theideamechanic » selling

Five Principles of Selling

Doug Foster — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:00:48 +0000

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 ..."

Short Stories that Sell – So what do you do?

Doug Foster — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 05:00:10 +0000

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 …"

Everyone Sells, Even You

Doug Foster — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:00:44 +0000

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. ...

Convince Me!

Doug Foster — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 03:00:51 +0000

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

Five Convincing Principles

Doug Foster — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 12:00:23 +0000

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

We help people sell …

Doug Foster — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 01:08:00 +0000

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.

Advice, Consulting, & Projects

Doug Foster — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 01:39:34 +0000

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 [...]