by Doug Foster on April 5, 2011
Chuck Robbins is the Senior Vice President for U.S. Enterprise, Commercial and Canada with Cisco Systems in San Jose, California.
“As a senior executive at Cisco, every quarter I’m responsible for making sure my North American team closes thousands of sales, generates hundred-million-dollar revenues, and guarantees every customer we come in contact with is a satisfied customer. To do that, I lead a team of sales partners and sales professionals that numbers into the thousands.
What I’ve found is that the same sales skills my former colleague Doug Foster and I have used for years are just as effective now that I’m leading a team.
Here are my five principles for effective selling …”
Categories: CM! by Doug Foster on April 3, 2011
Sometimes you can tell what a person does by looking at them. Most of the time you can’t.
I met a fellow the other month at a networking event. “So what do you do?” he asked. I replied simply “I help people sell.” He was stunned. He looked at me, smiled, and said “Wow, that’s simple. I wish I could tell people what I did so quickly.”
“Thanks.” I said. “Why, what do you do?” With that he rolled in to a several minute description of his job and his business. In the end I had to paraphrase it back to him: “So you’re a … and you … ?” “Yes.” he responded. Then he looked at me and said “You know, maybe you could help me work on that a bit …”
Categories: Tell by Doug Foster on March 30, 2011
You say you’re not a sales person? I disagree. Every person on Earth – 6.7 billion of us – sells something every day.
Selling is about influencing an outcome. Selling is not just business, it’s an essential life skill. You may conciously sell a product, service, or point-of-view. Or you may unconsciously sell you: who you are and what you can do.
Try to avoid it, but you can’t … you WILL sell something in the next 24 hours. …
Categories: CM!, Getting started by Doug Foster on March 29, 2011
I’m going to help you understand a way to sell that is simple and easy to remember. It’s based on plain old common sense … and it works.
Here are five things about CM! you need to know:
1. A SMART buyer is your best seller
2. Selling is a four phase cycle
3. Convince Me! – the five step process
4. Someday I’m gonna write a book about this …
5. Keep on learning
Categories: CM!, Getting started by Doug Foster on March 13, 2011
If you’ve read my two previous posts — Everyone Sells and Convince Me! — you should be starting to get a good feel for what I’m talking about. I’ve helped you realize that you do sell and given you a few ideas to change how you sell.
To begin re-building HOW you sell your product, service, or point-of-view, there’s no better place to start than YOU. You are the foundation. You can have the best materials, the right tools, and strong skills, but to become a master craftsman you need to live and breath these principles.
These are the five principles of convincing: 1. Empathy, 2. Trust, 3. Logic, 4. Emotion, 5. Truth
Categories: Getting started, IM by Doug Foster on March 1, 2011
Every person on Earth — almost 7 billion of us — sells something every day. It may be a product, service, or a point-of-view.
Everyone sells, even you. The problem is most people don’t know how to sell.
We can help.
by Doug Foster on February 27, 2011
Remember a day when personalized service meant something? Texaco used to have a slogan “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.” That may have been over half-decade ago, but the Idea Mechanics still believe in full service help. Do you need a strategy for educating and convincing your buyers? Have [...]
Categories: IM, Services 
