Sales « 800 CEO Read

May 6, 2008

New Version of Gitomer's Sales Bible

Filed under: Sales — Jack @ 10:22 am

When the Sales Bible first came out from William Morrow in the 1994, it got a slow start. I was selling it with some success in the bookstore and Jeffrey Gitomer called to see what I was doing. I told him it was nothing in particular, just that I had found it very helpful and was suggesting it to many of our customers.

When Jeffrey created the proposal for the paperback edition and took it to Wiley, he asked me for a quote. When the book came out, I was shocked they had taken my words:

“Every once in a while ONE book defines a category.”

–Jack Covert, 800-CEO-READ

and pasted them across the top of the book.

A new, new edition of The Sales Bible is being released today and you won’t find my quote on the front cover anymore. The book has been redesigned to match the other titles in his “The Little Book…” series. The folded over info piece on the book still contains my quote, it’s just on the back now.

One other note: if you order the book today from Amazon, Jeffrey has put together a whole pile of free giveaways from other authors.

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February 28, 2008

Negotiation Thread at Signal vs Noise

Filed under: Personal Development,Sales — Todd Sattersten @ 1:33 pm

There is a great thread at Signal vs Noise where they are asking readers for good negotiating stories.

The books mentioned thus far include:

You Can Negotiate Anything by Herb Cohen
NO: The Only Negotiating Strategy You Need for Work and Home by Jim Camp
Humanitarian Negotiation: A handbook for securing access, assistance and protection for Civilians in Armed Conflcts by The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (free download)

Jack Nicholson’s famous negotiation in Five Easy Pieces is also mentioned.

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December 11, 2007

New Excerpt up – from The Sales Manager's Success Manual

Filed under: Book Reviews,Sales — 800-CEO-READ @ 1:04 pm

There’s a new chapter up on the Excerpts blog–Chapter 19 of The Sales Manager’s Success Manual by Wayne M. Thomas (AMACOM). This book covers fundamental sales management topics including compensation, forecasting, and motivation, along with more advanced topics such as dealing with internal politics, understanding generational issues, managing up, and developing intuition. It also shows how managers must be more productive than ever while relying more on partners and technology with reduced resources in the field. Chapter 19 focuses on the sales-oriented CEO.

There is another important axis on which to view your CEO. One of our experts termed this as “evolved” or “unevolved.” A CEO, like any unevolved manager, is limited by a narrow scope of interest. One could argue that the primary focus for Carly Fiorina during her days as HP’s head was, well, Carly Fiorina. In her later book, she blamed her woes on the machinations of others. Apparently, she remains unevolved.
Mark Hurd next assumed the reins and was swept into the HP Board scandal early in his tenure. He could have blamed others, but instead ceaselessly uttered mea culpa. Obviously, he demonstrated an emotional maturity that he was a team player who could be counted upon to shoulder his own share of the burden. He did not look for a scapegoat. This demonstrated that Hurd was an evolved player whom his managers could trust. Hurd and Fiorina are archetypes of the CEO behaviors just discussed.

Here’s a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007521.html#more

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July 9, 2007

The "Dominant Selling Idea" – Why Johnny Can't Brand

Filed under: Big Ideas,Book Reviews,Sales — 800-CEO-READ @ 8:00 am

Last Friday we put a new excerpt up on the Excerpts Blog: the introduction to Why Johnny Can’t Brand: Rediscovering the Lost Art of the Big Idea. You can read the entire introduction over there, but I wanted to share another interesting section I found while paging through the book:

The Five Rules of One
1. The “One Item of ‘Carry-On-’” Rule
When seeking to differentiate your brand, no matter how much information you offer, when you’ve finished pitching:

People only remember one thing.

So when you feel that irresistible, amateur force moving to list every product feature in every brand message–get over it. It’s not that we don’t have the brain capacity, it’s that we also have a brain reflex that synthesizes details, images, and feelings on any subject into single thought packages for easy storage and retrieval from our mental “overhead bin.” You can give people long lists of features and benefits. But when they walk away, their minds morph it down to that one piece of mental “carry-on.” A key corollary is that this salient idea, once carried aboard, preempts all others and will stubbornly remain in place, virtually forever, until a more compelling idea physically dislodges it.
A reporter once asked a woman what a senate candidate had said in a campaign speech. The candidate spoke passionately for nearly an hour covering every point on his platform. “What did he say?” the man asked. She replied, “He was against taxes.”
Here’s another classic. The O.J. Simpson prosecution spent nine months and millions of dollars laying out a case that was so scientifically detailed, so obsessively logical that no rational group of people could possibly fail to convict on the weight of the evidence. Except the jury. For them, it all became a blur, erased by “the one thing to remember” defense lawyer Johnny Cochran shrewdly suggested on day 1: You can retain ten thousand bits of evidence, or save the trouble and just retain this: O.J. was framed by racist cops. Cochran even provided a famous tag line to make it even more convenient: “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” The jury “carried on” the one item it chose to remember, and left ten thousand valuable bits of information at the curb with the skycap, minus a tip.

In the introduction to Why Johnny Can’t Brand, authors Bill Schley and Carl Nichols, Jr. explain that because only one thing about your product or service will stick with consumers, it has to be a Big thing. They call it the “Dominant Selling Idea” (DSI), and the second half of the book is dedicated to what they deem DSI University. You’ll go through a step-by-step, 40-day process of figuring out the “one” most important selling idea, and then putting that idea to work for your company.
And, as the author told me, “this stuff applies to anyone who wants to communicate–not just businesses.”

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May 8, 2007

What Podcasts People Are Listening To

Filed under: Big Ideas,Finance and Economics,General Management,Global Business,History and Biographies,Innovation,Marketing,Personal Development,Sales,Strategy — Todd Sattersten @ 8:58 am

Here is a little peak into what people are listening to on our Podcasts blog. This is a ranked list for the first four months of 2007.

The Elegant Solution Interview with Matt May
Marketing and Sales for Big Complex Selling Interview – Part 1 with Brian Carroll
Marketing and Sales for Big Complex Selling Interview – Part 3 with Brian Carroll and Jill Konrath
Everyday Greatness Interview with Stephen Covey
The Difference Maker Interview with John Maxwell
Confessions of An Economic Hitman Audio Excerpt
Made To Stick Interview with Dan Heath
Growing Great Employees Interview – Part 2 with Erika Anderson
Purpose Interview with Nikos Mourkogiannis
Growing Great Employees Interview – Part 1 with Erika Anderson

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April 19, 2007

Sales Tips for The Day

Filed under: Sales — Todd Sattersten @ 9:29 am

Wallstrip presents CRM today in a Glengarry Glen Ross package.

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January 17, 2007

Today's Vocabulary Quiz

Filed under: Marketing,Sales — Todd Sattersten @ 9:00 am

I am sure you already received your November/December issue of Selling Power. Seth is on the cover (ten times).

We tend to talk about Seth alot and thought we should take a moment to get the new folks caught up. There is a short vocabulary list of Seth-isms from the article. Take a shot at what you think the words mean and then highlight the area next to the word to see the definition.

Interruption Marketing -> Broadcasting messages people don’t want to see or hear; message that “interrupt.”

Permission Marketing -> Narrowly delivered message that are anticipated, personal, and relevant.

Remarkable -> Anything the consumer believes is worth remarking on.

Megaphone -> When customers choose to promote you by talking to their friends and colleagues.

Edgecraft -> The process of digging deep and being bold to come up with edgy, remarkable ideas

Marketing -> Telling authentic stories that customers want to hear and believe in.

[Hat Tip: Chris Anderson for the answer hiding idea]

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December 18, 2006

The Ehrenfeld Principle

Filed under: Sales — Kate @ 1:30 pm

A few weeks back we hosted an author pow-wow (pictures here). [I can't tell even begin to tell you how much is gained by personally knowing the people behind emails and phone calls.]

One of our pow-wow-ees was John Moore. A takeaway from him is what he dubs “The Ehrenfeld Principle.” [You may recognize the name from one of our regular contributors.] What’s this principle?

Thats my name for something I learned from business writer Tom Ehrenfeld at the recent 800 CEO READ Author Pow-Wow. During one of the sessions, Tom outlined his “WHAT? | SO WHAT? | PROVE IT!” system to identify effective business writing.

The WHAT? is the content. The SO WHAT? is why the content matters. And the PROVE IT! provides the credibility.

It’s a great way to simplify the selling of anything — for authors, marketers, entrepreneurs, etc., etc. John used the principle to explain the new book The 12 Elements from Gallup Press.

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October 10, 2006

Fire The PITA Customer

Filed under: Sales — Sally @ 2:21 pm

We can all easily describe our Ideal Customer. The person who is curious, has money to spend, is open to new ideas, etc. Each of us has our own profile. I have actually turned my profile into criteria: I must have the expertise, the client must value my expertise, and the engagement must be fun. If a client doesnt meet all three of these criteria, I see red flags waving furiously.

Think about what happens when you have the opposite of your Ideal Customer. Have you ever had a PITA customer? You know, Pain In The Ass. What happens? They drain you, waste your time, the time of your staff, and you dont make any money. They are never good referrals, because PITAs hang out with other PITAs. So, fire them before you start.

Not always easy to do, because we see the dollar signs and think if we dont take this customer, we dont know where the next one will come from. I maintain that you are in big trouble if you take the PITA. It is a glaring Opportunity Costand Opportunity Lost to attract your very best customers. Say NO! It is one of the best decisions you can make.

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It's All About Time

Filed under: Sales — Sally @ 2:10 pm

Ive never heard anyone say they had so much time in a day that they didnt know how to use it. We do have choices about how to spend our time. Heres the data Ive collected on cold calls: Make 100 dials, talk to 20 people live, set 8-10 appointments, and if youre lucky, close one deal. Now consider referrals. To the person, no one has told me that the conversion rate of prospect to customer is less than 50 percent. Its typically 70 to 90 percent. The time it takes to close the deal collapses, because we are pre-sold, the competition disappears, and the number of calls we make decreases. These are the kind of customers we want all the time. Its all about timehow we spend it and what we get.

Putting in that extra effort. Look at what Sam Parker has to say about a little bit of extra effort on his blog, Just Parker. Sam is one of the founders of Just Sell. If you havent signed up for their daily quotes, be sure to do that right away. Theyre magical!

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