Most of us detest the automated call handling machines which take us through a series of menu options before we are allowed to speak to a human. Having just telephoned a UK Building Society’s main enquiry number, I had to get through 4 stages before I could speak to a human. Some car service businesses [...]

Chatting over coffee with a networking contact recently, and discussing sales pitches – and the fact that he was not going to buy something – it occurred to me that one of the reasons he was not going to buy on this occasion was that the offer did not suit his needs. It is a [...]

In recent weeks, we bought a horse – it is 16 years since we last went through this process. The changes in the buying process made me think. Instead of buying local papers and using a red pen, we read web sites and search databases against a precise set of criteria. We looked at detailed [...]

A wise man reminded me of a simple selling tip a couple of weeks ago. And it is something that we can all learn from and use when we sit down to write copy for our 60 second introductions, our elevator pitch or for the front page of our web sites. Make the initial offer [...]

Knowing how to write a good sales proposal is a vital skill for anyone running a business selling either to other businesses (e.g. consultants) or high value services to retail customers (e.g. builders). Yet few entrepreneurs seem to have mastered the art of writing simple, effective sales proposals (and I’m including sales letters, covering letters [...]

I’ve been shopping today. I hate shopping. I mean I really, really hate shopping. Especially if it’s for computer related stuff and today I was shopping for a new small laptop/large netbook. I hate it because I know some relatively clueless shop assistant will try to “help” me. Despite me telling them I don’t want [...]

One of the easy traps for anybody who is managing their own sales activity to fall into is to start chasing the big deals. One of the sales meeting myths, usually put around large organisations by non-sales people is that: Every sales person wants to close a single deal on day one that blows his/ [...]

A lengthy promotional email landed in my inbox and, because the subject caught my attention, I opened the email and skimmed it. There were a number of issues that I could comment on, but the one that stood out was the following paragraph: Below you will see some of the templates we have built for [...]

One of the most powerful sales tools is often abused and can be an obstacle to effective selling. I have lost count of the sales people that I have interviewed over the years who seemed credible but were incapable of making an effective sales presentation. They immediately forget all the things their sales training and [...]

As a result of this website I get quite a few emails about business opportunities, many offered as joint ventures. What amazes me is how bad many of them are, for example here’s one I received this evening: Hi John, I stumbled across your website and as I was reading, it suddenly occurred to me [...]