One of my favorite books last year was The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation. The authors summed up much of what I have been trying to say for the past several years in a much more compelling and concise way than I ever could. I encourage you to read the book. I Read More …
Lean Sales and Marketing is just not another extension of Lean into another area of business. If you think that way, you will be marred into product dominant thinking. You must recognize Lean as the pathway into Service Dominant Logic Thinking (Vargo and Lusch (2006)). Lean is used as the vehicle to deliver effective and Read More …
This week’s Business901 Podcast guest is Kelly Allan of Kelly Allan Associates Company. In 2004, Kelly was one of the 12 people selected by the W. Edwards Deming Institute to conduct Dr. Deming’s famous four-day seminars. When Peter Scholtes retired from conducting seminars and consulting, he asked Kelly to continue his work. After five years Read More …
The ability to handle a conversation in the sales process may be the single most important attribute a salesperson can have. We have all seen it, where that exceptional sales person time after time outperforms everyone else. We may make excuses but deep down, most of us know, that Rainmaker, that Closer, gets the job Read More …
“You don’t have to be a customer to be important. But, from a systemic point of view, each is a supplier, not a customer. The systems do not exist to serve their needs. Their role is to help systems serve the needs of the customers. When suppliers start seeing themselves as customers, the needs of Read More …
The traditional marketing funnel built on a theory of manipulation is gone (Kill the Sales and Marketing Funnel). In this recent blog post, I discussed the Lean Marketing: 2-Step Marketing Funnel and how you are either marketing or selling. Evidence enough that it is becoming widely accepted that 70% of the customer decision is already Read More …