Innovation, Strategy

Celebrating failure

Today, I read a blog by Seth Godin on How to fail. In this blog, he talks about how to fail better. He also mentions that not trying new things due to fear of failure is also not a good option. He also goes on and provides some random ideas that will help you fail better, more often and with an inevitably positive upside. With more and more organizations looking to innovate more often and much faster, it is not enough to know how to fail. It is important to encourage employees to take on the risk of failure. The […]

Sales

Perseverance & Engagement

One of the most important and under-rated virtues of successful sales people is “perseverance”.Successful sales people stay in contact with all their prospects and keep them engaged despite not getting business from them. The ability to stay engaged with these prospects helps them get the sale whenever the prospect decides to buy or provide references. This helps build relationships. This is the key differentiator between also-rans and the hugely successful sales people. The insanely successful people build great relationships with not only those who give them business but also who do not give business. The key to build and keep […]

Sales

Restrospection & Introspection

Let’s consider an example of a sales person. Sam is a sales manager for a software company and is responsible for selling software licenses to a set of customers. He had a meeting with one of his primary clients which did not go well and he lost the deal to his competitors. He had thought that his relationship with the customer was very healthy and he was very sure that would land the deal. He did not realize when he lost the deal. He now has to go back to his manager Tom and inform him about the lost deal. […]

Sales

Best practices for top performing sales people

I came across an article by Kelley Robertson – “17 Best Practices of Top Performing Sales People”. He covers almost all the best practices. I think there are a few more habits that I have observed in top performing sales people: They constantly strive to LEARN and update themselves.   They REFLECT on all their activities and interactions on a regular basis.  They READ a lot and are well informed about a variety of topics.   Overall, they are interesting people to hang out with.