Employees and suppliers are only listening to customers and then doing what they’re told. The focus is on taking customer requirements and attempting to turn them into a to-do list. Mostly instruction questions are asked instead of outcome questions. Their heart is in the right place, but employees and suppliers are listening too much.
Read MoreThere are two reasons customers form new relationships with vendors:
The first reason is quality-driven. The customer is looking for a process or product to work the way it is supposed to work. They want a vendor focused on executing an old vision.
The second reason has nothing to do with quality, it has to do with value. The quality is good, but there are alternatives that are more valuable to their organization. They are working with vendors focused on a new vision.
Read MoreWhen companies work together to create something innovative, an RFP is never involved.
Read MoreAny salesperson that outperforms his peers disrupts the sales cycle by showing the customer a unique fit for his company’s offering in the customer’s organization. This is only communicated effectively through well-crafted documents. Every single information deliverable has the potential to make a significant impact on the customer – you want this impact to be positive.
Read MoreYour irrational fear of giving away too much solution information to your prospects before they buy from you is hurting you, not helping. The customer is not:
The temptation in elevator speeches and presentations is to tell customers that your solution is “risk free”. But it is not only impossible to be risk free, it is a really bad move to say this to your customers. You lose your consultative credibility because you are clearly using hyperbole, not providing value. All business process owners know there is no such thing as risk free changes, and change risk is a serious topic for them.
Read MoreWith sales managers, ‘activity’ is all the rage. How many cold calls, first appointments, and lunches did you have this week? What is the status of this and what is the status of that? To be sure, successful salespeople are active ones. But high levels of activity alone do not produce deals. These activities have to be purposeful to work; there needs to be a mission behind them. Blitzing 100 CFOs with cold calls doesn’t lead anywhere on its own – that is purposeless.
Read MoreThe natural disposition of most salespeople hunting for new logos is a desire to offer the world to their prospects. Hunters work hard to establish contact with C-level executives. Unfortunately, when they land that phone call or email exchange, they usually never win a first appointment. This is because the most common approach in asking for a first appointment with an executive is for the salesperson to give a corporate capabilities presentation to the prospect. This is not something that anyone in the customer's c-suite wants to spend their time doing. They are spending large amounts of time on their own company, and the thought of sitting through a one-hour presentation on every service another company offers is repulsive to them.
Read MoreCreating value as an entrepreneur through disruptive innovation is one of the most rewarding experiences that can be had. But most of us are not entrepreneurs at the moment: starting a company is still in the future or perhaps not right for us at all. The good news is that disruptive innovation can be practiced by 'intra'preneurs as well. We can apply disruptive principles to create breakthrough value even while working for someone else.
megadisrupter provides guidance on finding the right job, outperforming peers and becoming a disruptive innovator while on the inside of an organization. Articles and resources on job hunting, intrapreneurship, selling and management are published regularly.
Creating value as an entrepreneur through disruptive innovation is one of the most rewarding experiences that can be had. But most of us are not entrepreneurs at the moment: starting a company is still in the future or perhaps not right for us at all. The good news is that disruptive innovation can be practiced by intrapreneurs as well. We can apply disruptive principles to create breakthrough value even while working for someone else.
megadisrupter provides guidance on finding the right job, outperforming peers and becoming a disruptive innovator while on the inside of an organization. Articles and resources on job hunting, intrapreneurship, selling and management are published regularly.
