Let’s take a break from the question of whether outbound sales can be industrialized. Spoiler alert: the simple answer is “Yes,” with the qualification that you need to adjust your thinking, processes, and toolset to get it done. But that’s…
In Part 1 of this series, I disposed of the idea that B2B sales has already been industrialized by the widespread adoption of the sales development model. Let’s suspend the question of whether B2B sales can be industrialized and ask,…
I find myself using the phrase “the industrialization of sales” a lot recently — and overconfidently, it turns out. The meaning seemed obvious to me, and I naively thought it must be in common use, until I googled “industrialization of…
So, what about the prediction that sales robots will wipe out millions of sales jobs? In a way, they already have. Maybe not millions yet, but information and automation working together as sales slaves have brought efficiencies to selling that…
First, fair warning: I’ve been involved one way or another with artificial and augmented intelligence since 1968. So I’m a little stuck, in that I actually know a bit about how this stuff works. I know less about how human,…
Generally, I try not to generalize. But this morning when I slid open the door to the “flight deck” and watched yet another Cirque du Squirreleil act (leaping from an upside-down position on a slick, tubular, suspended bird feeder 10…
One should always hesitate before pronouncing something "the best," and be even more circumspect before saying "the worst." But what the heck? The worst thing I hear reps say to open a cold call is "Did you have a chance…
In Part 1 of this blog series, I defined the methods that a business — through its salespeople — can use to get to know its customers: the zero-advantage public information sources; the one-way communications of advertising, focus groups, and…
Businesses have never really known their customers. Salespeople have. And salespeople are, by and large, rather autonomous. They keep what they know to themselves. Surveys can only tell you so much, and almost nothing about your prospects. Focus groups aren’t…
In Part 1 of this blog series, I looked at how Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane and his quant team analyzed a bazillion baseball stats and figured out that everyone had been wrong for years about almost everything. Because…