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Sales Force Lessons from Gates, Crowley and Obama
| Guest post by: Dave Kurlan |
Article Overview: This should happen a lot more often on the sales force. How often do customers become upset over the behavior of a salesperson, customer service rep, technician or even accounting? When controversy jeopardizes a good account, it's time for the president or CEO to reach out and mend fences between adversaries!
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Free Download - Sales Courage and Resilience By Dave Kurlan |
Sales Force Lessons from Gates, Crowley and Obama
The outraged Harvard Professor who was arrested and Cambridge's arresting officer of record will both meet over a beer with President Obama at the White House this week. The President is reaching out to mend fences between local adversaries and as unusual as that sounds, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.
This sort of thing happens - parents bringing to quarreling kids together. Sports managers uniting players that don't get along. Letterman and Oprah. But it happens in business too. The boss meeting with the manager and employee that are having trouble.
This should happen a lot more often on the sales force. How often do customers become upset over the behavior of a salesperson, customer service rep, technician or even accounting? When controversy jeopardizes a good account, it's time for the president or CEO to reach out and mend fences between adversaries! Some top ranking executives feel as though they are above such gestures but now we have precedent. After all, when the President of the United States of America can bring cop and professor together, you can bring customers and company representatives together too. It should be a best practice and it shouldn't be limited to behavioral disasters either.
How about good opportunities with profitable accounts that can be leveraged? When a salesperson or team loses traction, hasn't positioned itself correctly, or takes a misstep along the way, isn't it appropriate for a top executive to step in?
So what should an Entrepreneur do? While there are upsides to Entrepreneurs being their own best salespeople, there are downsides too. The two biggest are:
* Despite being the president, they are viewed as a salesperson
* When things go wrong, there isn't anyone higher up to step in and reset the opportunity
I know a CEO of one large company who makes calls to existing customers and not only makes his presence known, he always asks for more business. Why not take advantage and leverage your position?
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Article Tags: adversaries, company representatives, controversy, cop, customer service rep, existing customers, fences, gestures, harvard professor, letterman, misstep, obama, oprah, president of the united states, president of the united states of america, salespeople, salesperson, states of america, top executive, traction
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About the Author: Dave Kurlan RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website Click here to visit Dave's website   Visual Pipeline Predict Sales Turnover Salesperson Selection |
Related Forum Posts
Re: Who inspired you to start?
- Hi Evan,
I was inspired by Mr. Bill Gates ever since I was a student learning Computers. But I was motivated for Internet as my Business, when I read his book "The Road Ahead" in 1995. It was in this book that Gates laid out his vision of an interconnected world built around the Internet.
Based on the premise that life will be transformed by the convergence of inexpensive computing and inexpensive communications, Gates drew from his experience at the center of the personal computer revolution to give insights on the growth, evolution and impact of technology.
I had always looked up to Bill Gates as my idol. When I read this book, it made me more focussed on Microsoft and Internet, The Internet was one of the upcoming things in this time. So I took over to the Internet as my primary business.
Regards,
Re: Obama or McCain?
- If I want to be partial , I would say Obama because I am black. But this should not be if you want to vote objectively. Otherwise, I will prefer Obama because of his age, charisma and energy
Napoleon on Project Management
- Why do I include this in a list of books aimed at female entrepreneurs? Well...in the expectation that there are as many female history buffs as male ones, and in the belief that anyone interested in history will find this book fascinating, while those interested in project management will learn a thing or two.
I think this was the first "gimmick" book - an author using a historical figure (usually a male, military figure, it must be admitted) to talk about modern day business management. I refuse to read any of the kind that advocates - even obliquely - the techniques of the Sopranos or the Mossad - but these military ones are pretty fun.
Anyway:
Only in the understanding of history, Napoleon might say, do we gain an understanding of strategy in the present. In the same spirit, Napoleon on Project Management offers the recipe for successfully managing your commitments using the strategies, tactics and priorities that propelled Napoleon himself to victory. [The book doesn't gloss over how Napolean eventually fell in defeat, of course, and there's lessons to be learned there as well.
TOC
Foreword by Douglas James Allan (Napoleanic Society of America)
1. The Rise to Power
-The Skills to Succeed
-A Compelling Vision
-Diplomacy and Networking
-Lessons from the Great Campaigns
2. Napoleon's 6 Winning Principles
-Introduction
-Exactitude
-Speed
-Flexibility
-Simplicity
-Character
-Moral Force
3. The Downfall
-What Went Wrong
-Lessons from the Russian Invasion and Waterloo
-The Four Critical Warning Signs
-Napoleon's Legacy
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
- Hi Evan,
I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Still Not Sure Who To Vote For?
- Hi IdeasU,
Don't worry, I'm still committed to the evancarmichael forum, but I have been very busy since I returned from my holidays with editing work, extra teaching work during college term, several large and complicated orders from my Japanese-games-shop customers and the launch of a monthly PLR article writing service (see sig file!).
===
Back on topic... If I were an American citizen I would vote for Obama. I explained what did it for me on another thread. My main interest was foreign policy, but the more I watch Obama and McCain the more impressive Obama seems and the less convincing McCain appears.
So far, Obama has proved excellent in handling the ad hominem attacks, and McCain's attempts to smear him with "associating with terrorists" look increasingly lame.
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