Jonathan Farrington's Blog

To some, networking means simply meeting or calling someone new for what might be a one-off discussion or event. In this limited sense, networking is only a trading relationship in which two parties seek to discover whether they have anything of mutual interest to talk about. They either make some sort of exchange or quickly move on. This makes networking a highly ‘transactional’ subject, much like buying and selling or negotiating with someone.

My view is very different because I believe that networking has a much wider definition. In fact it can be a major social and life skill to be used in both a business/organisational and personal setting.

Network & Relationship Building

The ‘relationship building’ aspect of networking is a long-term commitment to knowing more about yourself and others and what you may be able to do together that you couldn’t do (or couldn’t do as well) alone.

The reality is that anyone can systematically adopt effective networking as an individual strategy. It can play a key part in linking you with a wider range of people who can help you to achieve more – whatever ‘more’ means for you

The Benefits Of Networking

The benefits of effective networking are many. Some of these are:

• It is the most cost effective marketing tool available

• Networking referrals will typically generate 80% more results than a cold call

• 70 – 80% of all jobs are found through networking

• Every person you meet has 200 – 250 people with whom they connect who can potentially assist you

Anyone that you might want to meet or contact in the world, is only five to six people contacts away from you

As if these reasons were not enough, a healthy and active link to a network is a vast resource available to every individual at a low personal cost. It can help you to achieve a range of goals that otherwise might be too hard or out of reach.

A key point to understand is that networking is achieved at low personal cost not no personal cost. I am not suggesting that networking is a quick fix or fad idea that can be easily adopted to make things better for a while. However, it can provide immediate results for those prepared to invest their time and energy.

The Concept Of Networking

Many of the definitions of networking highlighted in the next paragraph may surprise some people, in as much as they suggest that networking is an altruistic activity involving giving and sharing, rather than taking.

In Summary: Networking Definitions

• A power that comes from a spirit of giving and sharing

• A willingness to honour ourselves, our relationship and our connections with the universal flow

• A way of sending out into the system what we have and what we know, and having it return to re-calculate continually through the network

• An organised way of creating links from people we know to people they know for a specific purpose

• Giving, contributing to and supporting others without keeping score

• People caring about people

• Fostering self-help, and the exchange of information; seeking to change society and work life and to share resources

• Ensuring the right to ask a favour without hooks.

Today’s News: Fellow sales blogger Shaun Priest ( www.closerq.com) has a new novel out, and it’s about a sales executive – here is a taster:

“Jack ‘Fitzy’ Fitzpatrick gets the promotion of his career to regional vice president of sales at his publicly traded company as his gambling addiction increases exponentially. Fitzy is trying to win a twenty-eight million dollar healthcare software sale, the biggest of his career.  At the same time, he is putting his career, wife, and son at risk as he battles his gambling addictions of sports betting, craps, blackjack, and proposition bets.  Jack travels back and forth from Boston and Nevada, as he navigates the steps of winning a complex multi-million dollar sale, is in-debt, is being threatened by a big time Boston bookie, and being followed by the FBI.  All while trying to keep his job, not go to jail, avoid physical beatings, and save his marriage.  See if Jack makes the right ‘Decisions’ as he uncovers a company secret.”

For more details or to place your oder, simply click on the banner below

Some of my friends and I have been having some fun over at The Customer Collective this week – Dave Stein describes it all very well here and you can update yourself with the latest comments here

Tomorrow: I am back on my travels again and preparing for a very big week in the UK, let’s hope the weather improves, because Paris is cold, damp and very depressing – so much for “Paris In The Springtime”

Have a great weekend – and do make it back on Monday.

In my opinion, hundreds of millions of pounds world-wide are wasted every year on irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate sales skills development and there are four obvious reasons.

To begin with, the one off programme may supply a short term motivational buzz and provide the delegate with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they are back at the “front-line” the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc take over again and the reactive mindset returns. It is rather like the Chinese meal effect; when you leave the restaurant you feel full, but by the time you arrive home you want to eat again.

Secondly most, not all, but a very high percentage of courses on offer today, deliver what I term “generalised” skills development.

For example, a guy operating within the aerospace sector negotiating multi-million pound contracts can find himself sitting next to a young saleswoman who markets insurance policies and is based in a call centre. On her right is another guy who is developing a successful career in manufacturing, selling hydraulic components and next to him…..I think you will appreciate my point. To achieve sustained success in all of these disparate industries requires specific skills sets and the “generalised” workshops simply cannot deliver them.

Thirdly most, and again I would estimate it is at least 80% of training organisations today, make the assumption that all delegates are at the same level in terms of experience, expertise and have the same “commercial bandwidth”. This is of course, totally unrealistic.

Whilst it is not possible to equate age and experience with success, the reality is that although some professional salespeople do have ten years experience, most have one year’s experience ten times!

The very best salespeople – the ones that consistently exceed expectation, have usually received ongoing skills development from the “emerging” stage all the way through “advanced” right up to “consultative” level, if appropriate but the keyword is “ongoing”

Finally, and this is the most significant and blatant error of judgment most Sales Directors make, is that every member of the team receives the same training, i.e. they are all dispatched off to the same course regardless of whether or not they already have those skills, or if indeed they need to have them in their current role.

The point here is that there is far too little planning, assessing, and objective setting; it is much easier to abdicate responsibility to the training company. The downside to this approach is of course, so much money is wasted. So what is the answer?

This week’s FREE ebook includes a number of articles that I have published on the subject – all based on my experience as both a “delegate” and a “coach” Simply click on the banner below – as usual.

Today’s News: Over the past few weeks, I have pointed you towards Craig Klein’s excellent “Double Your Sales In 2009″ series and now you have the opportunity to download the superb final ebook for FREE – again, just simply click on the banner below – you will not be disappointed.

Finally, I promised to give you an early heads up on THE online sales event of the year:

TES Roundtables kick-off.

On Tuesday April 14th at 1pm Eastern, you can join in a live debate “The Future Of Professional Selling”

The panel will be: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein and me. Chaired by Nigel Edelshain and hosted by Paul Simon.

You will be able to book your place in the next seven days – places will be limited – more details soon.

Tomorrow: Nigel Edelshain of Sales 2.0, will be my guest, and will share his personal reflections on last week’s Sales 2.0 conference – very interesting stuff!!

The Sales Funnel concept has been around for a few years but I took it and tailored it to meet the needs of my own teams very successfully. Essentially, it is designed to assist salespeople in managing their sales time more effectively, subsequently translating that time into real money.

It is also a time-management tool, which will help them to accomplish the following essential selling tasks:
- Collating their numerous sales objectives into three categories or levels of the Sales Funnel.
- Monitoring each sales objectives progress as it moves from one level into the next.
- Setting priorities for working on the objectives in each level of the Funnel to ensure they do not neglect any one of the three.
- Dedicating time to the objectives in each level of the Funnel in a way that is appropriate to their specific situation.
- Forecasting future income, based on how their objectives are moving through the three levels of the Funnel.

Sales Funnel is conceptually divided into three distinct parts, or levels, which correspond to the three different types of selling work.

To enable salespeople to utilise the Funnel concept efficiently they must first sort their sales objectives into these three levels:

Above the Funnel – Prospect & qualify.
In The Funnel – Cover the bases.
Best Few – Close the order.

Above the Funnel:
The pre-requisite is that they have data that suggests a fit between their products & the prospects needs, all of this type of work requires qualifying.

In The Funnel:
The pre-requisite here is that all the opportunities have been qualified and at least one buying influencer has been met. They then need to “cover the bases” i.e. identify all the buying influencers and ensure each one is contacted by the person best qualified to do so.

It is important that the salesperson understands the response mode of each buyer, identifies the results each buyer needs in order “to win” and ensures they understand that the proposal will serve his/her individual criteria.

Finally, at this stage of the cycle, they need to continually reassess the sales picture and eliminate areas of perceived weakness within their bid using the principle of capitalising on their strengths.

Best Few:
Logically, the pre-requisite here is that they have all but eliminated luck & uncertainty as factors in the final buying decision. -this can of course be subjective!

The tasks involved are end-tasks, like overcoming last minute objections, agreeing terms and conditions and signing orders etc.

As sales professionals they must be able to do all three kinds of work, but obviously they will have several possible orders that they are working on at the same time. Since they will all be at different stages of completion, they will not be doing the same kind of work on all of them at the same time.

By following this system they could potentially reduce the normal sales cycle by 50%!

Using Sales Funnel over time, helps to plan time required ahead of time.The eventual objective in utilising the Sales Funnel concept is to be able to move the various sales opportunities down the Funnel at a steady and predictable rate. This in turn will mean that income and achievement level is steady and predictable.

To achieve this, there is a need to work on two interrelated tasks:
- Setting appropriate priorities for the three kinds of selling work which need to be done.
- Allocating limited selling time so that the three kinds of work always get completed on a consistent basis.

The simple rule of thumb is: “Every Time You Close Something; Prospect or Qualify Something Else”

Finally, Let Us Not Forget Good Old Villfredo Pareto And His 80/20 Rule:
The sales that a salesperson completes today were made possible only by activities performed in the past. Equally, it’s what they do today that will create their future sales results. Because there is a time delay between activities and results, salespeople have an opportunity to improve their sales results by undertaking sales productivity planning and implementing an effective prospecting system.

Generally, since 80% of sales are generated from 20% of customers, 80% of salespeople’s time should be focused on 20% of their most important customers/prospects.

Today’s News: Jill Myrick of Meeting To Win, posted an excellent piece yesterday: “The Sales Manager On Auto-Pilot”  I think you will really enjoy it. In fact, you can catch Jill in interview with Maureen Blandford over at TSE Dailies, simply click on the banner below.

The Sales 2.0 Conference has just wound up in San Fransisco and I am wading through a mountain of information that is coming back – two interesting facts, that will affect how we develop our Sales Funnel:

Companies are losing 10% of their sales due to lack of insight into their sales activity and their target market. ~ Gartner Group

Sales cycles are 20 – 30 % longer. ~CSO Insights  

Both Jill Konrath and Nigel Edelshain have been there this week, and I will pass on their thoughts next week.

Tomorrow: Some downtime at last! I am off to Cambridge to meet with No 1 son, and catch up with all his news – and he with mine.

As ever, have a great weekend yourself, and be sure to join me on Monday – JF

The traditional customer call once seemed indispensable to the selling process; the time and expense involved were just a basic cost of doing business. In recent years, however, the business community has come to regard the sales call as an expenditure for which there are substitutes.

For many companies telemarketing and direct email have made the sales call a choice not an inevitability. This is not surprising when various studies suggest that getting one sales person in front of one customer now costs $1500 – this cost has trebled since 1983. As a consequence professional salespeople have to be more effective than ever to justify the investment in a face to face effort.

To help companies meet this challenge, we need to examine how outstanding achievers have adapted to the rigorous demands of current markets.

In essence, we can draw seven primary conclusions and taken together, these findings paint a picture of the current state of the sales environment and you can discover what they are by downloading this week’s FREE eBook - simply click on the banner below.

Today’s News: So, now you can listen in to the “TSE Dailies”

“As you put the key in the ignition of your day, tune in to a power-packed interview with one of our experts – specifically designed for our subscriber community.
 
We know you have a variety of challenges and opportunities. In Sales of course, but also in Management, Teaming, Economic Conditions, and more. We’ll stay on top of issues critical to you.
 
We designed this tool to be an easy add-on to your morning office routine. And, all interviews will be archived, if you miss one or you want to share with your team.”

Yesterday, my Irish friend, Niall Devitt was in the hot seat and you will not want to miss his words of wisdom – it’s a pleasure just listening to the accent! Just click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: My guest is one of the real “big-hitters” when it comes to sales team development – my good friend from Texas, and best selling author, Paul McCord

The buyer-seller situation – like any human contact – is an exercise in human relations: The interplay, cause, and effect of behaviour by two or more people on each other. In the buyer-seller situation, the seller must be responsible for shaping mutual behaviour.

What’s the difference between human nature and human relations?

• Human nature is the instinctive behaviour that governs action concerned with the self and with self-interest.
• Human relations are concerned with how we think and act in terms of other’s interests.

Successful selling demands that human relations be dominant over human nature.

Selling is not something a salesperson does to a prospect. Selling is something you do with the prospect in a process of discovery and interaction – human relations at work.

The greatest barrier to success in this process is the “Egocentric Predicament”. This consists of being overly and unnecessarily concerned with self. Our ability to be perceptive and concerned about others is inversely proportionate to our self-concern.

When self gets unnecessarily in the way, the fruitful cycle of good human relations stops producing.

The key to understanding and accepting others, is to first understand and accept oneself – starting with the realisation that, rather than strive for an unattainable “I should be” image, we should settle for our real self as “I am” – accepting shortcomings along with strengths.

The following points provide a practical answer to the “I am” versus “I should be” conflict.

Recognise it – and recognise that its source is rooted in the views of others. Either (a) accept your “I am” image or (b) decide on attainable, constructive steps to achieve “I should be” in the future.

Our behaviour is a reflection of our attitudes; and our attitudes grow out of our values.

Each is an integral part of the other. Do your life values make it easy for you to put the other person’s interests first?

Sincerity is a much-used word in relation to selling. Integrity is a kindred word. Integrity implies a consistent kind of honesty: acting outwardly the way you truly feel inwardly. That’s why sound values are so important to your success with others.

Remember: “People buy our product not so much because they understand the product… but because they feel that we understand them.”

There are many effective ways of doing this: The best way to create this kind of buying climate is to “transmit on their frequency.” This opens their mind to you…makes them willing – and eager – to listen.

A sincere, specific compliment on a point of real meaning to them gets the other person talking about things of interest to them. It opens doors.

“Before I sell my prospect what my prospect buys, I must first see my prospect as they see themselves.”

In Summary:
Empathy is the magical word in human to human interaction. It means feeling as the other person feels, not just with them. It means putting yourself in their shoes and shaping your attitudes accordingly.

Beyond getting the order, the plus factor in selling is to make people look good in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Rather than sell to them, we help them buy.

We do this best by building their self-image. This helps them grow. And as we help others grow, we grow. To do this, we must be open and honest – this is the essence of good human relations.

These concepts are applicable to every facet of our lives and in selling, they pave the way to the truest and most fruitful success.

Today’s News: You can anticipate that I will be highlighting one of the most significant sales events of the year frequently, and we start today:

My friend, colleague and fellow  Colleen Francis, “One of the Top 5 Sales Trainers in the Market Today” – Sales and Marketing Magazine, is hosting/presenting:

Engage Selling Powerhouse Sales Event
27-28 April 2009

You will find all the details here

- I suggest that early registration is advisable: This is an example of what last year’s delegates said:

“The Powerhouse Sales Event was awesome! The day was full of excellent presenters with powerful information!”
Lorraine Gignac, Adecco Employment Services 

Finally, today:

You will not want to miss this week’s top article, over at

Tomorrow: Everyone – literally everyone, is talking about Sales 2.0, and many of them haven’t quite got it. My guest tomorrow most certainly has – he may have invented it. Join Nigel Edelshain on The JF Guest Author Spot 

On Monday, I suggested that far too many front-line sales professionals are adopting a “Quixotic” approach to opportunity assessment, as the need to hit targets and put runs on the board, intensifies.

But you know, with selling time becoming limited; International barriers coming down; competition intensifying; product uniqueness becoming rarer and rarer, rigorous qualification has never been more critical.

Personally, I believe that the first exploratory meeting is the key element in the entire sales process.

Typically the meeting will have been arranged after qualification via the telephone and a decision made by both parties that it would be mutually beneficial to meet.

It is the exploratory meeting that will allow the professional salesperson to set the ground rules and get a ‘feel’ for the client and their needs. As this is normally the first meeting it is also where the potential client will get his first impression of you, therefore the way you look, act and conduct the meeting will have a direct bearing on whether or not you are able to proceed to the next stage. Finally, the objective of the meeting is to gain commitment to the next stage and NOT to try and get the order.

What is the essential information that must be gathered? Read on here

Today’s News: My friend and fellow sales blogger, Dave Stein, posted an interview with Jill Myrick of Meeting To Win - a company who we now have close ties with. You can listen in here, and also grab an excellent FREE download

Hot news off the press – early in March, I will be launching a brand new daily blog, which will be of particular interest to sales managers, Sales Directors, sales leaders, VP Sales - in fact anyone who has responsibility for leading sales professionals: I promised that Sales Leadership Zone  would make a comeback – and it is. More soon.

Tomorrow: I have a book(s) proposal to write, so I am going to be fully occupied. As ever, wherever you are, have a great weekend and be sure to make it back on Monday – JF

In bringing together this collection of articles that I have published on the art of presentation skills and public speaking, my primary objective is to share with you some of the secrets I have learned over the years.

I don’t believe that anyone is a “natural” presenter or orator. Yes, certainly some people are naturally gifted communicators with an outgoing and attractive personality; some people have an extensive vocabulary; others know their subject inside out. But all of these will not necessarily guarantee that you can deliver a professional and compelling presentation.

This small book will hopefully guide you through each stage of a professional presentation, from understanding what audiences want, preparing your presentation, the delivery stage (including structure, verbal and physical delivery plus the question and answer session) and finally how to handle and harness anxiety.

I hope you enjoy it! – Just simply click on the banner below to download it.

Today’s News: It is all happening over at Top Sales Experts, following the launch of TSE 2.0:

The shelves are getting stacked – more than 2000 articles in the Article Vault, “How To” guides, Jobs Board, Podcasts…….and so much more. For example, we have just launched the TSE Daily Interviews, which this week have already featured Wendy Weiss and Billy Cox.

Very soon, we will be launching TSE Webinars, presented by an all-star line-up of sales gurus, and do look out for the very first TSE Roundtable.

You can enjoy all of this and more for the miserly price of $25 per year – and we give you a free gift pack worth $2000. It really is a “no brainer opportunity” to join the most significant sales related site ever created.

What are you waiting for? Come and join us today

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, one of the most accomplished and talented sales experts in Europe – my good friend and colleague, Niall Devitt. “Guidelines For Men Who Sell To Women” - you will most definitely enjoy it.

Don Quijote by Honoré Daumier (1868)

Emerging salespeople typically believe that all business is good business, and to an extent, I can understand this viewpoint. If you are trying to make a name for yourself, being put under pressure by your sales manager to get “runs on the board” and earn the respect of the more experienced and successful members of the team, it is difficult to walk away from any opportunity if you believe you have the remotest chance of winning it.

However, it is essential that more seasoned professionals fully understand both the value and importance of rigorous objective qualification, not just at the front end but right the way through the sales cycle -especially now. 

Qualification is a process not a single event and even internal and reactive salespeople should be fully skilled in asking a small number of basic questions regarding precise requirements, time scales, budget, competition etc, before they are prepared to reveal their price and delivery.

As the value of the product, service or solution increases, the depth of the qualification should increase proportionally.

External salespeople have the opportunity to meet with prospective customers and it is far easier to extract information face to face than it is via the telephone, however, it is vital that some initial answers are elicited prior the that first exploratory meeting, in order to ensure that the meeting will be worthwhile for both parties.

With sales costs spiralling upwards and sales time becoming limited, prudence is required on the part of the salesperson.

During that first meeting, a considerable amount of detail can and should be uncovered e.g. background and history of the company, the key individuals, the composition of the DMU (Decision Making Unit) if there is one, timescales, budget, competition, current suppliers, buying criteria etc.

Only by rigorous questioning will the salesperson be able to answer the following questions when they get back to the office: Is there a requirement/need that my company can satisfy? Is it winnable? Do I want it?

The very best sales professionals will not pursue the opportunity, after proper objective analysis, if the answer to any of those questions is “No”. They will rather invest their precious selling time seeking out and closing opportunities that will provide a profitable return on that investment.

At the very highest selling levels i.e. strategic “big-ticket” selling and marketing, clearly, the sales cycle is much more protracted, complex and typically moves through four stages i.e.

- Rigorous oportunity assessment
- Develop a strategy
- Present the solution and re-assess the opportunity
- Gain formal commitment, sign the order and develop

In Summary:
Having a tilt at every windmill that presents itself, is neither practical nor profitable – it wasn’t for Don Quixote and it will not be for you. Qualification, is a core competency that every professional salesperson should take on board as quickly as possible.

Working to the maxim that “All business is good business” is unrealistic and totally erroneous. It takes just as long to work an unprofitable opportunity through the pipeline only to lose it at the death, as it does a profitable one – the ability to determine which is which, can have a huge impact on your ultimate success in a front-line sales role.
 

Today’s News: It’s Monday, so you know that I am going to remind you that there is a brand new set of nominated articles over at Top 10 Sales Articles - just click on the banner below to enjoy them all.

Tomorrow: Fellow    Steve Martinez, is on The JF Guest Author Spot – not to be missed - “The Sales Hunter and the Deer Hunter“

During the seventies, eighties and nineties, it was common for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Compaq etc to put their new sales recruits through a twelve to eighteen-month training program.

Today, salespeople consider themselves extremely fortunate if they receive an initial two weeks of induction training or product familiarisation workshops.

So what has changed? Have companies discovered that training is not necessary?

On the contrary, training appears to be even more important today than it was thirty years ago and it is becoming more critical all the time.

Lower Training Budgets But Higher Expectations:

The dichotomy facing Sales Directors is how they reconcile the fact that most corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This should not come as a surprise, because current stock market thinking provides a powerful disincentive for firms to invest in their people on an ongoing basis. An organisation’s investment in their human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education, is not separable from general expenditure. It therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Tough Choices:

Unfortunately, as a consequence, many Sales Directors have concluded that their only realistic option is to cut back on training and instead look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. They then send them out to win business armed with what they know. However, most of those same Sales Directors are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. And anyway it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success. As I often say: “Some sales professionals have ten year’s experience, most have one year’s experience ten times”

In skills development, there are many similarities to sport i.e. does an athletic champion stop training as soon as they win their first medal? In music, does a concert pianist stop rehearsing as soon as they have given their first recital? In art, does the artist stop improving after they have enjoyed the first exhibition of their work? The answer in all cases is obvious and we should apply the same common sense principals to the ongoing development of our sales teams.

The reality is that selling in today’s climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before, skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

In Summary – Ongoing Reinforcement and Development Is Essential:

The operative word here is “ongoing”. Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there’s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with i.e. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans. Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment which arrived with the new millennium must, in my view, respond to those realities.

Today’s News: I am delighted to confirm that Top Sales Experts have formed an alliance with a dynamic  new company called Meeting To Win, who have a very innovative solution:

“Sales Managers, have your Monday morning sales team meetings gotten boring and routine?

It’s a challenge to come up with new ideas every week to keep meetings interesting, motivating and productive. Wise managers are outsourcing this challenge to Meeting to Win.

You can take meeting preparation off of your to-do list for good! All you have to do is add Meeting to Win to your team. Each and every week a new, fresh, creative team meeting agenda will be sent to your inbox. You simply follow the agenda for weekly sales team meetings that your team will love and actually look forward to.

Our goal is that each week your sales team leaves your weekly sales team meeting better equipped to compete and win.

Subscribe today and your first 3 agendas are complimentary. Once Sales Managers are using this resource, they don’t know how they ever lived without it and, even so, you can cancel at anytime.”

Just click on the banner below to find out more about them

Tomorrow: We still have a lot of cosmetic work to complete on TSE 2.0, so I will be very busy, but wherever you are, have a great w/e, and be sure to join me on Monday – JF

Most companies are looking for ways to manage their most important business relationships more effectively and more efficiently. It is not easy to do and it is not always enjoyable to do, but when a key account works well, it is extremely satisfying.

Key Account Management is a broad subject and this eBook is designed to help make the management of key accounts:

★ Easier
★ More Enjoyable
★ More Effective

Starting Point:
There are many definitions of key account management, but our favourite – and one we have used throughout our work – is from The Financial Times:

“The art of developing long-term relationships with selected customers”

It is simple, clear and it shows us what is important.

Simply click on the banner to download my FREE ebook.

Today’s News: Craig Klein over at SalesNexus has released Part 3 of his excellent series – “Double Your Sales”

“Your paying expense bills for lunches, meetings, flights and hotel rooms. Its the cost of doing business right?

How many of the clients you’re spending all that time and money on are buying anything? Not enough right?

Your artillery is firing at any target they can find. There is no other way is there? Yes there is!”

You can download it here

What an amazing launch yesterday – we had some gremlins during the first two hours, but the team sorted them, thank goodness.

If you have not signed up for this amazing no-brainer offer yet, you should do so right away – just click on the banner below.

Tomorrow: I am delighted to welcome Nancy Bleeke onto The JF Guest Author Spot