From the category archives:

Basic Sales Strategy

The Questions You Should Be Asking

by Bill Caskey on August 5, 2009

How many times have you become aware of a tool that you didn’t know existed–and as soon as you saw it, just had to have it?
There are tons of examples, computers, email, the lightbulb, The Clapper (OK, so maybe you didn’t “have to have” that).  But imagine yourself doing without the first three.
The issue is [...]

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When Should A Sales Person Become A Teacher?

by Bill Caskey on July 21, 2009

ANSWER: When he leaves home in the morning.
Why? You ask.
Simple. In today’s confusing, overwhelming economy, you might be the only one that comes along today to teach your prospect something. And learning is power.
What exactly, can you teach them?

How to use your product/service better (how to make more money, save more time, conserve more energy). [...]

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Sunk Sales Costs Killing You?

by Bill Caskey on May 12, 2009

Are sunk costs sinking you? Seth Godin blogged today about that very topic. I’ll address it to sales people and sales organizations.
Biggest problem is when you have invested hours/weeks/ years in a laboriously long selling cycle and nothing is happening. But rather than pull out, you persevere—thinking that maybe, just maybe, you’ll get lucky.
Pull Out [...]

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[This is the second in a two-part series on selling to the military. Todd Rogers is our guest blogger today. Todd is a recruiter in a fascinating field—science and defense contracting. His thoughts and experience can be of great help to ALL B2B salespeople.]
In the last post,  I focused on how it works when the [...]

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The first of a two part series on selling to the military.
[As part of our Guest Blogger series, Todd Rogers—not the volleyball player—has agreed to contribute. Todd is a recruiter in a fascinating field—science and defense contractors. He shares his observations of how we can all learn from the BIG defense contracts and how they’re [...]

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Find The Pain. Sell The Vision.

by Bill Caskey on February 10, 2009

This whole bail out plan amuses me. The market tumbles today (Tuesday) because MSNBC says, “There weren’t enough details in the plan sold so investors unloaded stocks.”
Which reminds me of “how to sell a concept.”
When you a sell an idea or a concept (bail out package), you actually don’t need a lot of details. What [...]

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What If You Could X-ray Your Results?

by Bill Caskey on December 26, 2008

My daughter, Kara, had an ACL injury this year and is now in recovery phase. She’s come back fine, but the doctor has noticed a spine alignment problem. Partly due to favoring her leg–and partly due to poor posture.
His words: “You might not have any pain right now, but if you do nothing, someday, your [...]

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Are You Demonstrating Value – Or Just Talking About it?

by Bill Caskey on December 16, 2008

Our trainers, Bryan Neale, Brooke Green and I sat in a room last week and talked about 2009. Less ’strategic planning’ and more ‘future of training.’ One thing we concluded is that our selling system might be outdated–along with the hundreds of other sales programs.
Not to the point of trashing it. But to the point [...]

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Sales Training Tip: Use Scenario Learning

by Bill Caskey on December 2, 2008

A few days ago I read an article by Paul Bracken, Professor of Management at Yale in Futurist Magazine. In the article he addressed how learning is changing — and leaders need to be much more flexible and adaptive as we head into tumultuous times.
He maintains that the prime learning tool to be used [...]

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Number One Sales Problem? Take a Guess

by Bill Caskey on November 28, 2008

(This is Part One of a five-part series)
Last week, I had the honor to speak at the National Medical Alliance sales conference in Dallas. My client, Jeff Worrell of Advantage Medical, is one of the founders of the alliance and asked me to talk to their network about some modern selling strategies.
I always start speeches [...]

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