Three’s a charm or… maybe a challenge There’s a story about a guy who was considered the dean of selling back in the day. As a young sales rep working for a producer of canned vegetables, he called on all the grocery stores in his territory. In one stop to see an existing customer he was […]
Breaking glass… Making more sales Back in the day auto windshields weren’t made of safety glass. If you had a wreck the odds were good that your noggin was going through it and your chances of getting badly lacerated were even better! But then a Toledo based company named Libbey Owens Ford invented a new product […]
Air and water… Not a good combo Early on we learned that mechanical action was a huge factor in the WATCH principles of cleaning. In warewashing that element comes in the form of impingement. But if enough air becomes entrapped in the wash tank water the impingement force of the pattern is greatly diminished. Its unwanted […]
Deafness and … Avoiding it When we’re talking it’s hard to listen. But when we stop talking and don’t hear what that prospect or customer is saying that’s a big problem. In sales speaking well is important. But listening is downright critical. We all know the validity of that point, but are we practicing that basic […]
Good sanitation and … Staying in business Giving customers diarrhea is just bad business. Just ask Chipoltle (or Taylor Farms who processed the jalapenos thought to be the cause of the recent salmonella outbreak there). And that outbreak was on the heels of the lettuce born Cyclospora Parasite contamination that resulted in lettuce being recalled from […]
Speak up well… And be heard It may be that you’re both comfortable and pretty competent at speaking in public. If so, that’s great – especially when it comes to conducting those in-service training sessions in front of group of employees in that heath care facility. But if that’s not entirely the case for you, here […]
Life, living and… Surviving it Life is uncertain and that’s a fact. Another is that the realization of that simple fact escapes the understanding of a lot of folks. They yearn for those simpler times when everything was clear, and the path forward uncluttered. Well here’s a newsflash: Those fabled times really never existed. Ask your […]
New ideas… Old resistance That’ll never work. Yep, as we get longer in the tooth, we’re prone to cling to whatever beliefs we already have and to almost automatically reject what’s different, new, or just on the cutting edge. Now that’s not to say that all things new ought to be wholeheartedly embraced, or that […]
A Secret to success… About bosses and buyers There are lots of pieces of advice on how to advance in business. One very good one goes, “Figure out what’s important to your boss’s boss and do that!” That’s not to say we should ever ignore what our direct supervisor wants but positively affecting what his […]
Prep and make ready… And not the sous chef Here’s a basic sales truth that we tend to forget: Our success selling new business is not particularly proportional to our desire to make the sale. Conversely however, it’s very much related to our degree of preparation. That begins with doing the basic homework to learn […]