Sound familiar?

So, what’s the answer?

Well, on Wednesday July 27th, Top Sales World launches its latest initiative – FREE, live, thirty minute coaching sessions, presented by thirty of the world’s leading sales experts – you can check out the panel HERE

So, if  like me, you become a little frustrated with short written answers to requests for advice, and need something more, join in these highly interactive classes.

I will be leading the first session, and I will be answering the cry for help!

HELP! My competitors keep stealing all my best customers …
Wednesday July 27th at:1:00 PM Eastern (6:00pm GMT)

Full details HERE

I do hope you will join me …..

Have you ever walked away from a negotiation or a sales transaction feeling like a sucker because the other guy got what he wanted and you got shortchanged?

If you have, don’t feel bad, because you’re not alone. The good news is that I have agreed to share some of my best and most powerful negotiation tips, tricks and techniques in an online class.

In this 30-minute negotiating masterclass I will teach you:

•The characteristics of the best negotiators and how you can acquire them
•The principles that top negotiators always abide by, but rarely talk about
•How you can become a master negotiator – and never leave money on the table again

WHEN: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 12pm EST (5pm GMT)

WHERE: A CrunchConnect meeting room near you (emailed upon registration) Register here, now – YES PLEASE

HOW MANY: Only the first 40 to register will get into the online live class. Everyone else will receive a link as soon as the video is posted.

GET INVITED: Email subscribers are the first to be invited to SalesCrunch classes, so if you want to be first in line for future classes and be alerted when the recordings are posted subscribe to our email update & invites now.

See you there ….

Can you hear that?

Can you hear the deathly silence …?

It is what I have been listening to for the past five years; hardly a murmur.

And do you know what? I am not at all surprised. If the man who first coined the term, way back in 2006 cannot describe it, then the rest of you have little chance.

It was of course, Mr Sales 2.o, Nigel Edelshain, who one bright and sunny summer’s day, dreamed it all up – and then failed to copyright it, thus losing out on a small fortune, whilst watching others gorge themselves at this new trough of opportunity. In fact, many have become obscenely obese.

But I would never consider criticizing our young “inventor” He is a very fine man, and could not possibly have imagined at the time, that his very simple “conclusions” would change the selling landscape for ever – after all, logically, the canvas that we had become so used to – so comfortable with – was already more than 2000 years old?

Now we have an entire industry based around a “phenomena” which nobody really understands. And no doubt the debate will continue, right around the globe, probably until England are awarded the World Cup – yes, probably forever, or at least until somebody, somewhere, on a bright and sunny summer’s day, has a “eureka” moment, and introduces us to Sales 3.0. Did I just hear the scurrying of feet, heading for the local Patent Office?

So, here we are: We have Sales 2.0 solutions; Sales 2.0 websites; Sales 2.0 conferences; Sales 2.0 compliance …. Etc.

Because it is Friday, I am going to issue a challenge: To the person, or persons, who can provide me with the best, clear, concise and coherent – dare I add plausible – definition of what Sales 2.0 actually is, I will award a bottle of Roederer Cristal champagne - deal?

Just one word of warning – please do not tell me that it replaced “Sales 1.0″ because nobody used that term until Sales 2.0 came along!!!

Oh, and I suggest you do not ask your clients and customers, because they definitely will not have a clue!

Have a great weekend, and if you find you have some spare time on your hands, why not download a copy of the latest Top Sales World magazine?

This post supplements my comments within a recent keynote speech, and subsequent post last week - if you missed it you can listen to the recording here     

 A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organizations must develop – FACT

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes, be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

Dependence on salespeople is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our salespeople are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them.

This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded – i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies’ databases and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.

This extract from ‘All Together Now’ by Sir John Harvey-Jones articulates the last point perfectly. “There is practically no area of business where the difference between rhetoric and actuality is greater than in the handling of people. Every businessman will always claim that it is the people in his organisation who are the key to its success. Indeed it is difficult to argue anything else. A company consists of money (which can ebb and flow almost with the speed of light), of fixed investments (which by definition are obsolescent from the very moment that they have been made), and a range of products – and hopefully a market position – which are under continual attack from competitors who are trying to produce better and more desirable products for less costs. What a company does have, and handled rightly can maintain, is the commitment, skills and abilities of its people. This is constantly attested to by the statements in company annual reports – I cannot remember the last time I failed to see the chairman’s last sentence paying tribute to his people. Yet despite all these facts our skills at enabling our people to give their best, and continuously beat the best that come against them, are remarkably tenuous. Moreover, this area of activity is seldom subject to the sort of analysis, debate and experimentation so readily devoted to fields such as production or marketing. Even though we are all welded to the concept of continuous improvement, when did you last see an improvement plan for the management of your people? If you have seen one, I would bet long money that the plan referred to reduction of administration costs or overheads, rather than being a plan consciously adopted to enable more of our people to contribute more”.

One of the most over-used definitions you are ever likely to read is from Albert Einstein, “The definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things in the hope that those things will miraculously achieve a different result.”

This means that sales directors and sales managers who are not happy with the results they are achieving must make changes.

Keep doing what you are doing and you’ll keep getting what you have been getting

Organizations that want to permanently increase their sales results, need to approach sales differently, to create “the difference that makes the difference” in order to positively impact bottom line performance.

News: I must tell you about a superb upcoming webinar series from Smart Selling Tools  “How to Market to Win” – you’ll find all the details HERE

Linda Richardson is the founder, chief architect, and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, arguably the most successful global sales training company on the planet.

She is often described as the real ”Queen of Sales” or “the most significant female the sales space has ever known”

Here is an opportunity to listen in on my recent interview with her, during which we discuss issues surrounding most organization’s challenges, when they attempt to implement a consultative sales process.

You can access the recording HERE

For months, we have been discussing the need to produce a Top Sales World newsletter, but we don’t do things by halves around here, so we decided to create a brand new monthly magazine, supplemented with a weekly newsletter for our subscribers (subscription is free by the way!)

This first edition is fairly modest compared to what we hope to produce by the end of the year, but you know, mighty oak trees are produced from humble acorns: I will enjoy witnessing the evolvement, and I hope you will too.

As well as bringing you unique, original and thought-provoking articles from the Top Sales Experts team, it is our intention to provide our readers with up-to-date news, views and gossip from around the sales space, in other words, a real F.I.P experience … Fun, Interesting and Profitable.

The launch of this magazine coincides with our recent Top Sales World makeover, so do take a look… then come and join our LinkedIn group,and rub shoulders with some of the most significant sales minds on the planet … before finally following us over at Twitter.

Please download HERE and Enjoy!

Change is constant, in fact it is the only thing we can absolutely rely on: Change is not something we should fear, but rather it should be something we embrace.

When we fear change, we become submerged in our comfort zone, clinging to what we perceive is safety, but in reality, we risk being left behind; out in the cold; an “also ran”

Those that deny professional selling is changing – and rapidly – will have their own reasons: Some will be myopic, some protectionist, some narrow-minded.

The “thinking class” within the sales space, have taken time to look out and beyond traditional thinking, and their prognosis may well be alarming – if not unpalatable - to the majority.

Let’s be clear, nobody is suggesting that we are witnessing the death of selling. Rather, we are going to experience significant – hugely significant – changes to the way buyers and sellers interact.

If you are remotey interested in how those changes are going to manifest themselves – in my humble opinion – then you may enjoy this recording of my keynote speech at the recent One Source/iSell UK launch. …. but do remember, this is simply one man’s opinion!