Sunday, October 5, 2014

The Importance of Salesmen to Business

Given an education system taught by instructors who have never spent a day in the business world, and who have advanced only because of their willingness to stay withing a rigid uncreative system that operates within the confines of a severe government influence, there is little understanding of the importance of sales, marketing and the nature of entrepreneurship.

Harvard's Frank Cespedes is an exception. He sat down to talk to Brian Kenny about his new book Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors that Drive Effective Selling and why sales and strategy are so important to business.

4 comments:

  1. Great interview. Informative. Love these sales/business posts and their book recommendations. Will get copy of his book. Enjoyed The King of Oil: The Secret Lives of Marc Rich http://amzn.to/1yGgVeG, thanks to your recommendation, as well as Harry Browne's The Secret of Selling Anything http://amzn.to/1EhXHMM. Excellent! Thank you.

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  2. Bob,
    Cold calling - whether with a phone or door-to-door - is it still worth it? Or are there ways to go about it today?

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  3. This is a good interview, thank you RW.

    As a life long salesman(which didn't end when I bought my business, if anything it demanded more), and a one time sales manager it just reinforced what I already felt intuitively.

    I've seen some big changes in sales in the last 15 years, but still, most of the basics are the same. I'd say the biggest challenges today compared to 15 years ago have to do with voice-mail while cold calling & the lack of secretaries in many facilities when trying to get in the door someplace.

    Networking other ways has become more important as a result(Joining socially related organizations, etc.) and working marketing to get accurate and well qualified leads. (word of mouth has always been critical)

    My personal strength has always been in relationship management, but I've been in large capital equipment industries with long sales cycles where my strength is crucial/helps.

    Sales can be fun or miserable depending on the circumstances of the company you are doing it for(including your own), but it's always mentally challenging and that's one aspect I always enjoy.

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  4. In revenge of what most individuals think, Salesperson Jobs promoting vehicles is not as simple as just displaying somebody an vehicle and getting them to indication on the main point here.

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