Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

Dan Pink, Author of To Sell is Human, has been getting a lot of well deserved exposure.  He wrote a terrific book and most who have read it really like it.  I don't have a problem with his book because read in its entirety, it makes sense.  I do have an issue with the people who write about his book and take the concept, that everyone can sell, out of context.  The context is that everyone can sell their ideas.  Agreed.  But out of context, it is suggested that everyone can be a salesperson.  I strongly disagree.

Forget for a moment all of the data from Objective Management Group showing that 74% of all professional salespeople suck.  When we take the concept from selling an idea (at home, at church, in the neighborhood or internally to coworkers) to professional selling 10 things change:

“Proof of the Pudding” is No Longer in Just Eating It

Photo: Jarle Vines (Creative Commons
Attribution Sharealike 3.0)

I barely even made it to the pudding—or the dessert bar—at l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges after a four hour dinner! I have to share this story. It is not a visit to a fancy restaurant type of story but instead about a culinary experience that goes beyond imagination. On my recent trip to Paris, I took a detour to Lyon to visit one of the few select Michelin three-star rated luxury restaurants in France. The owner is a living legend whose very name is revered. So much so that my taxi driver was offended when I asked to be driven to “Chef Bocuse’s place”. He insisted I speak with respect (reverence?) and refer to him only as “Monsieur Chef Paul Bocuse”. My curiosity and excitement went up higher.

If you're like everyone else these days, you're overwhelmed with way too much to do and not nearly enough time to get it done. One of our biggest problems though is something we can control.

Being online much of the day isn't good for us. We bounce from task to task. We take emails when they come in. We make calls, visit websites, read articles, and do email again. And, sometimes we even get sucked into doing other things -- perhaps like even watching this video right now.

If you want to increase sales productivity and get much more done, here are a couple strategies to improve time management skills:

New GI Insight Customer Intimacy Index also reveals that firms in many industries are bonding well with the young but most are failing to connect with older consumers.

Supermarkets are doing a better job of communicating with their customers in a meaningful way than other businesses, with consumers rating them well above firms in all other industry sectors, according to the new Customer Intimacy Index produced by database marketing specialist GI Insight. The Index also indicates that companies in some predominantly retail sectors are, surprisingly, struggling to connect with customers – revealing that clothing and home furnishings/DIY brands need to do a much better job of creating personalised, well-timed and relevant communications, particularly for older consumers.

The 2013 GI Insight Customer Intimacy Index, compiled from a survey of over 1,000 UK consumers, scores a range of sectors according to the level of knowledge of the individual that companies in those industries demonstrate in their customer communications. Consumers representative of the UK by age, gender, region and social class were asked to rate ‘your supermarket’, ‘your bank’ and other types of business – with scores representing levels of familiarity ranging from ‘knows me like a close friend’ to ‘treats me like a total stranger’. The overall average was set at 100.