.
lead-time - time between order and delivery, installation or commencement of a product or service.
listening - a key selling skill, in that without good listening skills the process of questioning is rendered totally pointless.
major account - a large and complex prospect or customer, often having several branches or sites, and generally requiring contacts and relationships between various functions in the supplier and customer organization. Often major accounts are the responsibility of designated experienced and senior sales people, which might be formed into a major accounts team. Major accounts often enjoy better discounts and terms than other customers because of purchasing power leveraged by bigger volumes, and lower selling costs from economies of scale.
marketing - perceived by lots of business people to mean simply promotion and advertising, the term marketing actually covers everything from company culture and positioning, through market research, new business/product development, advertising and promotion, PR (public/press relations), and arguably all of the sales functions as well. It's the process by which a company decides what it will sell, to whom, when and how, and then does it. See the marketing section.
margin/profit margin - the difference between cost (including or excluding operating overheads) and selling price of a product or service. Percentage margin is generally deemed to be the difference between cost and selling price, divided by the selling price ex tax (eg something that costs £1 and is sold for £2 plus tax produces a 50% margin - gross margin that is - net margin is after overheads are deducted).
mark-up - this is the money that a selling company adds to the cost of a product or service in order to produce a required level of profit. Strictly speaking, percentage mark-up refers to the difference between cost and selling price as a factor of the cost, not of the selling price. So a product costing £1 and selling for £2 has been given a mark-up of 100%; (at the same time it produces a margin of 50%).
needs-creation selling - a selling style popularised in the 1970s and 80s which asserted that sales people could create needs in a prospect for their products or services even if no needs were apparent, obvious or even existed. The method was for the sales person to question the prospect to identify, discover (and suggest) organizational problems or potential problems that would then create a need for the product. I'm bound to point out that this is no substitute for good research and proper targeting of prospects who have use of the products and services being sold.
negotiation/negotiating - the trading of concessions including price reductions, between supplier and customer, in an attempt to shape a supply contract (sale in other words) so that it is acceptable to both supplier and customer. Negotiations can last a few minutes or even a few years, although generally it's down to one or two meetings and one or two exchanges of correspondence. Ideally, from the seller's point of view, negotiation must only commence when the sale has been agreed in principle, and conditionally upon satisfactory negotiation. However most sales people fall into the trap set by most buyers - intentionally or otherwise - of starting to negotiate before the selling process have even commenced. See the section on negotiation for negotiating theory, rules and techniques.
objection - a point of resistance raised by a prospect, usually price ("it's too expensive"), but can be anything at any stage of the selling process; overcoming objections is a revered and much-trained skill in the traditional selling process.
open/opening - the first stage of the actual sales call (typically after preparation in the Seven Steps of the Sale). Also called the introduction.
opening benefit statement/OBS - traditionally an initial impact statement for sales people to use at first contact with prospect, in writing, on the phone or face-to-face - the OBS generally encapsulates the likely strongest organizational benefit typically (or supposedly) derived by customers in the prospect's sector, eg., "Our customers in the clothing retail sector generally achieve 30-50% pilferage reduction when they install one of our Crooknabber security systems..." - N.B. The OBS is a relatively blunt instrument for modern selling - use it with extreme care for fear of looking like a total twerp.
open plan selling - a modern form of selling, heavily dependent on the sales person understanding and interpreting the prospect's organizational and personal needs, issues, processes, constraints and strategic aims, which generally extends the selling discussion far beyond the obvious product application; (in a way, it's rather like combining selling with genuinely beneficial, free, expert consultancy). In 'open plan selling' the seller identifies strategic business aims of the sales prospect or customer organization, and develops a proposition that enables the aims to be realised. The proposition is therefore strongly linked to the achievement of strategic business aims - typically improvements in costs, revenues, margins, overheads, profit, quality, efficiency, time-saving and competitive strengths areas. There is a strong reliance on seller having excellent strategic understanding of prospect organization and aims, market sector situation and trends, and access to strategic decision-makers and influencers. Open Plan Selling is also underpinned by strong ethical principles, notably honesty and the premise that persuasion and influence are unhelpful, and in this respect the methodology relates somewhat to modern ideas of facilitating and helping, as primarily featured in Buying Facilitation. The term Open Plan Selling was coined (to the best of my knowledge) by British consultant and trainer Stanley Guffogg. See Open Plan Selling.
open question - a question that gains information, usually beginning with who, what, why, where, when, how, or more subtly 'tell me about..' - as distinct from a closed question, for example beginning with 'Is it...?' or 'Do you...?' etc., which tend to glean only a yes or no answer.
package - in a selling context this is another term for the product offer; it's the whole product and service offering at a given price, upon given terms.
partnership selling - very modern approach to organizational selling for business-to-business sales - see collaboration and partnership selling.
perceived - how something is seen or regarded by someone, usually by the prospect or customer, irrespective of what is believed or presented by the seller, ie what it really means to the customer.
pipeline - see sales pipeline.
positioning - more a marketing than sales term, although relevant to experienced and sophisticated sellers, and related to targeting - positioning refers to how a product/service/proposition is presented or described or marketed in relation to the market place - with reference to customers, competition, image, pricing, quality, etc. Positioning basically refers to whether a proposition is being sold appropriately - in the right way, to the right people, at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price. A potentially brilliant business can fail because its products are not positioned properly, which typically manifests as sales people being unable to sell successfully. There might be little or nothing wrong with the sales people and their skills, and the product/service, but the venture fails because the positioning is wrong. Conversely, good positioning can rescue a less than brilliant product/service. Effective selling is not only about quality and skills - its about suitability of targeting.
preparation - in the context of the selling process this is the work done by the sales person to research and plan the sales approach and/or sales call to a particular prospect or customer. Almost entirely without exception in the global history of selling, no call is adequately prepared for, and sales that fail to happen are due to this failing.
presentation/sales presentation - the process by which a sales person explains the product or service to the prospect (to a single contact or a group), ideally including the product's features, advantages and benefits, especially those which are relevant to the prospect. Presentations can be verbal only, but more usually involve the use of visuals, commonly bullet-point text slides and images on a computer display or projected onto a screen. Can incorporate a video and/or physical demonstration of the product(s). See the presentation training section.
product - generally a physical item being supplied, but can also mean or include services and intangibles, in which case product is used to mean the whole package being supplied.
product offer - how the product and/or service is positioned and presented to the prospect or market, which would normally include features and/or advantages and also imply at least one benefit for the prospect (hence a single product can be represented by a number of different product offers, each for different market niches (segments or customer groupings). One of the great marketing challenges is always to define a product offer concisely and meaningfully.
proposal/sales proposal - usually a written offer with specification, prices, outline terms and conditions, and warranty arrangements, from a sales person or selling organization to a prospect. Generally an immensely challenging part of the process to get right, in that it must be concise yet complete, persuasive yet objective, well specified yet orientated to the customer's applications. An outline proposal is often a useful interim step, to avoid wasting a lot of time including in a full proposal lots of material that the customer really doesn't need.
proposition - usually means product offer, can mean sales proposal. The initial proposition means the basis of the first approach.
professional selling skills - see PSS
PSS - 'Professional Selling Skills' - highly structured selling process pioneered by the US Xerox (and UK Rank Xerox) photocopier sales organization during the 1960s, and adopted by countless business-to-business sales organizations, normally as the 'Seven Steps of the Sale', ever since. PSS places a huge reliance on presentation, overcoming objections and umpteen different closes. Largely now superseded by more modern 'Open Plan' two-way processes, but PSS is still in use and being trained, particularly in old-fashioned paternalistic company cultures. The regimented one-way manipulative style of PSS nowadays leaves most modern buyers completely cold, but strip it away to the bare process and it's better than no process at all.
prospect - a customer (person, organization, buyer) before the sale is made, ie a prospective customer.
puppy dog sale/puppy dog close - a method of selling or closing a deal whereby you let the customer try the product or service for free without commitment, for a limited period, in the confidence that once they live with it they won't want to give it up - just like giving someone have a puppy for a day. These days the puppy dog approach would ideally extend to giving the prospective customer some education and support about looking after the puppy so that they understand and are prepared for the changes that come with a new puppy. See Level 5: education/information-led selling in the development of selling overview.
questioning - the second stage of the sales call, typically after the opening or introduction in the Seven Steps of the Sale. A crucial selling skill, and rarely well demonstrated. The correct timing and use of the important different types of questions are central to the processes of gathering information, matching needs, and building rapport and empathy. Questioning also requires that the sales person has good listening, interpretation and empathic capabilities. See the questioning section.
rem - common slang for remainder or remnant in any business which deals with end-of-line, left-over, or otherwise non-standard-stock items which typically are handled and disposed at attractive terms to minimise waste and write-offs.
research/research call - the act of gathering information about a market or customer, that will help progress or enable a sales approach. Often seen as a job for telemarketing personnel, but actually more usefully carried out by sales people, especially where large prospects are concerned (which should really be the only type of prospects targeted by modern sales people, given the need to recover very high costs of sales people).
retention/customer retention - means simply keeping customers and not losing them to competitors. Modern companies realise that it's far more expensive to find new customers than keep existing ones, and so put sufficient investment into looking after and growing existing accounts. Less sensible companies find themselves spending a fortune winning new customers, while they lose more business than they gain because of poor retention activity. (The hole in the bucket syndrome, where it leaks out faster than it can be poured in.)
sales cycle - the Sales Cycle term generally describes the time and/or process between first contact with the customer to when the sale is made. Sales Cycle times and processes vary enormously depending on the company, type of business (product/service), the effectiveness of the sales process, the market and the particular situation applying to the customer at the time of the enquiry. The Sales Cycle time is also referred to as the Sale Gestation Period (ie from conception to birth - enquiry to sale). The Sales Cycle in a sweet shop is less than a minute; in the international aviation sector or civil construction market the Sales Cycle can be many months or even a few years. The funnel diagram and sales development process on the free resources section show the sales cycle from a different perspective, (and actually prior to enquiry stage). A typical Sales Cycle for a moderately complex product might be:
1. receive enquiry
2. qualify details
3. arrange appointment
4. customer appointment
5. arrange survey
6. conduct survey
7. presentation of proposal and close sale
sales forecasts - also called sales projections, these are the predictions that sales people and sales managers are required to make about future business levels, necessary for their own organisation to plan and budget everything from stock levels, production, staffing levels, to advertising and promotion, financial performance and market strategies.
sales funnel - describes the pattern, plan or actual achievement of conversion of prospects into sales, pre-enquiry and then through the sales cycle. So-called because it includes the conversion ratio at each stage of the sales cycle, which has a funneling effect. Prospects are said to be fed into the top of the funnel, and converted sales drop out at the bottom. The extent of conversion success (ie the tightness of each ratio) reflects the quality of prospects fed into the top, and the sales skill at each conversion stage. The Sales Funnel is a very powerful sales planning and sales management tool. A diagram of a typical basic Sales Funnel appears on the free resources section. Also referred to as the Sales Pipeline.
sales report - a business report of sales results, activities, trends, etc., traditionally completed by a sales manager, but increasingly now the responsibility of sales people too. See the sample monthly sales report template (MSExcel format), or as a PDF version of the same report template. A sales report can be required weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually, and often includes the need to provide sales forecasts.
sales pipeline - a linear equivalent of the Sales Funnel principle. Prospects need to be fed into the pipeline in order to drop out of the other end as sales. The length of the pipeline is the sales cycle time, which depends on business type, market situation, and the effectiveness of the sales process.
sector/market sector - a part of the market that can be described, categorised and then targeted according to its own criteria and characteristics; sectors are often described as 'vertical', meaning an industry type, or 'horizontal', meaning some other grouping that spans a number of vertical sectors, eg., a geographical grouping, or a grouping defined by age, or size, etc.
segment/market segment - a sub-sector or market niche; basically a grouping that's more narrowly defined and smaller than a sector; a segment can be a horizontal sub-sector across one or more vertical sectors.
service contract - a formal document usually drawn up by the supplier by which the trading arrangement is agreed with the customer. Also known as trading agreements, supply agreements, and other variations. See the section on service contracts and trading agreements.
solutions selling - a common but loosely-used description for a more customer-orientated selling method than the Seven Steps; dependent on identifying needs to which appropriate benefits are matched in a package or 'solution'. The term is based on the premise that customers don't buy products or features or benefits - they buy solutions (to organizational problems). It's a similar approach to 'needs-creation' selling, which first became popular in the 1970s-80s. Solutions selling remains relevant and its methods can usefully be included in the open plan selling style described later here, although modern collaborative and facilitative methodologies are becoming vital pre-requisites.
SPIN® and SPIN® Selling - A popular selling method developed by Neil Rackham in the 1970-80s: SPIN® is an acronym derived from the basic selling process designed and defined by Rackham: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need, or Need Payoff. More detail about SPIN® and SPIN® Selling appears in the Consultative Selling and Needs Creation Selling methods section. Note that SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of the Huthwaite organisations of the US and UK. SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See SPIN® copyright details.
steps of the sale - describes the structure of the selling process, particularly the sales call, and what immediately precedes and follows it. Usually represented as the Seven Steps of the Sale, but can be five, six, eight or more, depending whose training manual you're reading.
Strategic Selling® - when used in upper case and/or in the context of Miller Heiman's Strategic Selling® methodology (which features in their books of the same name, first published in 1985) the Strategic Selling® term is a registered and protected product name belonging to the American Miller Heiman training organisation - so be warned. LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of Miller Heiman, Inc., and again be warned that LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See LAMP® and Strategic Selling® copyright details below.
strategic selling - you will also hear people (me included) referring to 'strategic selling' in a generic sense, and not specifically referring to the Miller Heiman methods and materials. In a generic 'lower case' sense, 'strategic selling' describes a broad methodology which began to be practised in the 1980s, literally 'strategic' by its nature (the principles involve taking a strategic view of the prospective customer's organisation, its markets, customers and strategic priorities, etc), which is described below and referred to as 'open plan selling'. When using the 'strategic selling' terminology in a training context you must be careful therefore to avoid confusion or misrepresentation of the Miller Heiman intellectual property. If in any doubt don't use the 'strategic selling' term in relation to providing sales training services - call it something else to avoid any possible confusion with the Miller Heiman products, (see the Miller Heiman Strategic Selling® copyright details below.
tangible - in a selling context this describes, or is, an aspect of the product or service offering that can readily be seen and measured in terms of cost and value (eg., any physical feature of the product; spare parts; delivery or installation; a regular service visit; a warranty agreement). See intangible.
target/sales target - in a sales context this is the issued (or ideally agreed) level of sales performance for a sales person or team or department over a given period. Bonus payments, sales commissions, pay reviews, job gradings, life and death, etc., can all be dependent on sales staff meeting sales targets, so all in all sales targets are quite sensitive things. Targets are established at the beginning of the trading year, and then reinforced with a system of regular forecasting and reviews (sometimes referred to as 'a good bollocking') throughout the year. See forecasting.
targeting - this has a different meaning to the usual noun sense of target (above). Targeting is a marketing term - very relevant and important for sales people and sales managers too - which refers to the customers at which the selling effort is aimed, hence targeting. In this respect the term relates to 'target markets', or 'target sectors'. This is the customer aspect within 'positioning' of a product or service or proposition. Targeting is represented by the question: Who will buy the product/service? Deciding targeting on a company scale is normally the responsibility of a marketing department or agency, but each sales person and sales team as huge potential to develop and refine their own local targeting - so as to aim their efforts at the sectors or customers which will produce the greatest results. For example - and many sales people, especially self-employed providers and traders - completely ignore the fact that sales generally come more easily from existing or previous customers than prospective new customers to whom the supplier is completely unknown. Similarly size of prospective customer is another largely overlooked aspect of targeting. Any business will naturally have more amenable sectors of potential customers than other parts of the market. Targeting is the process by which the selling organization maximises its chances of engaging with the most responsive and profitable customers.
telemarketing - any pre-sales activity conducted by telephone, usually by specially trained telemarketing personnel - for instance, research, appointment-making, product promotion.
telesales - selling by telephone contact alone, normally a sales function in its own right, ie., utilising specially trained telesales personnel; used typically where low order values prevent the use of expensive field-based sales people, and a recognisable product or service allows the process to succeed.
tender - a very structured formal proposal in response to the issue of an invitation to tender for the supply of a product or service to a large organization or government department. Tenders require certain qualifying criteria to be met first by the tendering organization, which in itself can constitute several weeks or months work by lots of different staff. Tenders must adhere to strict submission deadlines, contract terms, specifications and even the presentation of the tender itself, and usually only suppliers experienced in winning and fulfilling this type of highly controlled supply ever win the business. It is not unknown for very successful tendering companies to actually help the customer formulate the tender specification, which explains why it's so difficult to prise the business away from them.
territory - the geographical area of responsibility of a sales person or a team or a sales organization.
territory planning - the process of planning optimum and most cost-effective coverage (particularly for making appointments or personal calling) of a sales territory by the available sales resources, given prospect numbers, density, buying patterns, etc., even if one territory by one sales person; for one person this used to be called journey planning, and was often based on a four or six day cycle, so as to avoid always missing prospects who might never be available on one particular day of the week.
trial close - the technique by which a sales person tests the prospect's readiness to buy, traditionally employed in response to a buying signal, eg: prospect says: "Do you have them in stock?", to which the sales person would traditionally reply: "Would you want one if they are?" Use with extreme care, for fear of looking like a clumsy desperate fool. If you see a buying signal there's no need to jump on it - just answer it politely, and before ask why the question is important, which will be far more constructive.
unique/uniqueness - a feature that is peculiar to a product or service or supplier - no competitor can offer it.
UPB - unique perceived benefit - now one of the central strongest mechanisms in the modern selling process, an extension and refinement of the product offer, based on detailed understanding of the prospect's personal and organizational needs. A UPB is your USP from the customer's perspective, in other words, what your USP means to your customer, which is a very different way of approaching selling than from the traditional angle of seller-oriented USPs. It's essential to discuss your offering in these terms with your customer. The UPB acronym and concept was developed by The Marketing Guild, who specialise in practical, innovative, and effective sales and marketing.
USP - unique selling point or proposition - this is what makes the product offer competitively strong and without direct comparison; generally the most valuable unique advantage of a product or service, for the market or prospect in question; now superseded by UPB.
variable - an aspect of the sale or deal that can be changed in order to better meet the needs of the seller and/or the buyer. Typical variables are price, quantity, lead-time, payment terms, technical factors, styling factors, spare parts, back-up and breakdown service, routine maintenance, installation, delivery, warranty. Variables may be real or perceived, and often the perceived ones are the most significant in any negotiation. See the section on negotiation.
Please note: Where known, trademarks and intellectual property of other people and organizations have been acknowledged. If you spot any omissions let us know via the 'contact us' page and we'll insert the acknowledgement as applicable.
Sales Activator® is a registered trademark of Trainique Ltd.
Buying Facilitation® is a trademark of Sharon Drew Morgen.
Unlock the Game® is a trademark of Ari Galper.
SPIN® and SPIN Selling® trademark details: The copyright rights in Neil Rackham's book, SPIN Selling, are owned by Huthwaite, Inc. (huthwaite.com). Depending upon the geographic territory, the rights in the trademarks SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® are owned by either Huthwaite, Inc. or Huthwaite International (huthwaite.co.uk). Note that SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence.
LAMP® and Strategic Selling® copyright details: LAMP® and Strategic Selling®methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of Miller Heiman, Inc. LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See millerheiman.com for details.
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This list is not exhaustive, and is not meant to be an endorsement of any of these techniques or terms. See the notice at the foot of the page.
accompaniment visit/accompaniment report - when a manager or supervisor or trainer accompanies a sales person while working on the sales territory, usually while meeting prospects or customers. Typically the manager would complete an accompaniment visit report on the performance of the sales person, which would be discussed, and suitable follow-up actions or training agreed.
account - a customer, usually a business-to-business organization; a major account is a large organization; a national account is a customer with branches or sites that constitute a nationwide coverage, which typically requires special pricing and senior sales attention.
active listening - term used to describe high level of listening capability and method, in which the sales person actively seeks to understand how the speaker feels, and what their issues are, in which the type of listening extends far beyond common inattentive listening. Related to empathy and Stephen Covey's principles of seeking to understand before attempting to be understood.
added value - the element(s) of service or product that a sales person or selling organization provides, that a customer is prepared to pay for because of the benefit(s) obtained. Added values are real and perceived; tangible and intangible. A good, reliable, honest, expert, informed sales person becomes a very significant part of the selling organization's added value, as perceived by the customer, if not by the selling organization.
advantage - the aspect of a product or service that makes it better than another, especially the one in-situ or that of a competitor.
advertising/advertising and promotion/A&P - the methods used by a company to publicise and position its products and services to its chosen market sectors, including product launches, image and brand building, press and public relations activities, merchandising (supporting and promoting the product in retail and wholesale outlets), special offers, generating leads and enquiries, and incentivising distributors, and agents, and arguably sales people. A&P methods are sometimes described as above-the-line (media advertising such as radio, TV, cinema, newspapers, magazines) or below-the-line (non-'media' methods or materials such as brochures, direct-mail, exhibitions, telemarketing, and PR); advertising agencies generally receive a commission (discount 'kick-back') from above-the-line media services, but not from below the line services, in which case if asked to arrange any will seek to add a mark-up.
appointment - a personal sales visit to a prospect, usually arranged by phone. See the appointment-making process.
benefit - the gain (usually a tangible cost, but can be intangible) that accrues to the customer from the product or service.
buyer - most commonly means a professional purchasing person in a business; can also mean a private consumer. Buyers are not usually major decision-makers, that is to say, what they buy, when and how they buy it, and how much they pay are prescribed for them by the business they work for. If you are selling a routine repeating predictable product, especially a consumable, then you may well be able to restrict your dealings to buyers; if you are selling a new product or service of any significance, buyers will tend to act as influencers at most. See decision-makers.
buying facilitation® - also known as facilitative buying, generally attributed (and registered) to sales guru Sharon Drew Morgen. Extremely advanced form of personal selling, in which the central ethos is one of 'helping organizations and buyers to buy', not selling to them. See collaboration and partnership selling at the end of the section. And see the super Buying Facilitation® resources available via Ms Morgen's Businessballs Space profile.
buying signal - a buying signal is a comment from a prospect which indicates that he is visualising to whatever extent buying your product or service. The most common buying signal is the question: "How much is it?" Others are questions or comments like: "What colours does it come in?", "What's the lead-time?", "Who else do you supply?", "Is delivery free?" "Do you use it yourself?", and surprisingly, "It's too expensive."
buying warmth - behavioural, non-verbal and other signs that a prospect likes what he sees; very positive from the sales person's perspective, but not an invitation to jump straight to the close.
call/calling - a personal face-to-face visit or telephone call by a sales person to a prospect or customer. Also referred to a sales call (for any sales visit or phone contact), or cold call (in the case of a first contact without introduction or notice in writing).
call centre - also called a contact centre (US = center) - a department for outgoing and/or incoming (outbound/inbound) telephone calls to/from customers, commonly now extending to email communications also if useful for customer service, but not extending to email marketing. Call centres can be primarily reactive (inbound) or proactive (outbound - covering telemarketing, telesales, and research), or both. Call centres can be in-house, part of the employed organization, or external, effectively a contractor or an agency. Most modern in-house or long-term out-sourced call centres are effectively customer service centres or departments, containing staff dedicated to telesales and customer services activities. Other types of call centre activities and operations can be concerned more with short-term telesales, telemarketing or market research campaigns. Run well a call/contact centre is a wonderful function. Run poorly call centres are a nightmare for staff and customers alike. Since the 1990s when the call centre function became de-humanised and obsessively cost-driven by many large corporations the nightmare scenario largely applies. Some call/contact centres are now such vast business units that they warrant being 'off-shored' (outsourced to countries with lower costs), which generally equates to corporate own-foot-shooting on a truly huge scale. A call centre which is inherently liable to upset customers due to inadequate levels of customer empathy and service is quite obviously utterly self-defeating. Staff turnover is unsurprisingly a major challenge in call centres.
canvass/canvassing - cold-calling personally at the prospect's office or more commonly now by telephone, in an attempt to arrange an appointment or present a product, or to gather information.
close/closing - the penultimate step of the 'Seven Steps of the Sale' selling process, when essentially the sales-person encourages the prospect to say yes and sign the order. In days gone by a Sales person's expertise was measured almost exclusively by how many closes he knew. Thank God for evolution. See the many examples of closes and closing techniques in the Seven Steps section, but don't expect to kid any buyer worth his salt today, and using one might even get you thrown out of his office. Use with great care.
closed question - a question which generally prompts a yes or no answer, or a different short answer of just two possible options, compared to open questions, which typically begin with who, what, where, when, etc., and which tend to invite much longer answers.
cold calling - typically refers to the first telephone call made to a prospective customer. More unusually these days, cold calling can also refer to calling face-to-face for the first time without an appointment at commercial promises or households. Cold calling is also known as canvassing, telephone canvassing, prospecting, telephone prospecting, and more traditionally in the case of consumer door-to-door selling as 'door-knocking'. See the cold calling page.
collaboration selling - also known as collaborative selling and facilitation selling - very modern and sophisticated, in which seller truly collaborates with buyer and buying organization to help the buyer buy. A logical extension to 'strategic' or 'open plan' selling. See collaboration and partnership selling at the end of the section.
commodities/commoditised (products and services) - typically a term applied to describe products which are mature in development, produced and sold in vast scale, involving little or no uniqueness between variations of different suppliers; high volume, low price, low profit margin, de-skilled ('ease of use' in consumption, application, installation, etc). Traditionally the 'commodities' term applies to the 'commodities markets' which trade and set prices for fundamental commodities such as coffee, grain, oil, etc., however in a more generic sales and selling sense the term 'commoditised' refers to a product (and arguably a service) which has become mass-produced, widely available, easy to make, de-mystified, and simplified; all of which is almost invariably associated with a reduction in costs, prices and profit margins, and which also has massive implications for the sales distribution model and methods for taking the product or service to market. Commoditised products are amenable to mass-market and large-scale sales distribution methods and models, as opposed to specialised or high-complexity products, which tend to require closer customer support and greater expertise and advice at the point of selling and installation, and commissioning and application, if appropriate. An electric battery torch is a commoditised product that is freely available, at competitively low price, 'off-the-shelf' at any supermarket (or via the internet); whereas a holographic projector is only available via a specialised supplier, at relatively high cost and profit margin, potentially without a similar competing product, and requires a significant degree of technical advice and support, and possibly user-training. Similarly, a microwave oven is a commoditised product, widely available, inexpensively, off-the-self from a retail store (or via the internet); whereas an integrated commercial kitchen is a specialised system, requiring a high level of sales and selling expertise, support and installation. Commoditised products sell by the millions; specialised products might only sell in hundreds or less. All consumer products and services become commoditised over time. Virtually all B2B products and services become commoditised over time. Colour TV's are cheaper than they were thirty years ago because they've become commoditised. Same can be said for mobile phones, home security systems, computers; even motor cars are becoming genuinely commoditised. In our lifetimes perhaps so too will houses and buildings.
concession - used in the context of negotiating, when it refers to an aspect of the sale which has a real or perceived value, that is given away or conceded by seller (more usually) or the buyer. One of the fundamental principles of sales negotiating is never giving away a concession without getting something in return - even a small increase in commitment is better than nothing. See the negotiation section.
consultative selling (consultation selling) - developed by various sales gurus through the 1980s by David Sandler among others, and practiced widely today, consultative selling was a move towards more collaboration with, and involvement from, the buyer in the selling process. Strongly based on questioning aimed at gaining useful information.
consumer - in the context of selling a consumer typically refers to a private or personal customer or user, as distinct from a business or organizational, or trade customer. Notably we see this term in the acronym B2C, which means 'business-to-consumer', which describes the type of business in which the transaction and relationship is between a business and a private 'domestic' customer. A household insurer, or an estate agent, are examples of B2C sales organizations. Retail is by its nature consumer business. A holiday company is a B2C business. B2B describes 'business-to-business' - which is trade and selling between businesses.
customer - usually meaning the purchaser, organization, or consumer after the sale. Prior to the sale is usually referred to as a prospect.
customer relationship management (CRM) - CRM is now a commonly used term to describe the process of managing the entire selling process within a department or organisation. Computerised CRM systems enable management of prospect and customer details, contacts, sales history and account development. Well known examples of CRM computerised systems are Sage's ACT!, which claims (as at 2006) to be the world's most popular CRM system, and Front Range's Goldmine. Chief elements of a CRM system (or strategy, since the term is used to describe the process and methodology as well as the system) are:
· compilation and organisation of data (prospects, customers, product, sales, history, etc)
· planning, scheduling and integrating customer development activities and communications
· analysis and reporting of all sales related activities and data
Good CRM strategy and systems are generally considered necessary for modern organisations of any scale to enable effective planning and implementation of sales (and to an extent marketing) activities.
cycle - see sales cycle.
deal - common business parlance for the sale or purchase (agreement or arrangement). It is rather a colloquial term so avoid using it in serious company as it can sound flippant and unprofessional.
decision-maker - a person in the prospect organization who has the power and budgetary authority to agree to a sales proposal. On of the most common mistakes by sales people is to attempt to sell to someone other than a genuine decision-maker. For anything other than a routine repeating order, the only two people in any organization of any size that are real decision-makers for significant sales values are the CEO/Managing Director/President, and the Finance Director. Everyone else in the organization is generally working within stipulated budgets and supply contracts, and will almost always need to refer major purchasing decisions to one or both of the above people. In very large organizations, functional directors may well be decision-makers for significant sales that relate only to their own function's activities. See influencer.
deliverable(s) - an aspect of a proposal that the provider commits to do or supply, usually and preferably clearly measurable.
demonstration/'demo'/'dem' - the physical presentation by the sales person to the prospect of how a product works. Generally free of charge to the prospect, and normally conducted at the prospect's premises, but can be at another suitable venue, eg., an exhibition, or at the supplier's premises.
demographics - the study of, or information about, people's lifestyles, habits, population movements, spending, age, social grade, employment, etc., in terms of the consuming and buying public; anyone selling to the consumer sector will do better through understanding relevant demographic information.
discipline - within the context of an organization this is similar to function, i.e., job role, although a discipline can refer more generally to a capability or responsibility, for example 'financial disciplines', or 'customer service disciplines', or 'technical support disciplines'. Discipline can of course mean separately 'control', others or oneself, which is certainly relevant to sales and selling, but not the reason for its inclusion in this glossary. In business-to-business selling of a complex strategic nature looking at disciplines (capabilities and responsibilities) can help to explore the different ways that people are affected by a change or proposition, which generally accompanies the sale of a product or service.
distribution/sales distribution - the methods or routes by which products and services are taken to market. Sales distribution models are many and various, and are constantly changing and new ones developing. Understanding and establishing best sales distribution methods - routes to market - are crucial aspects of running any sales organisation, and any business organisation too. Sales distribution should be appropriate to the product and service, and the end-user market, and the model will normally be defined by these factors, influenced also by technology and social trends. For example, commoditised mass-market consumer products (FMCG - fast-moving consumer goods, household electricals, etc) are generally distributed via mass-market consumer distribution methods, notably supermarkets, but also increasingly the internet. A lesson in changing sales distribution models, and the need for manufacturers and sellers to anticipate changes is found in the switching of book sales and CD sales from retail store distribution to websites, with the resulting demise of many retailers in those sectors. Future changes in sales distribution will see for example music transferring increasingly via online downloads, thus threatening those involved with or dependent upon physical shipping of products. B2B (business-to-business) sales distribution models have their own shape, again dependent on products and services, customer markets, technology, plus other influences such as economical trends, environmental and legislative effects, etc. Examples of B2B sales distribution models are franchising, direct sales forces (employed), direct sales forces (sales agents), telephone sales (call-centres, out-bound and in-bound), the internet (online website businesses), distributors (independent sellers who carry products and services of other manufactuerers and 'principals'), and channel partners and partnering arrangements (prevalent in telecomms and IT sectors).
ethics/ethical selling/ethical business - this would not have appeared in a selling glossary a few years ago, because the line between right and wrong was a mile wide. To certain leaders and companies it still is, although gradually, slowly business and selling is becoming more civilised. Honesty, morality and social responsibility are now crucial elements in any effective selling method, and for any sustainable business. In Spring 2008 someone left a message on my answerphone. The person said he was from 'central government', working on a 'policy piece' about e-learning, and could I give him a call back. I duly called back. After several sidesteps, the 'seller' eventually clarified that the purpose of the contact was to sell me some advertising in a directory, supposedly endorsed or approved by a 'government department'. This is a fine example of unethical selling, and unethical business too, since the seller was clearly following a company script and set of tactics designed to deceive. Unethical business and selling have always been wrong, but nowadays they carry far greater risks for those who behave badly. Consumers are wiser and better informed. Authories and the courts are less tolerant and more senstitive to transgressions. In all respects today poor ethics guarantee personal and business failure.
FABs - features advantages benefits - the links between a product description, its advantage over others, and the gain derived by the customer from using it. One of the central, if now rather predictable, techniques used in the presentation stage of the selling process.
feature - an aspect of a product or service, eg., colour, speed, size, weight, type of technology, buttons and knobs, gizmos and gadgets, bells and whistles, technical support, delivery, etc.
field - means anywhere out of the sales office. Field sales people or managers are those who travel around meeting people personally in the course of managing a sales territory. To be field-based is to work on the sales territory, as opposed to being office-based.
forecast/sales forecast - a prediction of what sales will be achieved over a given period, anything from a week to a year. Sales managers require sales people to forecast, in order to provide data to production, purchasing, and other functions whose activities need to be planned to meet sales demand. Sales forecasts are also an essential performance quantifier which feeds into the overall business plan for any organization. Due to the traditionally unreliable and optimistic nature of sales-department forecasts it is entirely normal for the sum of all individual sales persons' sales annual forecast to grossly exceed what the business genuinely plans to sell. See targets.
function - in the context of an organization, this means the job role or discipline, eg., sales, marketing, production, accounting, customer service, delivery, installation, technical service, general management, etc. Understanding the functions of people within organizations, and critically their interests and needs, is very important if you are selling to businesses or other non-consumer organizations.
gestation period - sale gestation period typically refers to the the time from enquiry to sale, the Sales Cycle in other words, (see Sales Cycle). Awareness and monitoring of Sale Gestation Period/Sales Cycle times are crucial in sales planning, forecasting and management, for individuals sales teams and sales organizations.
influencer - a person in the prospect organization who has the power to influence and persuade a decision-maker. Influencers will be generally be decision-makers for relatively low value sales. There is usually more than one influencer in any prospect organization relevant to a particular sale, and large organizations will have definitely have several influencers. It is usually important to sell to influencers as well as decision-makers in the same organization. Selling to large organizations almost certainly demands that the sales person does this. The role and power of influencers in any organization largely depends on the culture and politics of the organization, and particularly the management style of the two main decision-makers. See decision-makers.
intangible - in a selling context this describes, or is, an aspect of the product or service offering that has a value but is difficult to see or quantify (for instance, peace-of-mind, reliability, consistency). See tangible.
introduction - first stage of the actual sales call (see opening).
LAMP® - Large Account Management Process - sales acronym and methodology for major accounts management developed by Robert Miller, Stephen Heiman and Tad Tuleja in their 1991 book Successful Large Account Management (see the books at the foot of this page). Note that LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of Miller Heiman, Inc. Also note that LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See LAMP® and Strategic Selling® copyright details below.
lead-time - time between order and delivery, installation or commencement of a product or service.
listening - a key selling skill, in that without good listening skills the process of questioning is rendered totally pointless.
major account - a large and complex prospect or customer, often having several branches or sites, and generally requiring contacts and relationships between various functions in the supplier and customer organization. Often major accounts are the responsibility of designated experienced and senior sales people, which might be formed into a major accounts team. Major accounts often enjoy better discounts and terms than other customers because of purchasing power leveraged by bigger volumes, and lower selling costs from economies of scale.
marketing - perceived by lots of business people to mean simply promotion and advertising, the term marketing actually covers everything from company culture and positioning, through market research, new business/product development, advertising and promotion, PR (public/press relations), and arguably all of the sales functions as well. It's the process by which a company decides what it will sell, to whom, when and how, and then does it. See the marketing section.
margin/profit margin - the difference between cost (including or excluding operating overheads) and selling price of a product or service. Percentage margin is generally deemed to be the difference between cost and selling price, divided by the selling price ex tax (eg something that costs £1 and is sold for £2 plus tax produces a 50% margin - gross margin that is - net margin is after overheads are deducted).
mark-up - this is the money that a selling company adds to the cost of a product or service in order to produce a required level of profit. Strictly speaking, percentage mark-up refers to the difference between cost and selling price as a factor of the cost, not of the selling price. So a product costing £1 and selling for £2 has been given a mark-up of 100%; (at the same time it produces a margin of 50%).
needs-creation selling - a selling style popularised in the 1970s and 80s which asserted that sales people could create needs in a prospect for their products or services even if no needs were apparent, obvious or even existed. The method was for the sales person to question the prospect to identify, discover (and suggest) organizational problems or potential problems that would then create a need for the product. I'm bound to point out that this is no substitute for good research and proper targeting of prospects who have use of the products and services being sold.
negotiation/negotiating - the trading of concessions including price reductions, between supplier and customer, in an attempt to shape a supply contract (sale in other words) so that it is acceptable to both supplier and customer. Negotiations can last a few minutes or even a few years, although generally it's down to one or two meetings and one or two exchanges of correspondence. Ideally, from the seller's point of view, negotiation must only commence when the sale has been agreed in principle, and conditionally upon satisfactory negotiation. However most sales people fall into the trap set by most buyers - intentionally or otherwise - of starting to negotiate before the selling process have even commenced. See the section on negotiation for negotiating theory, rules and techniques.
objection - a point of resistance raised by a prospect, usually price ("it's too expensive"), but can be anything at any stage of the selling process; overcoming objections is a revered and much-trained skill in the traditional selling process.
open/opening - the first stage of the actual sales call (typically after preparation in the Seven Steps of the Sale). Also called the introduction.
opening benefit statement/OBS - traditionally an initial impact statement for sales people to use at first contact with prospect, in writing, on the phone or face-to-face - the OBS generally encapsulates the likely strongest organizational benefit typically (or supposedly) derived by customers in the prospect's sector, eg., "Our customers in the clothing retail sector generally achieve 30-50% pilferage reduction when they install one of our Crooknabber security systems..." - N.B. The OBS is a relatively blunt instrument for modern selling - use it with extreme care for fear of looking like a total twerp.
open plan selling - a modern form of selling, heavily dependent on the sales person understanding and interpreting the prospect's organizational and personal needs, issues, processes, constraints and strategic aims, which generally extends the selling discussion far beyond the obvious product application; (in a way, it's rather like combining selling with genuinely beneficial, free, expert consultancy). In 'open plan selling' the seller identifies strategic business aims of the sales prospect or customer organization, and develops a proposition that enables the aims to be realised. The proposition is therefore strongly linked to the achievement of strategic business aims - typically improvements in costs, revenues, margins, overheads, profit, quality, efficiency, time-saving and competitive strengths areas. There is a strong reliance on seller having excellent strategic understanding of prospect organization and aims, market sector situation and trends, and access to strategic decision-makers and influencers. Open Plan Selling is also underpinned by strong ethical principles, notably honesty and the premise that persuasion and influence are unhelpful, and in this respect the methodology relates somewhat to modern ideas of facilitating and helping, as primarily featured in Buying Facilitation. The term Open Plan Selling was coined (to the best of my knowledge) by British consultant and trainer Stanley Guffogg. See Open Plan Selling.
open question - a question that gains information, usually beginning with who, what, why, where, when, how, or more subtly 'tell me about..' - as distinct from a closed question, for example beginning with 'Is it...?' or 'Do you...?' etc., which tend to glean only a yes or no answer.
package - in a selling context this is another term for the product offer; it's the whole product and service offering at a given price, upon given terms.
partnership selling - very modern approach to organizational selling for business-to-business sales - see collaboration and partnership selling.
perceived - how something is seen or regarded by someone, usually by the prospect or customer, irrespective of what is believed or presented by the seller, ie what it really means to the customer.
pipeline - see sales pipeline.
positioning - more a marketing than sales term, although relevant to experienced and sophisticated sellers, and related to targeting - positioning refers to how a product/service/proposition is presented or described or marketed in relation to the market place - with reference to customers, competition, image, pricing, quality, etc. Positioning basically refers to whether a proposition is being sold appropriately - in the right way, to the right people, at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price. A potentially brilliant business can fail because its products are not positioned properly, which typically manifests as sales people being unable to sell successfully. There might be little or nothing wrong with the sales people and their skills, and the product/service, but the venture fails because the positioning is wrong. Conversely, good positioning can rescue a less than brilliant product/service. Effective selling is not only about quality and skills - its about suitability of targeting.
preparation - in the context of the selling process this is the work done by the sales person to research and plan the sales approach and/or sales call to a particular prospect or customer. Almost entirely without exception in the global history of selling, no call is adequately prepared for, and sales that fail to happen are due to this failing.
presentation/sales presentation - the process by which a sales person explains the product or service to the prospect (to a single contact or a group), ideally including the product's features, advantages and benefits, especially those which are relevant to the prospect. Presentations can be verbal only, but more usually involve the use of visuals, commonly bullet-point text slides and images on a computer display or projected onto a screen. Can incorporate a video and/or physical demonstration of the product(s). See the presentation training section.
product - generally a physical item being supplied, but can also mean or include services and intangibles, in which case product is used to mean the whole package being supplied.
product offer - how the product and/or service is positioned and presented to the prospect or market, which would normally include features and/or advantages and also imply at least one benefit for the prospect (hence a single product can be represented by a number of different product offers, each for different market niches (segments or customer groupings). One of the great marketing challenges is always to define a product offer concisely and meaningfully.
proposal/sales proposal - usually a written offer with specification, prices, outline terms and conditions, and warranty arrangements, from a sales person or selling organization to a prospect. Generally an immensely challenging part of the process to get right, in that it must be concise yet complete, persuasive yet objective, well specified yet orientated to the customer's applications. An outline proposal is often a useful interim step, to avoid wasting a lot of time including in a full proposal lots of material that the customer really doesn't need.
proposition - usually means product offer, can mean sales proposal. The initial proposition means the basis of the first approach.
professional selling skills - see PSS
PSS - 'Professional Selling Skills' - highly structured selling process pioneered by the US Xerox (and UK Rank Xerox) photocopier sales organization during the 1960s, and adopted by countless business-to-business sales organizations, normally as the 'Seven Steps of the Sale', ever since. PSS places a huge reliance on presentation, overcoming objections and umpteen different closes. Largely now superseded by more modern 'Open Plan' two-way processes, but PSS is still in use and being trained, particularly in old-fashioned paternalistic company cultures. The regimented one-way manipulative style of PSS nowadays leaves most modern buyers completely cold, but strip it away to the bare process and it's better than no process at all.
prospect - a customer (person, organization, buyer) before the sale is made, ie a prospective customer.
puppy dog sale/puppy dog close - a method of selling or closing a deal whereby you let the customer try the product or service for free without commitment, for a limited period, in the confidence that once they live with it they won't want to give it up - just like giving someone have a puppy for a day. These days the puppy dog approach would ideally extend to giving the prospective customer some education and support about looking after the puppy so that they understand and are prepared for the changes that come with a new puppy. See Level 5: education/information-led selling in the development of selling overview.
questioning - the second stage of the sales call, typically after the opening or introduction in the Seven Steps of the Sale. A crucial selling skill, and rarely well demonstrated. The correct timing and use of the important different types of questions are central to the processes of gathering information, matching needs, and building rapport and empathy. Questioning also requires that the sales person has good listening, interpretation and empathic capabilities. See the questioning section.
rem - common slang for remainder or remnant in any business which deals with end-of-line, left-over, or otherwise non-standard-stock items which typically are handled and disposed at attractive terms to minimise waste and write-offs.
research/research call - the act of gathering information about a market or customer, that will help progress or enable a sales approach. Often seen as a job for telemarketing personnel, but actually more usefully carried out by sales people, especially where large prospects are concerned (which should really be the only type of prospects targeted by modern sales people, given the need to recover very high costs of sales people).
retention/customer retention - means simply keeping customers and not losing them to competitors. Modern companies realise that it's far more expensive to find new customers than keep existing ones, and so put sufficient investment into looking after and growing existing accounts. Less sensible companies find themselves spending a fortune winning new customers, while they lose more business than they gain because of poor retention activity. (The hole in the bucket syndrome, where it leaks out faster than it can be poured in.)
sales cycle - the Sales Cycle term generally describes the time and/or process between first contact with the customer to when the sale is made. Sales Cycle times and processes vary enormously depending on the company, type of business (product/service), the effectiveness of the sales process, the market and the particular situation applying to the customer at the time of the enquiry. The Sales Cycle time is also referred to as the Sale Gestation Period (ie from conception to birth - enquiry to sale). The Sales Cycle in a sweet shop is less than a minute; in the international aviation sector or civil construction market the Sales Cycle can be many months or even a few years. The funnel diagram and sales development process on the free resources section show the sales cycle from a different perspective, (and actually prior to enquiry stage). A typical Sales Cycle for a moderately complex product might be:
1. receive enquiry
2. qualify details
3. arrange appointment
4. customer appointment
5. arrange survey
6. conduct survey
7. presentation of proposal and close sale
sales forecasts - also called sales projections, these are the predictions that sales people and sales managers are required to make about future business levels, necessary for their own organisation to plan and budget everything from stock levels, production, staffing levels, to advertising and promotion, financial performance and market strategies.
sales funnel - describes the pattern, plan or actual achievement of conversion of prospects into sales, pre-enquiry and then through the sales cycle. So-called because it includes the conversion ratio at each stage of the sales cycle, which has a funneling effect. Prospects are said to be fed into the top of the funnel, and converted sales drop out at the bottom. The extent of conversion success (ie the tightness of each ratio) reflects the quality of prospects fed into the top, and the sales skill at each conversion stage. The Sales Funnel is a very powerful sales planning and sales management tool. A diagram of a typical basic Sales Funnel appears on the free resources section. Also referred to as the Sales Pipeline.
sales report - a business report of sales results, activities, trends, etc., traditionally completed by a sales manager, but increasingly now the responsibility of sales people too. See the sample monthly sales report template (MSExcel format), or as a PDF version of the same report template. A sales report can be required weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually, and often includes the need to provide sales forecasts.
sales pipeline - a linear equivalent of the Sales Funnel principle. Prospects need to be fed into the pipeline in order to drop out of the other end as sales. The length of the pipeline is the sales cycle time, which depends on business type, market situation, and the effectiveness of the sales process.
sector/market sector - a part of the market that can be described, categorised and then targeted according to its own criteria and characteristics; sectors are often described as 'vertical', meaning an industry type, or 'horizontal', meaning some other grouping that spans a number of vertical sectors, eg., a geographical grouping, or a grouping defined by age, or size, etc.
segment/market segment - a sub-sector or market niche; basically a grouping that's more narrowly defined and smaller than a sector; a segment can be a horizontal sub-sector across one or more vertical sectors.
service contract - a formal document usually drawn up by the supplier by which the trading arrangement is agreed with the customer. Also known as trading agreements, supply agreements, and other variations. See the section on service contracts and trading agreements.
solutions selling - a common but loosely-used description for a more customer-orientated selling method than the Seven Steps; dependent on identifying needs to which appropriate benefits are matched in a package or 'solution'. The term is based on the premise that customers don't buy products or features or benefits - they buy solutions (to organizational problems). It's a similar approach to 'needs-creation' selling, which first became popular in the 1970s-80s. Solutions selling remains relevant and its methods can usefully be included in the open plan selling style described later here, although modern collaborative and facilitative methodologies are becoming vital pre-requisites.
SPIN® and SPIN® Selling - A popular selling method developed by Neil Rackham in the 1970-80s: SPIN® is an acronym derived from the basic selling process designed and defined by Rackham: Situation, Problem, Implication, Need, or Need Payoff. More detail about SPIN® and SPIN® Selling appears in the Consultative Selling and Needs Creation Selling methods section. Note that SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of the Huthwaite organisations of the US and UK. SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See SPIN® copyright details.
steps of the sale - describes the structure of the selling process, particularly the sales call, and what immediately precedes and follows it. Usually represented as the Seven Steps of the Sale, but can be five, six, eight or more, depending whose training manual you're reading.
Strategic Selling® - when used in upper case and/or in the context of Miller Heiman's Strategic Selling® methodology (which features in their books of the same name, first published in 1985) the Strategic Selling® term is a registered and protected product name belonging to the American Miller Heiman training organisation - so be warned. LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of Miller Heiman, Inc., and again be warned that LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See LAMP® and Strategic Selling® copyright details below.
strategic selling - you will also hear people (me included) referring to 'strategic selling' in a generic sense, and not specifically referring to the Miller Heiman methods and materials. In a generic 'lower case' sense, 'strategic selling' describes a broad methodology which began to be practised in the 1980s, literally 'strategic' by its nature (the principles involve taking a strategic view of the prospective customer's organisation, its markets, customers and strategic priorities, etc), which is described below and referred to as 'open plan selling'. When using the 'strategic selling' terminology in a training context you must be careful therefore to avoid confusion or misrepresentation of the Miller Heiman intellectual property. If in any doubt don't use the 'strategic selling' term in relation to providing sales training services - call it something else to avoid any possible confusion with the Miller Heiman products, (see the Miller Heiman Strategic Selling® copyright details below.
tangible - in a selling context this describes, or is, an aspect of the product or service offering that can readily be seen and measured in terms of cost and value (eg., any physical feature of the product; spare parts; delivery or installation; a regular service visit; a warranty agreement). See intangible.
target/sales target - in a sales context this is the issued (or ideally agreed) level of sales performance for a sales person or team or department over a given period. Bonus payments, sales commissions, pay reviews, job gradings, life and death, etc., can all be dependent on sales staff meeting sales targets, so all in all sales targets are quite sensitive things. Targets are established at the beginning of the trading year, and then reinforced with a system of regular forecasting and reviews (sometimes referred to as 'a good bollocking') throughout the year. See forecasting.
targeting - this has a different meaning to the usual noun sense of target (above). Targeting is a marketing term - very relevant and important for sales people and sales managers too - which refers to the customers at which the selling effort is aimed, hence targeting. In this respect the term relates to 'target markets', or 'target sectors'. This is the customer aspect within 'positioning' of a product or service or proposition. Targeting is represented by the question: Who will buy the product/service? Deciding targeting on a company scale is normally the responsibility of a marketing department or agency, but each sales person and sales team as huge potential to develop and refine their own local targeting - so as to aim their efforts at the sectors or customers which will produce the greatest results. For example - and many sales people, especially self-employed providers and traders - completely ignore the fact that sales generally come more easily from existing or previous customers than prospective new customers to whom the supplier is completely unknown. Similarly size of prospective customer is another largely overlooked aspect of targeting. Any business will naturally have more amenable sectors of potential customers than other parts of the market. Targeting is the process by which the selling organization maximises its chances of engaging with the most responsive and profitable customers.
telemarketing - any pre-sales activity conducted by telephone, usually by specially trained telemarketing personnel - for instance, research, appointment-making, product promotion.
telesales - selling by telephone contact alone, normally a sales function in its own right, ie., utilising specially trained telesales personnel; used typically where low order values prevent the use of expensive field-based sales people, and a recognisable product or service allows the process to succeed.
tender - a very structured formal proposal in response to the issue of an invitation to tender for the supply of a product or service to a large organization or government department. Tenders require certain qualifying criteria to be met first by the tendering organization, which in itself can constitute several weeks or months work by lots of different staff. Tenders must adhere to strict submission deadlines, contract terms, specifications and even the presentation of the tender itself, and usually only suppliers experienced in winning and fulfilling this type of highly controlled supply ever win the business. It is not unknown for very successful tendering companies to actually help the customer formulate the tender specification, which explains why it's so difficult to prise the business away from them.
territory - the geographical area of responsibility of a sales person or a team or a sales organization.
territory planning - the process of planning optimum and most cost-effective coverage (particularly for making appointments or personal calling) of a sales territory by the available sales resources, given prospect numbers, density, buying patterns, etc., even if one territory by one sales person; for one person this used to be called journey planning, and was often based on a four or six day cycle, so as to avoid always missing prospects who might never be available on one particular day of the week.
trial close - the technique by which a sales person tests the prospect's readiness to buy, traditionally employed in response to a buying signal, eg: prospect says: "Do you have them in stock?", to which the sales person would traditionally reply: "Would you want one if they are?" Use with extreme care, for fear of looking like a clumsy desperate fool. If you see a buying signal there's no need to jump on it - just answer it politely, and before ask why the question is important, which will be far more constructive.
unique/uniqueness - a feature that is peculiar to a product or service or supplier - no competitor can offer it.
UPB - unique perceived benefit - now one of the central strongest mechanisms in the modern selling process, an extension and refinement of the product offer, based on detailed understanding of the prospect's personal and organizational needs. A UPB is your USP from the customer's perspective, in other words, what your USP means to your customer, which is a very different way of approaching selling than from the traditional angle of seller-oriented USPs. It's essential to discuss your offering in these terms with your customer. The UPB acronym and concept was developed by The Marketing Guild, who specialise in practical, innovative, and effective sales and marketing.
USP - unique selling point or proposition - this is what makes the product offer competitively strong and without direct comparison; generally the most valuable unique advantage of a product or service, for the market or prospect in question; now superseded by UPB.
variable - an aspect of the sale or deal that can be changed in order to better meet the needs of the seller and/or the buyer. Typical variables are price, quantity, lead-time, payment terms, technical factors, styling factors, spare parts, back-up and breakdown service, routine maintenance, installation, delivery, warranty. Variables may be real or perceived, and often the perceived ones are the most significant in any negotiation. See the section on negotiation.
Please note: Where known, trademarks and intellectual property of other people and organizations have been acknowledged. If you spot any omissions let us know via the 'contact us' page and we'll insert the acknowledgement as applicable.
Sales Activator® is a registered trademark of Trainique Ltd.
Buying Facilitation® is a trademark of Sharon Drew Morgen.
Unlock the Game® is a trademark of Ari Galper.
SPIN® and SPIN Selling® trademark details: The copyright rights in Neil Rackham's book, SPIN Selling, are owned by Huthwaite, Inc. (huthwaite.com). Depending upon the geographic territory, the rights in the trademarks SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® are owned by either Huthwaite, Inc. or Huthwaite International (huthwaite.co.uk). Note that SPIN® and SPIN SELLING® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence.
LAMP® and Strategic Selling® copyright details: LAMP® and Strategic Selling®methods and materials are subject to copyright and intellectual property control of Miller Heiman, Inc. LAMP® and Strategic Selling® methods and materials are not to be used in the provision of training and development products and services without a licence. See millerheiman.com for details.
The use of this material is free unless otherwise indicated, provided copyright (see below) is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.businessballs.com website. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, or other linked or recommended resources, received from Alan Chapman, shall be at your sole risk, and Alan Chapman assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users of this website are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources, and to seek local qualified advice if embarking on any actions that could carry personal or organisational liabilities. Managing people and relationships are sensitive activities; the free material and advice available via this website do not provide all necessary safeguards and checks. Please retain this notice on all copies.
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The Primacy of Consciousness - Peter Russell
Presentation given at "Physics of Consciousness" conference, Virginia, 2004, in which Peter Russell explores the mystery of consciousness from both scientific and mystical perspectives, showing how light is intrinsic to both, and giving a coherent argument as to why consciousness is fundamental essence of the cosmos. (Includes beautiful graphics and images.)
Thursday, April 30, 2009
7 ways to get more out of your creative
What do you do if a campaign's creative budget gets cut by 20 percent? Do you say the creative will be 20 percent less impactful and call it a day?
Hardly.
Sadly, falling budgets, especially in the area of production, are a challenge a lot of companies in this business are facing.
Complicating that challenge is the push for more integrated campaigns. That means more assets spread across a broader range of media environments -- not exactly the route to lower creative costs.
But the best way to maintain quality with a smaller budget may not be by producing assets in less quantity, but rather by doing things differently. As campaign planning becomes more integrated, the increased awareness of how all media are interconnected can open up new opportunities for improved efficiencies.
Here are seven ways that an integrated approach to campaign development can help you accomplish better results with the creative assets you develop.
Simplicity has always been a good approach for effective marketing and branding communications. Logos like Bass Ale (Britain's first registered trademark), fonts like Helvetica, and the classic Volkswagen ads are examples of simplicity that revolutionized the advertising industry.
And if anything, the distinction that simplicity can bring is more important in today's cluttered, over-saturated media environment than ever before. Consumers see an estimated 3,500-5,000 marketing messages a day. They literally don't have the hours in the day to digest all the ads marketers push at them. So if you want consumers to consider reading your message, make it at least appear to be a quick read.
Of all the things you can do to make virtually any form of communication better, this is the most important.
Strong yet simple concepts also tend to work much better across multiple media. And the more a big idea transcends different media, the more efficiently that campaign can be developed, which leads into the next point.
When I was looking for that elusive first copywriting job in advertising, a creative director told me that I could probably get a gig with a portfolio of nothing but good billboard concepts because billboards have the most foundational elements of what good marketing communication is about -- strong graphic images and brief text that pops.
Today, the banner represents that same format. It's highly limited, both textually and graphically. So ideas developed for that format will likely work across a much wider media scape. It's much easier to add production value to a simple concept than it is to take an idea that relies on high production value and boil it down to a stark version of its former self.
When you start with banner development, you'll force yourself to think high concept, yet low production cost. And if you're dealing with budget constraints, that's a good place to be.
It also sets us up well for the next section -- testing.
One of the online medium's most overlooked capabilities is testing strategies and display ad concepts in the most natural environment possible -- a real ad in an actual media placement.
I've talked to numerous researchers and statisticians and have never found anyone who has said this wasn't a legit test, assuming you apply standard controls for messaging and media variables.
You can test messages across strategic directions or creative tactics. And don't rely on production techniques or gimmicks. You're looking for foundational insights that will drive creative development across a range of media. So if what you've developed is specific to online production, you'll skew the results.
Use a single format -- ideally a rectangular format, like the 300x250s, because they have a more universal shape that won't demonstrate a bias toward a specific message type. The results will almost always be relevant and insightful.
It doesn't take a large ad budget to make this process pay off, either. A test can be done for a small percentage of most campaign budgets, and the increased performance across the entire campaign should more than compensate for the testing round.
Early adopters of technology often suffer a lot of headaches while trying out the latest insanely great thing.
In contrast, marketing is where first movers often have significant advantages. The first banners pulled unreal results by today's metrics -- because they were new and web pages weren't so flooded with them. When Flash ads first came out, they almost always drove campaign performance up in large increments because they were the only thing with fluid motion on the web at that time.
Today's new technologies can generate the same effect.
These can be both rich media production technologies and media placement technologies. The reason new marketing technologies work is simple: Almost all of them focus on one of two things. They either focus on improving the odds that your message will get to the right person, or they focus on improving the impact of that message when it reaches that person.
Assuming your message is relevant, there isn't much else that matters outside of those two factors, until the viewer arrives at the destination or conversion point.
So give new technologies a shot. Again, you don't have to spend a lot to get a sense for whether or not they're going to pay off across the larger media spend.
Search and display shouldn't conflict, but rather work like tag team partners -- the more seamless the transition between them, the better. In fact, the more successful your entire campaign is, the greater role search will play.
How?
People hear about products in different ways. Sometimes it's in an ad. Sometimes it's in a news article. Sometimes it's a personal recommendation. And when they hear about said product or brand, they typically don't drop everything they're doing and run straight to the point of purchase (if only). That means they go searching for it at a more convenient time.
So make sure that you factor "searchability" into your campaign. If you look at your banner, print, or video ad, can you imagine what the viewer might be searching for after seeing it? If not, you may need to be a little more specific if you want consumers to ever find your product. Clear brand or product names are essential, as are any other key parts of the message, like the name of a special promotion.
This "searchability" is even more important for companies that don't have a lot of brand awareness. After all, if you know the brand well and can recall it, you can always go search its site. And that idea sets up the next point nicely.
If your advertising campaign has worked, it will likely lead the viewer to a search engine. And from there, the consumer hopefully ends up at a page on your website. If that search results link isn't dead on, they'll often jump over to your homepage.
Unless you have the customer loyalty of Apple, don't bet on customers knowing your product's name when they arrive at your site. More likely, they'll only remember your brand name, maybe part of the product name, and have a vague idea of what the ad said.
This is more problematic for companies with a lot of products because they tend to have more marketing messages out there for their various products, all creating noise and confusion. And even if the consumer remembers your product's name, it's going to be harder to find that product among the many featured on your website.
If consumers arrive at your homepage, you want to get them to their point of interest as quickly as possible. Consumers typically spend only seconds on a web page before clicking or leaving. Every second that passes in which they can't find what they want, you're increasing the odds they'll split. If you're spending big money on a campaign, support it with navigational aids on your homepage.
The multipliers of social media simply offer too much potential to ignore. The average Facebook user has 120 friends. With the new Facebook design, it's more likely than ever that if any of their friends are interacting with your brand on Facebook, it will end up within their view.
So at the very least, post product and campaign information on your Facebook page as part of a routine content updating schedule. Offer social media "share" options on key website pages, and consider adding such options to creative assets if there is room, as in an expandable banner.
As was recently pointed out, we're already seeing Twitter and Facebook driving traffic at levels that compete with Google. And whatever other formats emerge in the future, social media seems to be here to stay.
Conclusion The need to get more out of less isn't a recent phenomenon, but rather a continual trend in the marketing world. So while these tactics may seem like ways to deal with current economic problems, they're actually practices that can simply help you improve performance of your campaigns.
And no matter how creative your shop is, if you're not taking ROI issues into consideration, however you define them, it's likely your clients are. So now might be a very good time to start thinking about them.
Hardly.
Sadly, falling budgets, especially in the area of production, are a challenge a lot of companies in this business are facing.
Complicating that challenge is the push for more integrated campaigns. That means more assets spread across a broader range of media environments -- not exactly the route to lower creative costs.
But the best way to maintain quality with a smaller budget may not be by producing assets in less quantity, but rather by doing things differently. As campaign planning becomes more integrated, the increased awareness of how all media are interconnected can open up new opportunities for improved efficiencies.
Here are seven ways that an integrated approach to campaign development can help you accomplish better results with the creative assets you develop.
Simplicity has always been a good approach for effective marketing and branding communications. Logos like Bass Ale (Britain's first registered trademark), fonts like Helvetica, and the classic Volkswagen ads are examples of simplicity that revolutionized the advertising industry.
And if anything, the distinction that simplicity can bring is more important in today's cluttered, over-saturated media environment than ever before. Consumers see an estimated 3,500-5,000 marketing messages a day. They literally don't have the hours in the day to digest all the ads marketers push at them. So if you want consumers to consider reading your message, make it at least appear to be a quick read.
Of all the things you can do to make virtually any form of communication better, this is the most important.
Strong yet simple concepts also tend to work much better across multiple media. And the more a big idea transcends different media, the more efficiently that campaign can be developed, which leads into the next point.
When I was looking for that elusive first copywriting job in advertising, a creative director told me that I could probably get a gig with a portfolio of nothing but good billboard concepts because billboards have the most foundational elements of what good marketing communication is about -- strong graphic images and brief text that pops.
Today, the banner represents that same format. It's highly limited, both textually and graphically. So ideas developed for that format will likely work across a much wider media scape. It's much easier to add production value to a simple concept than it is to take an idea that relies on high production value and boil it down to a stark version of its former self.
When you start with banner development, you'll force yourself to think high concept, yet low production cost. And if you're dealing with budget constraints, that's a good place to be.
It also sets us up well for the next section -- testing.
One of the online medium's most overlooked capabilities is testing strategies and display ad concepts in the most natural environment possible -- a real ad in an actual media placement.
I've talked to numerous researchers and statisticians and have never found anyone who has said this wasn't a legit test, assuming you apply standard controls for messaging and media variables.
You can test messages across strategic directions or creative tactics. And don't rely on production techniques or gimmicks. You're looking for foundational insights that will drive creative development across a range of media. So if what you've developed is specific to online production, you'll skew the results.
Use a single format -- ideally a rectangular format, like the 300x250s, because they have a more universal shape that won't demonstrate a bias toward a specific message type. The results will almost always be relevant and insightful.
It doesn't take a large ad budget to make this process pay off, either. A test can be done for a small percentage of most campaign budgets, and the increased performance across the entire campaign should more than compensate for the testing round.
Early adopters of technology often suffer a lot of headaches while trying out the latest insanely great thing.
In contrast, marketing is where first movers often have significant advantages. The first banners pulled unreal results by today's metrics -- because they were new and web pages weren't so flooded with them. When Flash ads first came out, they almost always drove campaign performance up in large increments because they were the only thing with fluid motion on the web at that time.
Today's new technologies can generate the same effect.
These can be both rich media production technologies and media placement technologies. The reason new marketing technologies work is simple: Almost all of them focus on one of two things. They either focus on improving the odds that your message will get to the right person, or they focus on improving the impact of that message when it reaches that person.
Assuming your message is relevant, there isn't much else that matters outside of those two factors, until the viewer arrives at the destination or conversion point.
So give new technologies a shot. Again, you don't have to spend a lot to get a sense for whether or not they're going to pay off across the larger media spend.
Search and display shouldn't conflict, but rather work like tag team partners -- the more seamless the transition between them, the better. In fact, the more successful your entire campaign is, the greater role search will play.
How?
People hear about products in different ways. Sometimes it's in an ad. Sometimes it's in a news article. Sometimes it's a personal recommendation. And when they hear about said product or brand, they typically don't drop everything they're doing and run straight to the point of purchase (if only). That means they go searching for it at a more convenient time.
So make sure that you factor "searchability" into your campaign. If you look at your banner, print, or video ad, can you imagine what the viewer might be searching for after seeing it? If not, you may need to be a little more specific if you want consumers to ever find your product. Clear brand or product names are essential, as are any other key parts of the message, like the name of a special promotion.
This "searchability" is even more important for companies that don't have a lot of brand awareness. After all, if you know the brand well and can recall it, you can always go search its site. And that idea sets up the next point nicely.
If your advertising campaign has worked, it will likely lead the viewer to a search engine. And from there, the consumer hopefully ends up at a page on your website. If that search results link isn't dead on, they'll often jump over to your homepage.
Unless you have the customer loyalty of Apple, don't bet on customers knowing your product's name when they arrive at your site. More likely, they'll only remember your brand name, maybe part of the product name, and have a vague idea of what the ad said.
This is more problematic for companies with a lot of products because they tend to have more marketing messages out there for their various products, all creating noise and confusion. And even if the consumer remembers your product's name, it's going to be harder to find that product among the many featured on your website.
If consumers arrive at your homepage, you want to get them to their point of interest as quickly as possible. Consumers typically spend only seconds on a web page before clicking or leaving. Every second that passes in which they can't find what they want, you're increasing the odds they'll split. If you're spending big money on a campaign, support it with navigational aids on your homepage.
The multipliers of social media simply offer too much potential to ignore. The average Facebook user has 120 friends. With the new Facebook design, it's more likely than ever that if any of their friends are interacting with your brand on Facebook, it will end up within their view.
So at the very least, post product and campaign information on your Facebook page as part of a routine content updating schedule. Offer social media "share" options on key website pages, and consider adding such options to creative assets if there is room, as in an expandable banner.
As was recently pointed out, we're already seeing Twitter and Facebook driving traffic at levels that compete with Google. And whatever other formats emerge in the future, social media seems to be here to stay.
Conclusion The need to get more out of less isn't a recent phenomenon, but rather a continual trend in the marketing world. So while these tactics may seem like ways to deal with current economic problems, they're actually practices that can simply help you improve performance of your campaigns.
And no matter how creative your shop is, if you're not taking ROI issues into consideration, however you define them, it's likely your clients are. So now might be a very good time to start thinking about them.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Dont you just love him
Developing a kind heart and awakening the mind is not just a sentimental or religious goal.
It is for everyone, irrespective of race, religion or political affiliation. It is for anybody who considers themselves a member of the human family.
It is for everyone, irrespective of race, religion or political affiliation. It is for anybody who considers themselves a member of the human family.
The Gregory Stone Story
The Gregory Stone Story
Gregory Stone is a Sydney based business developer specializing in online digital media and website development, with a mix clientele of international blue chips and top end local players, I providing end-to-end online marketing and communications solutions.
My strength? The right combination of business and marketing experience with digital media expertise, topped with a dash of creativity.
What make me difference? Well, i really like what we do, and have fun along the way. And it's catchy. Work with me, and you'll see what we mean!
Who is this guy? I am an independent, highly skilled and experienced online business developer who has delivered countless innovative and exciting projects ranging from complete online businesses to “left field” viral campaigns.
My services:
• Online Strategy consulting
• Online Brand Development and integration
• Internet / Intranet Design and Development
• Integrated Digital Marketing Campaigns, including:
– Display Advertising
– Games and Other Interactives
– Viral Campaigns
– Electronic Direct Mail Campaigns
– Affiliate Partnerships
– Search Engine Optimisation / Search Engine Marketing
– Digital Touch Point Marketing
• Media Services, including:
– Media strategy
– Planning / buying / execution
– Analysis and reporting
• E-commerce / Online Application Development
• Content Management System (CMS) / Client Relationship Management (CRM)Solutions
• CD-ROM / Multimedia
Regards
Gregory C.S. Stone Business Development
m: +61 411 787 565
p: +61 2 9544 4826
e: greg@emerchant.com.au
w: http://www.emerchant.com.au/
Please consider the environment before printing this email
”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain
Gregory Stone is a Sydney based business developer specializing in online digital media and website development, with a mix clientele of international blue chips and top end local players, I providing end-to-end online marketing and communications solutions.
My strength? The right combination of business and marketing experience with digital media expertise, topped with a dash of creativity.
What make me difference? Well, i really like what we do, and have fun along the way. And it's catchy. Work with me, and you'll see what we mean!
Who is this guy? I am an independent, highly skilled and experienced online business developer who has delivered countless innovative and exciting projects ranging from complete online businesses to “left field” viral campaigns.
My services:
• Online Strategy consulting
• Online Brand Development and integration
• Internet / Intranet Design and Development
• Integrated Digital Marketing Campaigns, including:
– Display Advertising
– Games and Other Interactives
– Viral Campaigns
– Electronic Direct Mail Campaigns
– Affiliate Partnerships
– Search Engine Optimisation / Search Engine Marketing
– Digital Touch Point Marketing
• Media Services, including:
– Media strategy
– Planning / buying / execution
– Analysis and reporting
• E-commerce / Online Application Development
• Content Management System (CMS) / Client Relationship Management (CRM)Solutions
• CD-ROM / Multimedia
Regards
Gregory C.S. Stone Business Development
m: +61 411 787 565
p: +61 2 9544 4826
e: greg@emerchant.com.au
w: http://www.emerchant.com.au/
Please consider the environment before printing this email
”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sales plan
Sales Plan
Your Objectives:
Setting broad statements about what you wish to achieve is often a great starting point. Broad
objectives could be along the lines of these statements:
· • Position yourself as a credible service provider,
· • Exploit a range of new business strategies,
· • Generate revenue from existing networks,
· • Automate as much as possible, and
· • Achieve the above with minimum cost.
Your Goals:
It is important to set goals that give meaning to your objectives. They should also allow you to plan
for resource allocation. They are your score card and essentially drive your income.
Below is a sales plan example. The marketing activity is designed to generate consistent enquiry. The
other metrics are based on the sales teams past performance and 10 contacts per day.
Extended Sales Cycle
The initial contact strategy is a numbers game and while quick results will occur the long tail will also
bare significant fruit.
An extended sales cycle (long tail) for Digital Marketing services could look like this:
1. Lead Generation
2. Telephone Fact Find and Understand Pain
3. Possibly Meet Client
4. Understand exactly the Clients Needs
5. Expand their Vision
6. Dollarise their Potential Benefits
7. Integrate their Needs with your Offer
8. Partner and gain an initial Small Commitment (a database build program, small website, an
email campaign etc)
9. Satisfy this quickly and professionally,
10. Place the client on a sequential education program
11. Penetrate by generating a staged development plan
12. Develop and produce on the stated outcomes
13. Build success, confidence and trust
14. Expand the plan and dollar benefits
15. Continually build an empowering eStrategy
It is rarely about one job. It is about the relationship. A small business relationship should generate
between $10,000 to $30,000 in revenue per year.
Your Objectives:
Setting broad statements about what you wish to achieve is often a great starting point. Broad
objectives could be along the lines of these statements:
· • Position yourself as a credible service provider,
· • Exploit a range of new business strategies,
· • Generate revenue from existing networks,
· • Automate as much as possible, and
· • Achieve the above with minimum cost.
Your Goals:
It is important to set goals that give meaning to your objectives. They should also allow you to plan
for resource allocation. They are your score card and essentially drive your income.
Below is a sales plan example. The marketing activity is designed to generate consistent enquiry. The
other metrics are based on the sales teams past performance and 10 contacts per day.
Extended Sales Cycle
The initial contact strategy is a numbers game and while quick results will occur the long tail will also
bare significant fruit.
An extended sales cycle (long tail) for Digital Marketing services could look like this:
1. Lead Generation
2. Telephone Fact Find and Understand Pain
3. Possibly Meet Client
4. Understand exactly the Clients Needs
5. Expand their Vision
6. Dollarise their Potential Benefits
7. Integrate their Needs with your Offer
8. Partner and gain an initial Small Commitment (a database build program, small website, an
email campaign etc)
9. Satisfy this quickly and professionally,
10. Place the client on a sequential education program
11. Penetrate by generating a staged development plan
12. Develop and produce on the stated outcomes
13. Build success, confidence and trust
14. Expand the plan and dollar benefits
15. Continually build an empowering eStrategy
It is rarely about one job. It is about the relationship. A small business relationship should generate
between $10,000 to $30,000 in revenue per year.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Unlocking Knowledge, Empowering Minds.
Free lecture notes, exams, and videos from MIT.
No registration required.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
No registration required.
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
God could be as simple as this
“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can”
Friday, April 17, 2009
iPhone apps take centre stage
Apple iPhone 3G
The mobile phone can be a powerful tool, writes Garry Barker.
One of the most extraordinary success stories on the internet is Apple's iTunes App Store, in which, for a small fee or nothing at all, any iPhone or iPod touch user can get a bit of software to do, well, almost anything.
It is a phenomenon based on the solid foundation that a mobile phone is now a powerful computer-communications device with the immense reach and power of the internet.
It also honours that powerful principle of technology, KIS (Keep It Simple).
Successful iPhone applications are invariably simple to use, small (because iPhones and iPods have limited storage), responsive to human needs and cheap, ranging from free to seldom more than $10.
A good app is one that you use. In other words, it must appeal because it provides a useful service - a function, entertainment or a service using the connectedness and facility of the iPhone.
A successful application might be as crass as a fart generator to startle people in lifts, or it might monitor a diabetic's blood-sugar level, assess the effect of a meal and calculate the insulin required. Both are available, along with an extraordinary array of more than 28,000 other applications in the iTunes App Store.
Open an iTunes account with a credit card, find an app you like, download it to your Macintosh or PC or directly to the iPhone, and install it - done in a matter of seconds.
More than 500 million downloads have been taken from the App Store since it opened last year, and the flow is increasing, making money for developers and for Apple, and driving sales of iPhones and iPod touch units.
Hundreds of new apps are offered every week to be tested and vetted by Apple for design, taste, reliability and viability. A bit of mild scatology is OK, but indecency is right out. The App Store is open to all, but you must be properly dressed.
With more than 18 million iPhones in use around the globe (700,000 or more in Australia), plus a similar number of iPod touches, it is a market of about 40 million devices and growing.
And, just as the World Wide Web became a marketplace, so are iPhone apps developing a commercial species. The champion so far, with 900,000 downloads, is a free app not yet available in Australia, a game that's actually a marketing tool for Volkswagen.
The user drives a virtual car over a course on the iPhone's screen and checks details of its performance and features.
Many companies see an entertaining iPhone application as a good way to reinforce a brand.
So, the iPhone is changing the face of advertising.
But the apps must be good.
"Apple won't accept rubbish, anything crude or that doesn't work properly," says Daniel Kagan, of LookOut Mobile, the Melbourne company that produced Aussie Rules Live, an app backed by the AFL.
It brings to footy fanatics live scores, text commentary, goal kickers, ladder updates and other information. And because the footy fan's other hand is probably holding a beer or a meat pie, it uses the iPhone's accelerometer - just shake the iPhone and all onscreen details are updated.
Marc Edwards, a Melbourne software developer, has five apps in the shop under his Bjango brand and more on the way. They range from an adaptation of his iStat computer performance monitor, to Jobs, a scheduling app for tradesmen; Cities and Darkness, both world clocks; and Phases, a cute moon phase monitor.
The Plasq group, also of Melbourne, which built Comic Life and other applications popular on the Macintosh, has Comic Touch and a "galactic" game, Pharos IV: Assault, in the iTunes Store.
Graham Dawson, a Sydney developer whose main interests are astrology and spirituality, built the popular OzWeather app that set a minor record for longevity in the top-10 list on the Australian iTunes Store. It went up last November and wiped the floor with an earlier weather app.
"The key is to present information clearly and quickly in an appealing way. If you do that you will do well, even if someone else has a similar app," says Mr Dawson.
With so many apps in the store, competition is fierce.
New apps enjoy brief prominence and are then rated according to downloads and user reviews. Good results there, even a top-10 listing, boost visibility and traffic.
The idea behind the app is everything. It must be simple and, says Marc Edwards, something you would like to have yourself. It might be a function, a game or a cute and ingenious toy, such as the SMULE Ocarina, developed by Ge Wang, professor of music at Stanford University's technology school. He sold more than 400,000 downloads at US90cents in the first month, and the flow of sales, while now slower, continues.
The ocarina is the world's oldest flute. Its 21st-century digital version makes music when the user blows into the iPhone's microphone. You can also listen to other ocarina players around the world in real time, because you're connected to the mobile phone network.
Grant Hull, of Adelaide outfit Enabled Solutions, which works with, among others, advertising agencies, put Newton's Cradle on the iPhone. More than a million have been downloaded. The free version held second place in global popularity for a near-record period. Mr Hull says it was the loss leader that built traffic. A "pro" version is now making him money at $A2.49 a download.
Further, traffic to his company website soared an astonishing 2500 per cent (at peak it was 11,500 per cent). "That shows the huge potential the App Store has to increase brand awareness," he says. He finds advertising agencies are increasingly aware of how apps create brand experiences.
Business applications are proliferating, as are those for doctors, engineers, electricians, and psychologists - name the profession, trade or diversion and there will be an app for it.
US business magazine Forbes recently noted that to cut costs in the dire economic environment, companies are giving travellers iPhones filled with applications to help them book flights, organise their time and deliver presentations.
Forbes reporter Bonnie Ruberg wrote: "The iPhone isn't just a fancy toy for making calls, listening to music and sending emails. It's a powerful business tool with hundreds of applications, GPS and communication."
NovaMind, of Brisbane, one of the world's leading mind-mapping software companies, now has an iPhone app - a portable note-taker that interacts with the main desktop-based application to update or produce a full-scale mind map.
And then there are games - a huge sector in the App Store - coming from individuals as well as well-known companies such as Electronic Arts, which has adapted Monopoly and Sim City, and other games such as Yahtzee, Spore and Sudoku.
Business applications include FileAid, developed by a Swiss-Australian team of Jerome Bedat and Michael Fuhrman. Mr Bedat is in Melbourne brushing up his English and responding to customers on his MacBook in a St Kilda cafe.
FileAid allows users to read on their iPhones almost any kind of file - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, jpegs, MP3 files and much more. It costs $6 and is being heavily downloaded daily (Apple does not permit disclosure of downloads for paid apps).
Apple takes a 30 per cent cut of the revenue earned by paid apps, but hosts free apps at no cost. It declines to say how much money is changing hands, but that is not the main point - this is about the race to become the dominant mobile computing platform. Apple's competitors are Google's Android - although the two companies have close alliances - Nokia's Symbian, Research in Motion (the BlackBerry) and Palm. Microsoft has Windows Mobile but, like Symbian, it appears to be struggling.
"This is a 100-yard sprint," says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, "and right now Apple is 75 yards down the track while the other guys are trying to get out of the blocks."
All apps on deck for cities' guiding player
Bon vivants and strolling players around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, New York, London and Barcelona (a great place for bars and international mobile-phone conferences) will know of the Deck of Secrets guides - $10 packs of cards offering guidance on good places to eat, drink, shop and generally be merry.
The Melbourne-based company is run by Michelle Matthews (pictured below), who we hope will forgive us for describing her as an iPhone app tragic. She's filled all nine app screens on her iPhone: a total of 148.
"I don't go in for games but love photography, social networking and utilities," Ms Matthews says. She also, of course, includes the nine Deck of Secrets apps so far built for her by Melbourne software developer Shaun Ervine.
The first app, called Drink, a guide to good bars in Melbourne, was quickly followed by Eat, Shop and Go. The app provides a profile of each bar, and the GPS facility in the 3G iPhone allows users to check the proximity of the nearest watering hole and get a Google map to guide their steps.
Onscreen buttons allow phoning the establishment to make a reservation, emailing a friend to organise a meeting, and putting the address and a picture of the bar into the iPhone's address book.
Ms Matthews says plenty more apps are on the way, mirroring her card-based publications. To find them, search in iTunes App Store for "Deck of Secrets".
The mobile phone can be a powerful tool, writes Garry Barker.
One of the most extraordinary success stories on the internet is Apple's iTunes App Store, in which, for a small fee or nothing at all, any iPhone or iPod touch user can get a bit of software to do, well, almost anything.
It is a phenomenon based on the solid foundation that a mobile phone is now a powerful computer-communications device with the immense reach and power of the internet.
It also honours that powerful principle of technology, KIS (Keep It Simple).
Successful iPhone applications are invariably simple to use, small (because iPhones and iPods have limited storage), responsive to human needs and cheap, ranging from free to seldom more than $10.
A good app is one that you use. In other words, it must appeal because it provides a useful service - a function, entertainment or a service using the connectedness and facility of the iPhone.
A successful application might be as crass as a fart generator to startle people in lifts, or it might monitor a diabetic's blood-sugar level, assess the effect of a meal and calculate the insulin required. Both are available, along with an extraordinary array of more than 28,000 other applications in the iTunes App Store.
Open an iTunes account with a credit card, find an app you like, download it to your Macintosh or PC or directly to the iPhone, and install it - done in a matter of seconds.
More than 500 million downloads have been taken from the App Store since it opened last year, and the flow is increasing, making money for developers and for Apple, and driving sales of iPhones and iPod touch units.
Hundreds of new apps are offered every week to be tested and vetted by Apple for design, taste, reliability and viability. A bit of mild scatology is OK, but indecency is right out. The App Store is open to all, but you must be properly dressed.
With more than 18 million iPhones in use around the globe (700,000 or more in Australia), plus a similar number of iPod touches, it is a market of about 40 million devices and growing.
And, just as the World Wide Web became a marketplace, so are iPhone apps developing a commercial species. The champion so far, with 900,000 downloads, is a free app not yet available in Australia, a game that's actually a marketing tool for Volkswagen.
The user drives a virtual car over a course on the iPhone's screen and checks details of its performance and features.
Many companies see an entertaining iPhone application as a good way to reinforce a brand.
So, the iPhone is changing the face of advertising.
But the apps must be good.
"Apple won't accept rubbish, anything crude or that doesn't work properly," says Daniel Kagan, of LookOut Mobile, the Melbourne company that produced Aussie Rules Live, an app backed by the AFL.
It brings to footy fanatics live scores, text commentary, goal kickers, ladder updates and other information. And because the footy fan's other hand is probably holding a beer or a meat pie, it uses the iPhone's accelerometer - just shake the iPhone and all onscreen details are updated.
Marc Edwards, a Melbourne software developer, has five apps in the shop under his Bjango brand and more on the way. They range from an adaptation of his iStat computer performance monitor, to Jobs, a scheduling app for tradesmen; Cities and Darkness, both world clocks; and Phases, a cute moon phase monitor.
The Plasq group, also of Melbourne, which built Comic Life and other applications popular on the Macintosh, has Comic Touch and a "galactic" game, Pharos IV: Assault, in the iTunes Store.
Graham Dawson, a Sydney developer whose main interests are astrology and spirituality, built the popular OzWeather app that set a minor record for longevity in the top-10 list on the Australian iTunes Store. It went up last November and wiped the floor with an earlier weather app.
"The key is to present information clearly and quickly in an appealing way. If you do that you will do well, even if someone else has a similar app," says Mr Dawson.
With so many apps in the store, competition is fierce.
New apps enjoy brief prominence and are then rated according to downloads and user reviews. Good results there, even a top-10 listing, boost visibility and traffic.
The idea behind the app is everything. It must be simple and, says Marc Edwards, something you would like to have yourself. It might be a function, a game or a cute and ingenious toy, such as the SMULE Ocarina, developed by Ge Wang, professor of music at Stanford University's technology school. He sold more than 400,000 downloads at US90cents in the first month, and the flow of sales, while now slower, continues.
The ocarina is the world's oldest flute. Its 21st-century digital version makes music when the user blows into the iPhone's microphone. You can also listen to other ocarina players around the world in real time, because you're connected to the mobile phone network.
Grant Hull, of Adelaide outfit Enabled Solutions, which works with, among others, advertising agencies, put Newton's Cradle on the iPhone. More than a million have been downloaded. The free version held second place in global popularity for a near-record period. Mr Hull says it was the loss leader that built traffic. A "pro" version is now making him money at $A2.49 a download.
Further, traffic to his company website soared an astonishing 2500 per cent (at peak it was 11,500 per cent). "That shows the huge potential the App Store has to increase brand awareness," he says. He finds advertising agencies are increasingly aware of how apps create brand experiences.
Business applications are proliferating, as are those for doctors, engineers, electricians, and psychologists - name the profession, trade or diversion and there will be an app for it.
US business magazine Forbes recently noted that to cut costs in the dire economic environment, companies are giving travellers iPhones filled with applications to help them book flights, organise their time and deliver presentations.
Forbes reporter Bonnie Ruberg wrote: "The iPhone isn't just a fancy toy for making calls, listening to music and sending emails. It's a powerful business tool with hundreds of applications, GPS and communication."
NovaMind, of Brisbane, one of the world's leading mind-mapping software companies, now has an iPhone app - a portable note-taker that interacts with the main desktop-based application to update or produce a full-scale mind map.
And then there are games - a huge sector in the App Store - coming from individuals as well as well-known companies such as Electronic Arts, which has adapted Monopoly and Sim City, and other games such as Yahtzee, Spore and Sudoku.
Business applications include FileAid, developed by a Swiss-Australian team of Jerome Bedat and Michael Fuhrman. Mr Bedat is in Melbourne brushing up his English and responding to customers on his MacBook in a St Kilda cafe.
FileAid allows users to read on their iPhones almost any kind of file - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, jpegs, MP3 files and much more. It costs $6 and is being heavily downloaded daily (Apple does not permit disclosure of downloads for paid apps).
Apple takes a 30 per cent cut of the revenue earned by paid apps, but hosts free apps at no cost. It declines to say how much money is changing hands, but that is not the main point - this is about the race to become the dominant mobile computing platform. Apple's competitors are Google's Android - although the two companies have close alliances - Nokia's Symbian, Research in Motion (the BlackBerry) and Palm. Microsoft has Windows Mobile but, like Symbian, it appears to be struggling.
"This is a 100-yard sprint," says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, "and right now Apple is 75 yards down the track while the other guys are trying to get out of the blocks."
All apps on deck for cities' guiding player
Bon vivants and strolling players around Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, New York, London and Barcelona (a great place for bars and international mobile-phone conferences) will know of the Deck of Secrets guides - $10 packs of cards offering guidance on good places to eat, drink, shop and generally be merry.
The Melbourne-based company is run by Michelle Matthews (pictured below), who we hope will forgive us for describing her as an iPhone app tragic. She's filled all nine app screens on her iPhone: a total of 148.
"I don't go in for games but love photography, social networking and utilities," Ms Matthews says. She also, of course, includes the nine Deck of Secrets apps so far built for her by Melbourne software developer Shaun Ervine.
The first app, called Drink, a guide to good bars in Melbourne, was quickly followed by Eat, Shop and Go. The app provides a profile of each bar, and the GPS facility in the 3G iPhone allows users to check the proximity of the nearest watering hole and get a Google map to guide their steps.
Onscreen buttons allow phoning the establishment to make a reservation, emailing a friend to organise a meeting, and putting the address and a picture of the bar into the iPhone's address book.
Ms Matthews says plenty more apps are on the way, mirroring her card-based publications. To find them, search in iTunes App Store for "Deck of Secrets".
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
just got the flick - here's my pitch
I am writing to you regarding a BDM role.
I'd be grateful if you could spare 30 minutes of your time to meet with me to discuss your business needs and how my experience may be of benefit. Here are the top five reasons why we should meet...
1) World's top brands:
I've worked on the world's top brand for the past 10 years. I’d love to talk about what experience and expertise means for my clients...
2) Digital diversification:
The digital space is forever growing and ever evolving. I've diversified my cross-channel experience to embrace the world of digital: eCommerce, microsite, CMS, eDM, banners, Branded iPhone application, digital content creation, WOM campaigns (forums, blogging, viral, social media), SEO/SEM, SMS campaigns. I'd love to talk about all things digital with you...
3) Digital integration:
I've thread digital strategy into all areas of the integrated patchwork: online, DM, retail, experiential, mobile, digital PR, sales promotion, branded content. I'd love to talk integrated digital strategy with you...
4) Love byte (what I love about digital):
The endless possibilities of the digital space excites me and blows me away. It intrigues me. It inspires me. It captures me. It challenges me. It motivates me. I'd love to talk about the endless possibilities of the digital space with you...
5) I love to hunt:
I love the chase, the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of rocking my clients boat. New business and spreading ideas that excite, motivate and inspire is what I?m about. I’d love to talk about new business opportunities with you...
Lets Chat
Gregory Stone
I'd be grateful if you could spare 30 minutes of your time to meet with me to discuss your business needs and how my experience may be of benefit. Here are the top five reasons why we should meet...
1) World's top brands:
I've worked on the world's top brand for the past 10 years. I’d love to talk about what experience and expertise means for my clients...
2) Digital diversification:
The digital space is forever growing and ever evolving. I've diversified my cross-channel experience to embrace the world of digital: eCommerce, microsite, CMS, eDM, banners, Branded iPhone application, digital content creation, WOM campaigns (forums, blogging, viral, social media), SEO/SEM, SMS campaigns. I'd love to talk about all things digital with you...
3) Digital integration:
I've thread digital strategy into all areas of the integrated patchwork: online, DM, retail, experiential, mobile, digital PR, sales promotion, branded content. I'd love to talk integrated digital strategy with you...
4) Love byte (what I love about digital):
The endless possibilities of the digital space excites me and blows me away. It intrigues me. It inspires me. It captures me. It challenges me. It motivates me. I'd love to talk about the endless possibilities of the digital space with you...
5) I love to hunt:
I love the chase, the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of rocking my clients boat. New business and spreading ideas that excite, motivate and inspire is what I?m about. I’d love to talk about new business opportunities with you...
Lets Chat
Gregory Stone
10 reasons
1. If you don’t have passion for the place, you’ll fail.
Our history has frequently been defined by heroic efforts. And, let’s face it, what we do is demanding. It’s not that the days are too long here, it’s that they’re too short. To succeed you have to thrive on taxing challenges and internalize your work as a connected part of your life. We don’t offer jobs, we offer careers.
2. Extreme Service means busting your butt for the client. Every day.
We do whatever it takes to be fast, accurate, responsive and proactive with the people who pay our bills and cement our future. Even when it hurts.
3. We’re addicted to momentum. Without it, we wither.
From the very start, this company was founded by people who leaned into the wind and kept going. Momentum takes you places; it’s powerful and provides cultural energy--energy that we each feed on. Grab an oar or get off the boat.
4. If it won’t sell, don’t do it.
A source for our momentum is the understanding that what we create has to be purchased by someone. If we’re not adding value to what we do, we are wasting our talent. It’s as simple as that.
5. You’re allowed to laugh your way through a problem.
Never in our history have we forgotten to laugh--no matter how hard the work, how high the stress, or how rough the day. Constantly. Humor is at the core of who we are, and when we work hard, we laugh harder.
6. Opportunity exists here. Find it.
You could say we are entrepreneurial, but we’re more than that. We believe to our core that talent has no limits, and we’re driven by taking on challenges, trying new things and learning from our mistakes. Rewards come to those who recognize opportunities and are willing to take risks and grab them.
7. Take initiative. Period.
People who succeed here take powerful ownership of their own roles and learning opportunities, and don’t wait for information to come to them. Find your own answers and push for better ways to do things. Lead on the fly, learn from your mistakes and ask for forgiveness later.
8. Making friends replaces our organizational hierarchy.
We’re not big on structure—never have been and probably never will be. To get things done, we make personal connections to our teammates at all levels of the organization, and we help each other because we want to. This is why you’ll see leadership from every nook and cranny of our organization, not just from the top.
9. Integrity is more than a word to us. It’s in our DNA.
Every relationship we enjoy is built upon trust. We trust each other, and we work hard to earn the trust of our customers. It’s a very powerful bond that we don’t take for granted.
10. Our calling is improving lives by what we do.
No matter who they are, or what part of the world they live in, people define themselves by the work that they do. It’s unavoidable. Work can make us feel appreciated or ignored, connected or isolated, competent or foolish; and have a profound effect on every part of our lives. At Kenexa, we believe that when people are in jobs they love, they are not only more productive employees, they are also better parents, friends, partners and neighbors. Our work is to make this happen for everyone. It’s our passion—our purpose—and it’s how we serve humanity worldwide every day.
Our history has frequently been defined by heroic efforts. And, let’s face it, what we do is demanding. It’s not that the days are too long here, it’s that they’re too short. To succeed you have to thrive on taxing challenges and internalize your work as a connected part of your life. We don’t offer jobs, we offer careers.
2. Extreme Service means busting your butt for the client. Every day.
We do whatever it takes to be fast, accurate, responsive and proactive with the people who pay our bills and cement our future. Even when it hurts.
3. We’re addicted to momentum. Without it, we wither.
From the very start, this company was founded by people who leaned into the wind and kept going. Momentum takes you places; it’s powerful and provides cultural energy--energy that we each feed on. Grab an oar or get off the boat.
4. If it won’t sell, don’t do it.
A source for our momentum is the understanding that what we create has to be purchased by someone. If we’re not adding value to what we do, we are wasting our talent. It’s as simple as that.
5. You’re allowed to laugh your way through a problem.
Never in our history have we forgotten to laugh--no matter how hard the work, how high the stress, or how rough the day. Constantly. Humor is at the core of who we are, and when we work hard, we laugh harder.
6. Opportunity exists here. Find it.
You could say we are entrepreneurial, but we’re more than that. We believe to our core that talent has no limits, and we’re driven by taking on challenges, trying new things and learning from our mistakes. Rewards come to those who recognize opportunities and are willing to take risks and grab them.
7. Take initiative. Period.
People who succeed here take powerful ownership of their own roles and learning opportunities, and don’t wait for information to come to them. Find your own answers and push for better ways to do things. Lead on the fly, learn from your mistakes and ask for forgiveness later.
8. Making friends replaces our organizational hierarchy.
We’re not big on structure—never have been and probably never will be. To get things done, we make personal connections to our teammates at all levels of the organization, and we help each other because we want to. This is why you’ll see leadership from every nook and cranny of our organization, not just from the top.
9. Integrity is more than a word to us. It’s in our DNA.
Every relationship we enjoy is built upon trust. We trust each other, and we work hard to earn the trust of our customers. It’s a very powerful bond that we don’t take for granted.
10. Our calling is improving lives by what we do.
No matter who they are, or what part of the world they live in, people define themselves by the work that they do. It’s unavoidable. Work can make us feel appreciated or ignored, connected or isolated, competent or foolish; and have a profound effect on every part of our lives. At Kenexa, we believe that when people are in jobs they love, they are not only more productive employees, they are also better parents, friends, partners and neighbors. Our work is to make this happen for everyone. It’s our passion—our purpose—and it’s how we serve humanity worldwide every day.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Webling Sales Pipeline management process
Webling successful Account professionals strategically manage their long-term sales cycle from start to finish. We resist the temptation to focus too much on one stage, such as closing sales.
Instead identifying each stage of the process and allocate time and resources so we can reach our sales goals consistently.
“Management of the long-term sales cycle is called "pipeline management" and involves identifying sales stages and what needs to be accomplished in each stage. Good pipeline management continually invests in activities that generate sales opportunities and follows each opportunity from the front end through completion and follow-up.”
Our focus is to effectively discover and develop sales opportunities within existing accounts and to develop new business (the front of the sales pipeline).
Benefits of good pipeline management
A mismanaged sales pipeline won't produce the results you want, whether you are a sales manager or an account executive. Good sales pipeline management, on the other hand, can give you the following benefits:
Long-term focus In many sales organizations, the pressure to produce revenue now — today, this week, this quarter — is so strong that it puts too much pressure and attention on the back end of the pipeline: closing the sale. By using good pipeline management techniques, you don't lose focus on the front end: prospecting for and developing opportunities.
Elimination of peaks and valleys A well-managed pipeline improves your sales forecasting and helps you reach sales goals more consistently.
Allocation of resources to strategic, profitable opportunities Instead of taking the "shoot anything that moves" approach, sales professionals plan their approach to keep qualified opportunities moving along the sales pipeline.
Better follow-through on sales opportunities Not following through in a timely manner is a pipeline leak — and a waste of precious resources. Managing the pipeline from start to finish seals those leaks.
The message is clear: You can't afford to neglect either end of the pipeline or to have leaks along the way.
Improving pipeline management
Good pipeline management conserves your selling resources and pays off in higher realized sales. Here are some ways you can improve pipeline management.
Balance your focus
Whether you are an account executive or a sales manager, you must balance your focus between long-term and short-term sales results. The pressure to make current daily, weekly, or monthly goals must not take undue attention away from seeking new opportunities and attending to every stage of the sales pipeline.
Apply discipline
Account/Sales professionals and their managers must keep an eye on the sales pipeline by establishing review points — points at which they review activities, probabilities, desired outcomes, and forecasting guidelines. Managers must establish clear standards for reviewing and evaluating the sales pipeline, and create plans for follow-up meetings and reviews.
Clarify expectations
The "management" part of sales pipeline management requires accountability, activity, and measurement of results. Sales professionals and sales managers need to know what to expect from each other. They must agree on how often and how detailed pipeline reviews must be and on how important these reviews are to the organization.
The following table shows a generic summary of possible pipeline stages with probabilities and desired outcomes.
Sales stage - Possible activities - Closing probability index - Goal
Creating interest
Customer research
Customer qualification
Prospecting calls
Database development
Message creation
Sales call planning
Goal = Customer agreeing to listen
Questioning
Exploring
Defining buying process
Listening
Goal = Qualified opportunity "Is there a compelling reason to move ahead?"
Qualifying Opportunity
Validating needs and issues
Assessing competition
Deciding bid/no-bid
Goal =Verbally agreeing to discuss solution
Needs-based selling
Preparing a "mutual" value proposition
Sales presentations
Sales proposals
Persuading
Goal =Clear reason (value) to buy from me/us "If I ... will you?"
Closing
Answering/addressing objections
Removing barriers
Establishing statement of work
Goal= Agreeing on solution Signed agreement/contract
Follow-up
Building on the relationship
Goal = Contracted/scheduled delivery plan
Manage risk
Sales managers will create bid/no-bid guidelines to help sales teams assess sales opportunities and minimize the risk of pursuing unprofitable opportunities.
Sales Process with in CRM
We use a sales pipeline rating technique called "Solution Selling" where we identify and qualify our prospects thru to Customers..
Leads
1. New
2. Identified Prospect (this is a good prospect for our business)
3. Qualified Prospect (we have identified they possibly have a need)
4. Sales Call Planning and execution (here we work out how we can “create value” for the prospect and help them see they have a need)
5. Qualified Lead (we have explored and defined a need exists)
6. Marketing & Presentation (preparing a mutual value proposition sales presentation)
7. Verbal agreement to discuss (possible opportunity decided bid /no bid)
8. On Hold
9. No Value
10. Lost
Opportunity (0% to 100%)
1. Qualifying Needs (Validating needs and issues Assessing competition)
2. Preparing Value proposition (preparing a mutual value proposition sales presentation)
3. Sales Presentation (needs qualified and Agreed to discuss solution)
4. Requirement Gathering
5. Generate ideas, strategies
6. BDM and PM develops proposal (Proposal delivered)
7. Refining Solution
8. Verbal approval
9. Formal approval
10. Job won
11. On Hold
12. Lost
Good management leads to success
Applying sound sales pipeline management techniques improves the accuracy of your sales forecasts and revenue projections. A sales pipeline that is well managed from beginning to end is critical to the success of any organization.
:)
Instead identifying each stage of the process and allocate time and resources so we can reach our sales goals consistently.
“Management of the long-term sales cycle is called "pipeline management" and involves identifying sales stages and what needs to be accomplished in each stage. Good pipeline management continually invests in activities that generate sales opportunities and follows each opportunity from the front end through completion and follow-up.”
Our focus is to effectively discover and develop sales opportunities within existing accounts and to develop new business (the front of the sales pipeline).
Benefits of good pipeline management
A mismanaged sales pipeline won't produce the results you want, whether you are a sales manager or an account executive. Good sales pipeline management, on the other hand, can give you the following benefits:
Long-term focus In many sales organizations, the pressure to produce revenue now — today, this week, this quarter — is so strong that it puts too much pressure and attention on the back end of the pipeline: closing the sale. By using good pipeline management techniques, you don't lose focus on the front end: prospecting for and developing opportunities.
Elimination of peaks and valleys A well-managed pipeline improves your sales forecasting and helps you reach sales goals more consistently.
Allocation of resources to strategic, profitable opportunities Instead of taking the "shoot anything that moves" approach, sales professionals plan their approach to keep qualified opportunities moving along the sales pipeline.
Better follow-through on sales opportunities Not following through in a timely manner is a pipeline leak — and a waste of precious resources. Managing the pipeline from start to finish seals those leaks.
The message is clear: You can't afford to neglect either end of the pipeline or to have leaks along the way.
Improving pipeline management
Good pipeline management conserves your selling resources and pays off in higher realized sales. Here are some ways you can improve pipeline management.
Balance your focus
Whether you are an account executive or a sales manager, you must balance your focus between long-term and short-term sales results. The pressure to make current daily, weekly, or monthly goals must not take undue attention away from seeking new opportunities and attending to every stage of the sales pipeline.
Apply discipline
Account/Sales professionals and their managers must keep an eye on the sales pipeline by establishing review points — points at which they review activities, probabilities, desired outcomes, and forecasting guidelines. Managers must establish clear standards for reviewing and evaluating the sales pipeline, and create plans for follow-up meetings and reviews.
Clarify expectations
The "management" part of sales pipeline management requires accountability, activity, and measurement of results. Sales professionals and sales managers need to know what to expect from each other. They must agree on how often and how detailed pipeline reviews must be and on how important these reviews are to the organization.
The following table shows a generic summary of possible pipeline stages with probabilities and desired outcomes.
Sales stage - Possible activities - Closing probability index - Goal
Creating interest
Customer research
Customer qualification
Prospecting calls
Database development
Message creation
Sales call planning
Goal = Customer agreeing to listen
Questioning
Exploring
Defining buying process
Listening
Goal = Qualified opportunity "Is there a compelling reason to move ahead?"
Qualifying Opportunity
Validating needs and issues
Assessing competition
Deciding bid/no-bid
Goal =Verbally agreeing to discuss solution
Needs-based selling
Preparing a "mutual" value proposition
Sales presentations
Sales proposals
Persuading
Goal =Clear reason (value) to buy from me/us "If I ... will you?"
Closing
Answering/addressing objections
Removing barriers
Establishing statement of work
Goal= Agreeing on solution Signed agreement/contract
Follow-up
Building on the relationship
Goal = Contracted/scheduled delivery plan
Manage risk
Sales managers will create bid/no-bid guidelines to help sales teams assess sales opportunities and minimize the risk of pursuing unprofitable opportunities.
Sales Process with in CRM
We use a sales pipeline rating technique called "Solution Selling" where we identify and qualify our prospects thru to Customers..
Leads
1. New
2. Identified Prospect (this is a good prospect for our business)
3. Qualified Prospect (we have identified they possibly have a need)
4. Sales Call Planning and execution (here we work out how we can “create value” for the prospect and help them see they have a need)
5. Qualified Lead (we have explored and defined a need exists)
6. Marketing & Presentation (preparing a mutual value proposition sales presentation)
7. Verbal agreement to discuss (possible opportunity decided bid /no bid)
8. On Hold
9. No Value
10. Lost
Opportunity (0% to 100%)
1. Qualifying Needs (Validating needs and issues Assessing competition)
2. Preparing Value proposition (preparing a mutual value proposition sales presentation)
3. Sales Presentation (needs qualified and Agreed to discuss solution)
4. Requirement Gathering
5. Generate ideas, strategies
6. BDM and PM develops proposal (Proposal delivered)
7. Refining Solution
8. Verbal approval
9. Formal approval
10. Job won
11. On Hold
12. Lost
Good management leads to success
Applying sound sales pipeline management techniques improves the accuracy of your sales forecasts and revenue projections. A sales pipeline that is well managed from beginning to end is critical to the success of any organization.
:)
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