SalesGiants interviews Matt Geier from The Sales Corner

1)    Hi Matt, thanks for the interview. In a short sentence, what companies should be interested in The Sales Corner's services? 

We especially appeal to Home Based Businesses to Small Medium sized ones. This is partly due to the fact that we encourage having personal interactions with the people making decisions in their business.

2) On the other hand, who shouldn’t? What will companies NOT find in The Sales Corner?

To be honest, there's not a company I would feel comfortable with saying we cannot help in some way. In the world today, whether you are a sole owner, or a corporate president, there's usually something that The Sales Corner can offer you. It's just a matter of identifying what that something is. 

3) Besides your websites (http://www.thesalescorner.us/), what other sales websites would you recommend? 

I would have a few for this question to give your readers a good idea of what kind of people we work with. These are all websites that we have a direct interaction with at some level of The Sales Corner. We personally endorse them!

• http://www.drewstevensconsulting.com 

Recently nominated as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management, Drew Stevens works with senior officers (CEO’s, Presidents) and Sales Directors who struggle with their sales teams to meet organizational goals and acquire new clients. Drew helps them to create relationships with economic buyers so that sales people close sales quickly and gain more revenue. He is a frequently requested keynote speaker and the author of seven books. He conducts over 40 international keynotes, Seminars and Workshops per year. Dr. Drew is the founder of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling.

• http://processspecialist.com/increasesales/

As Chief Results Officer for her 10 year old international executive coaching and consulting, Leanne Hoagland-Smith is not the typical coach or consultant. She holds a Masters in Science from Purdue University, she's the author of over 1,600 articles, a weekly business columnist for Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana, regular contributor to NBiz Magazine as well as to other regional business journals and the author of Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits,  and believes in a no nonsense approach.

• http://www.intromojo.com/

Part of being at The Sales Corner, means taking advantage of opportunities to tell people of "new school" tools that are hitting the market of Sales. 
This is a place to be! I recently wrote a review on them here - http://www.thesalescorner.us/blog/2010/10/13/intromojo-review/ - I would highly recommend anyone trying to be proactive to utilize tools like Intro Mojo and find a way to integrate them into their sales processes! Tools like this take a place in "new school" sales roles! It's very awesome! 

4) How about your preferred sales/business books?

This is a hard one for me. Most people I know have read several books in this kind of category. I find myself at a loss. As I was growing up, holding my attention in a book was hard. I could attribute this to several things that seemingly came into the way of staying focused on the words in front of me. Occasionally I read a book, but I never make it through for one reason or another. Instead I find myself reading White Papers about technologies, Press Releases and taking time to learn that way, through what's being done and available as knowledge I can gain to come up with new ways to sell, or think, or position a product solution set. I spend most of my time developing relationship which result in a higher sell rate for myself, or result in a new opportunity months from when I started talking to someone, or learning something new. I'm a huge fan of Trigger Selling, and selling on the idea that I have something someone wants. I would recommend Dale Carnegie books, programs, and associated literature!

5) How did you get started in sales?

Officially I got started when I worked at Silicon Graphics as an Inside Sales Support person. All I did at first was take calls and send documents, routing customers to "The Sales Rep." Prior to that, I worked many years in Customer Services. I also did some bit of technical support and aspired to be a Hardware Engineer. Only with time, and going through a series of layoffs, ups and downs in the Technology Industry, I found a role in Sales which has definitely carried my into the sales career I am in today. I'm a firm believer and practitioner that "Sales" is in the center of every business. After all, opportunities closing, keeps the lights on and the product reputations going!

6) Most memorable sale? 

Every sales opportunity has been different in some way or another for me. The people make the opportunity memorable. I've worked with a lot of people over the years in my sales role. Sometimes some of the most important sales opportunities that I have uncovered are not due to the direct prospecting but simply being in good connection with my clients, customers, and their needs. I like to stay in touch with people, and I'll use anything I can in my arsenal to draw a conversation. Conversations open the doors! 

7) Most disastrous sale (or funny situation)?

I'm pretty optimistic. I've found that lost sales in my territories were due to changes in an organization or something that was not under my control, such as "projects put on hold" or people changing the way they want to work. I think everyone has, at some point has that "big one" that could have worked out and didn't. People like myself just like to ride the waves as far as they can go. Sometimes they don't go as far as you think. Most of the time though, they do, and often sales will close.... you just have to give them time, and make sure you've put all the information in front of the buyers that you can. The rest is up to them to make an informed decision! 

8) What is the biggest mistake you see as a sales expert? 

Management that do not take their sales teams seriously. I see a lot of management that don't spend money training their teams or crossing the borders in an organization to allow their sales people to better understand the products, application uses, etc. They would rather put a set of numbers and expectations in front of their sales reps, and expect them to achieve. Rather than learn how each of their sales reps would utilize their training to sell, or establish processes to make their selling effectiveness better and more worthwhile for the company.

Also being “unproactive” is also very common. I'm referring to the sales methods where you sit and wait for the phone to ring, or you wait for the fax to go off, and then respond. As a sales person, I've always been very proactive, at just about everything I can. When you're selling, you need to communicate....about everything you can, which ultimately gives you the best handle on the sales opportunities and puts you in place to sell effectively.

9) What is the best sales advice you have ever received?

I work well with all kinds of people. One of the most important things that I've learned is that in every sales method, there's a "curve." Most of the time I think people will get to the top of their curve, and start to go down. The best advice I've had is to always find a way to remain at the top of that "curve" which ultimately means being able to stay ahead of "the sales game" and always being at your best, in whatever you can.

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To know more about Matt Geier and The Sales Corner, please visit: http://www.thesalescorner.us

SalesGiants interviews Adrian Priddle, from Growing Clients

Adrian Priddle,
Growing Clients

1) Adrian, let's begin by talking about Growing Clients. What is exactly that you stand for?
Growing Clients is all about helping professionals build more productive relationships with their clients.  Whether that leads to greater efficiency, improved service, new business or all of those things, the aim is to recognize the fundamental importance of the person to person relationship within the professional service business.  I started the business with my colleague, Jamie Rowland, after we had worked together on a number of projects and found we shared the same beliefs around how a client relationship should feel and what both parties should be getting out of it.
 

2) In your experience, why do companies usually perform poorly when growing clients? Why do you think that happens and what are the consequences?  

The main reason appears to be that the firms forget to focus on the client. They stop hearing the client’s needs and agendas and begin to concentrate only on what their own professionals think is important.  The impacts of this can be numerous, but most importantly the client feels that they are not the most important person in the relationship. They feel they have not been listened too, valued or understood.
 

3) In a short sentence, who could benefit from your expertise? What kind of companies do you help?  

We mainly work with professionals in finance, law and property.  If you run a business that provides a service to a client then we think we can help.
 

4) On the other hand, who shouldn’t? What kind of problems are outside your area of expertise?  

 We don’t provide technical training on accounting or the law, our expertise is around the service, winning the business subsequent client care.
 

5) Let's say that a sales manager is dissatisfied with the results he/she is getting from his/her salespeople. What's the first thing you would advise a manager to do if he/she wanted to turnaround his/her sales team?  

As with a lot of team performance issues the answer could lie in a number of areas. We’d probably start with understanding what the challenge was that the team was facing, so for example, was the sales approach being adopted the right medium for communication and whether this matched the decision making of the buyers for the service.  Other potential areas would be to benchmark the performance of each team member and consider whether the set up of the team was getting the most out of each individual.  The performance management of the individuals would also need to be considered, so how are the team members measured and what skills does the sales manager have in coaching and developing that team. Sometimes the issue is not the team but its leadership and development.

6) What do you think of online training/e-learning for salespeople? Is it being used correctly in your opinion?
Online learning has lots of advantages, particularly in areas of knowledge acquisition (such as firms services or expert theories).  Clearly it can be delivered at a time that suits each individual’s diary and life, and also allows the salesperson to spend as little or as long as they like on particular subjects.  Where it has been used correctly it is generally part of a package of interventions to help people develop, for example linked into a classroom experience to practice the rapport skills elements or to assess personal impact.  The biggest obstacles appear to be the lack of a plan as to how the learning would be used by salespeople and a limited IT infrastructure that reduces the creativity of what can be delivered.
 

7) How about classroom training? What advice would you give a sales manager trying to be more effective regarding training his/her sales team?  

As a deliverer of classroom training I believe it is the experiential element that classroom’s can offer that produces the best feedback and learning for a sales person.  The area of client relationships contains so many variables which can change the judgment of the sales person and the client that the opportunity to discuss and then practice these is important to achieve real improvements.

The key piece of advice would be take the time to make the right choices.  So many training courses booked in haste and without consultation or advice, fail to deliver because they are not aimed at the need.

Look carefully at what it is you want to achieve, as targets, as behaviors and as attitudes, before making any decisions about the training you will use.  Often the larger programs, sometime even residential, are not the right answer because not everyone responds well to large amounts of learning in one go, they can also prove costly and poorly attended as people pull out nearer the event.  Consider whether an approach with modules, some classroom, some online would meet the need more effectively and also make better use of your resources.

When determining the needs you and your team have think about the impact of leadership and teamwork within your team and the mix or personality types you have.  It may be that a better understanding of each other and your client base will improve the results of sales activity without changing the activity itself.

About your preferences:
8) Besides your own website (www.growingclients.com), what other sales websites would you recommend? 
 I find many networking forums very helpful, so I tend to use LinkedIn and Twitter a lot, as well as more specific networks such as the Professional Marketing Forum at www.pmforumglobal.com .

 In terms of blogs to read I use a number of blogs including Seth Godin (www.sethgodin.com).

9) What are your preferred sales/business books?  

 - Managing the Professional Services Firm and Trusted Adviser  by David Maister
 - Trust Based Selling by Charles Green
 - Selling to Win by Richard Denny

   

About you:  

10) How did you get started in sales?  

My previous career was as an auditor with a Big 4 accounting practice, so from an early stage of management part of the measurement was about your client relationship building activity leading through to new business development.  I always enjoyed meeting new people and clients so I found that part very attractive as well as highly motivating.  I got involved in some proposals for new work but always felt quite limited in what I could say and the degree to which someone at my level became involved in the business.

When I left to work free-lance in training then sales became part of the way of life, if you don’t sell yourself you won’t have any work to do or money coming in.  To be able to take the time to really get to know people in a business, their needs as well as the business needs provides me with the diversity which I find motivating and the challenge which I find inspiring.

11) Most memorable sale? 
Winning client development work for an accountancy firm in the UK.  This involved interviewing clients of the firm to get their feedback and to then report this to the partners at the firm in order to develop an action plan going forward.  It was exactly the sort of work I like to do and with a team of people I have stayed in contact with as working with them has been a pleasure.  The work has ranged from the very tough assignments, where clients are unhappy through to the glowing reports of some clients who couldn’t be happier. The first are often where the greatest reward and pleasure lies, because here we can make a real difference to the service the client is receiving and therefore their business, as well as potentially saving our clients from losing long and well-earned client relationships.
 

12) Most disastrous sale (or funny situation)?  

Answering questions in a proposal and watching every member of the team have a go it, and slowly realizing we’d missed the point entirely.  The impact on the client was to disconnect from us, we looked like we didn’t understand and we looked like we hadn’t listened.  I remember stopping the conversation and saying, “Did that answer your question?” and being met with a very awkward “Not really, but please move on.” Painful.  Ever since I’ve taken the time to ensure I understand questions before I answer them in proposals and meetings, much prefer to be seen to be repeating something rather than my earlier experience.
 

About your work as a sales expert:
11) What is the biggest mistake you see as a sales expert?   

The biggest mistake I see is where people believe that by saying more, or using impressive words, they think they can impress the client.  The saying I have used often is “Be Interested, not just interesting”, and too often we do the opposite.  Sure people want to know what we have to say, but clients prefer to spend more time talking about their business to make sure we really understand it.

The second biggest is to forget their existing clients in pursuit of new work, there is a lot of research to demonstrate that most new business comes from existing clients, not brand new ones.  Build great relationships with your clients and make sure you know what you can do for them, otherwise you are missing out to your competitors by making opportunities for them.

12) What is the best sales advice you have ever received?
Be interested, not just interesting.  Ask questions, listen to the answers and clients will tell you what they need.

13) What advice would you give to someone just starting out in sales?
 “No” is not a scary answer, it maybe “not now” or “not in that form”.  Don’t be afraid to ask for work or to offer help or something that might be useful.  If you get “no” when you’re being proactive, they’re much more likely to speak to you when they do have a problem.

14) What are you working on right now that makes you feel energized? What's your next big project?  

Social networking workshop to help new professionals integrate their current knowledge and use of social networking into their business networks.  I love this because we continue to look at how the world around us is changing business while some fundamentals remain true.  We deal with people in professional services, so we will always need strong networks and relationship building skills.
 

15) Any additional comments?  

Do everything you can to understand the business and the world from your client’s view, what’s it actually like to be them, performing their role and the day to day stuff they do.  By really standing in their shoes you can begin a really worthwhile relationship in which you can collaborate and build a win win scenario.

***

To know more about Adrian Priddle, from Growing Clients, please visit www.growingclients.com. Twitter: @Growing_Clients

SalesGiants interviews Paul McCord, author of Bust Your Slump

Paul McCord,
author of Bust Your Slump

Best-selling author, speaker, and leading authority on lead generation and personal marketing, Paul has been training, coaching and mentoring salespeople for over 20 years and managing and consulting with companies for over 15 years.

1) Paul, let's begin by talking about your book, Bust Your Slump. What's the idea behind the book? Why did you write it?

The economy has really played havoc on a great many seller’s pipelines.  Over the past couple of years we’ve seen a tremendous number of people have to leave selling and many more are limping along, just barely hanging on.

I’ve investigated thousands of sellers in slumps and have found they all have many things in common such as the obvious decrease in activity and negative mental attitude, but also that they lose faith in the prospecting methods they have used in the past and that most do not have a solid, proven sales process.

I wrote Bust Your Slump to address these issues, but in particular to present a number of very successful and proven strategies that will increase sales very quickly.  None of the dozen strategies are new or revolutionary.  In fact, they all have a long history of great success.   You could say that the strategies are going back to the basics. 

These strategies include things such as generating referrals, networking, cold calling, mining one’s client base, working orphan files, and the like.  The difference is that instead of just asking for referrals, the book presents a very detailed strategy how a seller can get 30, 40, maybe even 50 high quality referrals to prospects the seller knows they want to get referred to in a very short period of time—within a month.  Another strategy details the single most enjoyable prospecting method there is and how to use that method to generate a pipeline full of business in month.

They key to using the book is to understand that the strategies presented are short-term strategies.  They are by their very nature limited in how long they can work.  For instance, one of the strategies concerns mining the orphan files that might be in the file cabinets in your office.  There is a huge amount of untapped business in orphan files.  The problem is how long will orphan files last?  If you’re in a very large office that has been established for years, you might be able to generate a great deal of business consistently for months, maybe even a year.  But what happens after the orphans run out?

While you’re getting your pipeline and bank account pumped up with these short-term strategies, you also have to be learning and instituting the long-term strategies that will keep you from sliding back into the slump once you’ve milked the short-strategies.

2) In a short sentence, who should read your book? What kind of advice should they be looking for?

The book is aimed at sellers--whether salespeople, professionals, or business owners—who are hurting for business and need to pump up their business quickly, and sales managers who have sellers in a slump.  The book lays out the four steps they must take to bust their slump—realign their thinking, find new prospecting strategies that they can enthusiastically put into practice, increase their activity, and learn new long-term strategies. 

The book concentrates on second step—those strategies they can institute that will quickly increase their sales, and give direction where to find help in realigning their thinking and learning the long-term strategies they must acquire to prevent sliding back into a slump.

3) On the other hand, who shouldn’t? What will readers NOT find in your book?

The book does not present nor does it pretend to present long-term business development strategies. The book is designed to do one thing—help you bust out of your sales slump, period.

4) What's the first thing someone should do after reading your book?

The book is an easy, quick read.  A reader should read all 12 strategies, then pick the one or two, three at the very most, strategies that best fit their market and personality and get to work. This is an action book. No theory. No what if’s. Action.  Not all of the strategies will be appropriate for any one reader.  There are strategies that work B2B, others B2C.  Some work for commodity type situations, others for more sophisticated, relationship driven environments.

 

About your preferences:

5) Besides your own website ( http://www.dynamicsalesgrowth.com), what other sales websites would you recommend? 

This is tough simply because there are so many really fine websites and blogs.  But let me give a few that have a broad range of expert contributions:

• www.focus.com
• www.eyesonsales.com
• www.salesopedia.com
• www.topsalesworld.com
• www.thecustomercollective.com
• www.allbusiness.com

6) What are your preferred sales/business books?

Again, very tough.  I’ll give just a few:

• Selling to Big Companies by Jill Konrath
• The Accidental Salesperson by Chris Lytle
• Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen
• Mastering the World of Selling by Eric Taylor
• SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham
• Question Based Selling by Thomas Freese
• Selling to VITO by Anthony Parinello
• Customer Centric Selling by Michael Bosworth

                             

    

                             

   

           

About you:

7) How did you get started in sales?

I was working on a doctorate in philosophy when I came to the realization that all the fuss, all the arguing, all the “research” was nothing but BS.  Nothing was ever going to get done.  Theory was great fun to argue but ultimately it meant nothing.

I decided I wanted to contribute something of intrinsic value, not sit in the clouds looking down upon great unwashed.  Heck, I wanted to be one of the unwashed.

I left the university and started looking for job.  The offer was to sell cabinets and millwork to builders and general contractors.  I knew nothing about selling but liked the idea—and hey, it came with a salary and company car to boot.

I’ve been in sales ever since.  I moved from millwork to financial services.  Discovered that commissioned sales was far more lucrative than salaried sales.  Eventually realized I couldn’t rely on the company I was working for to provide for my training and education.

Over the past 30 years I’ve learned a great deal—and yet have so much more to learn myself.  Sales, I believe, really is the cutting edge of business.  We pretty much see everything first and we’re the ones who really have to figure out how to overcome the market changes, the increased competition, the increasing sophistication of prospects.

8) Most memorable sale? 

Actually my most memorable sale took place with my first sales job. Again, I sold cabinets and millwork to builders.  I had worked diligently to sell the cabinets and all of the millwork for a large, almost 300 unit apartment complex in Dallas.
           
When it came time to negotiate the contract, since I was pretty new, the VP of Finance went with me.  He got stuck on a relatively minor point and the deal fell through. I was furious, but decided I’d continue to build my relationship with the builder.

About a quarter ways through the project the builder was fed up with company who they had signed a contract with after mine fell through.  I sat down with the builder once more and worked out a deal for us to pick up the project and finish it. I was very gratified to have regained a contract I had lost and especially to have successfully negotiated a contract that had been lost by our VP of Finance.

That one experience taught me the power of relationships—and that you never know what might happen even after you’ve lost the deal.

9) Most disastrous sale (or funny situation)?

The most disastrous—and one of the funniest--was when I was wholesaling investments to NASD broker-dealer firms.  There are two sales you have to make when you wholesale investments—the first is to the firm, but the real sale is to the financial advisors to get them to use the product with their clients. 

I was in New York meeting with a pair of Senior VP’s for one of the major wirehouses and had taken them to lunch.  After lunch we were to have a half day introductory session with their major producers.  They had brought in several dozen big producers for the day and had set up closed circuit TV in many of the offices around the county.  They’d invested a great deal of time and money for this kickoff presentation.

Unfortunately while at lunch the bank next door was robbed and the bank robbers had run through the restaurant we were dining in to escape.  The police held all of us in the restaurant until we had been interviewed to make sure that we weren’t one of the bank robbers trying to blend into the crowd.

Needless to say, we didn’t make it back to the office for the presentation. When we did get back, almost three hours late, I found one of the mutual fund product specialists trying to do an introductory presentation on a product he knew very little about.

I took over for the last half hour but the damage was done.  We never had an opportunity to reschedule the launch.  It took months to finally get the product really up and running.  We lost huge sales, as did the broker-dealer. An absolute mess, all due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

About your work as a sales expert:

  

10) What is the biggest mistake you see as a sales expert? 

Ingrained, unimaginative, hard headed thinking. The world is changing.  Prospects are changing the way they respond to our attempts to connect with them.  Yet so many salespeople and companies are resistant to the idea that there might be better ways to find and connect with quality prospects than the way they’ve been doing things. 

Instead of looking to find better, more effective strategies, they resort to trying to do more of what isn’t working; thinking that if you do more of what isn’t working it will work.  That’s, as we all know, one of the pop definitions of crazy—doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

11) What is the best sales advice you have ever received?

Sales are built on relationships founded on honesty and a sincere desire to find a quality solution to the prospect’s issues, not on price or trickery.  That advice has served me well.  Yes, I’ve lost some sales based on price or to a seller who was willing to say and/or do anything to get a sale.  But I’ve sold far more and at good margin based on developing relationships whose foundation was honesty and mutual respect.

12) What advice would you give to someone just starting out in sales?

Be proud of your profession.  So many sellers try to hide what they do.  They create all kinds of titles for themselves to hide the fact they sell.  Selling is the foundation of society.  No one would have anything if it weren’t for us sellers.  We are the ones who give the scientist working on a cure for cancer to have the time and resources to do his research; we are the ones that provide the dollars for teachers.  If it weren’t for us there wouldn’t be a single home, car, medicine, loaf of bread, or anything else. 

Don’t be ashamed of what you do.  You truly are the engine of the world’s commerce.

13) What are you working on right now that makes you feel energized? What's your next big project?

I’m doing a great deal of work with companies, as well as individual sellers and business owners, helping them get their sales teams back on track using the strategies contained in Bust Your Slump. 

But I’m also working on constructing a comprehensive format to help sellers develop their own public image and reputation through the use of traditional PR strategies, social media, and traditional media.  Certainly there are a number of resources that discuss these resources, but there really isn’t anything that not only combines them all, but that really gives detailed actionable guidance on how to use the resources and how to move from a local to a regional then national format.

It’s a big project that meshes prospecting, personal marketing, PR, marketing, and technology into a single, highly focused message.

***

To know more about Paul McCord, author of Bust Your Slump, please visit http://www.powerreferralselling.com/index.html

You can buy his book (Amazon) here: Bust Your Slump: A Dozen Strategies to Fill Your Pipeline in 30 Days

SalesGiants interviews Jonathan Farrington, JF Consultancy

Jonathan Farrington,
Top Sales Associates (TSA), The JF Consultancy

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, consultant, and sales strategist, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels.

Early in 2007, Jonathan formed Top Sales Associates (TSA) to promote the very best sales-related solutions and products. TSA is now a subsidiary of The JF Corporation, based in London and Paris where Jonathan is the Chairman.

The JF Consultancy launched early in 2008 and Jonathan’s highly popular daily blog for dedicated business professionals, which attracts thousand of visitors every day, can be found at www.thejfblogit.co.uk.

Jonathan is also the creator and CEO of Top Sales World – the first online “Sales Hypermarket” and Chairman of the Global Sales Council.

***

1) Jonathan, how did you get started in sales?

I started my first "business" whilst still at boarding school - I organized Sunday evening discos and added 2p to every Mars bar or packet of crisps.Then at university I ran an agency managing rock groups. My first sales job was selling encyclopedias door-door, whilst on vacation. After university, I went into real estate ( anything to avoid going into farming with my father). He did lend me the money to buy my own real estate business when I was 23, and I not only repaid him within a year, I opened three more branches in the first eighteen months. That all seems a long time ago!

2) Most memorable sale? 

Well, most remarkable and drawn out sale, was whilst working with Andersens. We bid for and won the contract to design and implement the entire IT infrastructure for the Kuwaiti government after the Gulf war. 

3) Most disastrous sale (or funny situation?

Soon after I made the move into IT (early Eighties) I was making my way up the organization, but was still fairly rebellious (and I still am!) I decided to make a one-man stand against my companies' refusal to install air-conditioning - in a glass building in July, working was almost impossible. So, one morning, I turned up for work dressed in an immaculate pinstripe suit jacket, crisp white shirt, tie, black shoes - polished to perfection etc. In fact from the waist up, I looked like my normal self. But I left off my trousers, and instead wore a pair of stunning boxer shorts in bright pink, with kissing hippos on them.

I marched into the General Manager's office to show my displeasure at his stance on the air-conditioning, and to my horror, walked in on a meeting between some of my directors and representatives of my largest client. In my haste to conduct my protest, I had completely forgotten about the meeting!

The outcome? I joined the meeting, we negotiated the next large contract. Everyone was highly amused, and it actually strengthened the relationship between our two companies. And no, air-conditioning was never installed until after I had left the company!

4) What is the biggest mistake you see as a sales expert? 

Companies failing to take a diagnostic approach to sales team development, and abdicating total responsibility to training companies.

5) What is the best sales advice you have ever received?

People buy people - they always will - unless you are selling commodities, in which case we don't really need salespeople in the first place. So develop your people skills - become a people person.   

6) Tell us a little bit about the Top Sales Awards. Why another award? How is it different from the others? Who should apply (and how?)? Is there a panel of judges? Who decides the winners? Do you offer prizes?

We wanted to create a global event, not just something that recognized North American excellence - after all only 8% of the world's sales population works in America - and we also wanted to identify the many facets of professional selling, which I think we have done.

So, on December 16th 2010, the inaugural Annual Top Sales World awards ceremony takes place online. We anticipate that this prestigious event will become a permanent annual fixture, creating considerable excitement within the global sales community, attracting support from all of the major players. This year, the joint hosts are Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power and myself. There will be three medals up for grabs in ten categories and public voting will account for 50% and a judging panel will make up the other 50% in each category.

The site goes live this week - www.topsalesawards.com - and the polls open on November 16th. The Twitter home is @topsalesawards

***

You can catch more of Jonathan via his immensely popular daily blog - www.thejfblogit.co.uk - or on Twitter @jonofarrington