Hall of Fame

The Best (and Worst) Goodbye Email Ever

You know how when coworkers leave they typically send out that sweet, gushy, goodbye email with a tone that would lead you to believe that they were going to pick up the torch and continue Mother Theresa’s work in Calcutta, as opposed to working second-shift at the customer service counter at the local bait and tackle store? more…

The Back Button

A few years a go, one of my Sales Engineers was involved in a bake off at financial services firm in Manhattan. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a bake off in the world of enterprise software is used to described when a company, evaluating solutions, brings in a multiple vendors and submits their systems to a series of scripted tasks. The company’s evaluation team monitors the performance and attempts to get a handle on what they can reasonably expect from the system, and look for those hidden gotchas that may come back to bite them in the butt. more…

Signs Your Sales Rep is a Moron

Some sales-centric publications claim that 65% of sales people do not belong in sales. As a sales manager you wonder at times if that number is a tad low. However, as a service to our readers, we’ve put this quick reference list together to help you spot those 65%’ers in your organization.

Signs Your Sales Rep is a Moron

• They talk more than anyone else

• They try to create some remote, third-party connection with prospects. For example “Yeah, my cousin did time in your state. So we are like family.”

more…

The Legend of the Purple Squirrel

The argument can be made that in the majority of “deals” the winning vendor typically offers either A) the lowest price B) a unique, relevant solution to a pressing problem or C) a combination of both. Not Really a Legend, the Story of the Purple Squirrel is centered on my team’s efforts to create a unique, humorous, yet effective means in which to relay to a prospective client the value of our solution.

To be honest it was the summer and my team had grown weary…more…

Signs Your VP of Sales is a Schmuck

One of those facts that you don’t really find in the 1000s of business books out there is that a Schmuck Vice President (SVP) in the wrong position can dramatically reduce the effectiveness of any organization, especially the sales team.

In working with members of the blog, we came up with a list of traits that have defined some of the schmuckier executives with whom we have had the experiencing of interacting.  more…