© Phil Brown 2009
Mar
15
Have been getting mail-bombed by a company called Cardbrowser and it seems like it may be worth a try.
Now I need to declare up front that I have absolutely no connection financial or otherwise to this organization - I am merely impressed by the concept.
If you are trying to sell into the Technology or Telco space, or recruiting in these areas, Cardbrowser has a really unique approach you might like to consider. Read more »
Mar
9
Larry Ellison CEO Oracle Corporation
An excerpt from: Selling Software – inside secrets of the major vendors
Author: Phil Brown
It all began when…
McDonanlds restaurants were looking at purchasing an enterprise solution – financials, human resources and supply chain software and were in a shoot-out between Oracle Corporation and PeopleSoft (prior to the merger).
The evaluation project was assigned to a guy originally from Sydney who worked for McD in Chicago.
Mar
7
I don’t know what it is with some people.
They have a phone on their desks, but think it is a tool for screening out calls. What is going on here?
I can’t tell you how many times I get voice-mail when I know the person I am trying to get is sitting at their desk. I’m a professional sales executive and I’m not stupid, quite often I contact their P.A’s or someone else in their office “by mistake” to make sure they are sitting there before I call.
I’ve even had people say “yes, I saw your number coming up quite a few times” - are you serious!
For goodness sake America, how can you get the very best opportunities to do the best for your company if you won’t answer a phone call. It’s not that difficult.
There are plenty of people offering massive cost savings, improvement in sales revenues, better solutions and processes, and even better people. But you won’t hear any of that because you won’t pick up the bloody phone.
I had one brilliant administrator tell me yesterday that no new contacts or vendors would be put through to any of the management because they had everything they needed for the next 2 years.
There’s only one thing I can be sure of at the moment, and that is that the company concerned won’t be around in 2 years.
For goodness sake, and for the possible benefit of you and your company, give a salesman a break and answer a call now and then - it won’t kill you and at the very least, will be a chance to work on your assertiveness skills.
Bye for now,
Phil
Mar
6
With over 20 years experience selling complex software solutions around the world, including regional sales management roles with Oracle Corporation and PeopleSoft, I thought it was time to share some experiences and thoughts with you. I’m really looking forward to your feedback/comments.
I tried to work it out the other day - I think I have been involved in the sale of approximately USD$200 million worth of software products over the years - some of that as an employee, some of it as a freelance consultant. If you add the value of consulting projects and customer internal resource investment in these sales, it results in well over USD$1billion of corporate investment. I recall one project that was worth just over $400M.
At the other end of the scale, I remember managing a telemarketing sales organization (before the internet had caught on) that had an average product value of $150 that we sold to small businesses around the world.
At the moment we are experiencing one of the worst sales environments I can remember, but there are strategies we can implement to take advantage of the downturn. Over the weeks/months to come I hope to share some of these with you and look for your contributions as well.
