26Nov 2019 by Shannon Bridger
Let’s hear it for the sales team

Let’s hear it for the sales team

Selling
Why does sales get such a bad rap? Anything but sales… Let’s play word association - “Sales”.  What do you instantly associate with that word? Honestly now. The usual response to this game are words like ‘dodgy’, ‘shifty’, ‘dishonest’, ‘pushy’, ‘talks too much’. That’s just the polite stuff. In my experience, across continents, cultures & industries the response is the same, time and again. The really sad thing is that I normally play this word association game during sales programmes WITH the sales teams. This is what they say about their own discipline! Marketeers, doctors, accountants, logistics experts, actors, nurses – these professions and many more seem to pass the dinner party test, “what do you do?”. Sales? Oh no. The job title gets mangled and contorted with great creativity…
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20Aug 2019 by Shannon Bridger
A question about questions

A question about questions

Great Questions, Selling
Questions concept I remember growing up there was a book called 'All that you wanted to know about (insert topic), but were afraid to ask.' I was reflecting on this recently and on my experience of working with over 15,000 sales people over the past (nearly) 30 years. I find it extraordinary, that one of the most common ‘objections’ I receive, when talking with people about asking great questions, is that they often feel awkward about doing that and they are concerned about what they will discover as a result. Most sales people are afraid to ask the ‘right’ questions Those seasoned sales people out there reading this may be thinking “Well, that’s bonkers”…but ask yourselves “why would that be the case?”. Is it because 95% of sales professionals that…
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