A guy working a booth for the US Airways VISA card at the Phoenix airport stood in the middle of the concourse yelling to anyone who would listen, “Free stuff!”
He apparently was giving away some type of t-shirt or stuffed animal for signing up for their card. I wasn’t quite sure, since I, like everyone [...]

As I mentioned last week, a workshop I presented at the National Speaker’s Association national convention was, "Selling at Full Fee: How to Ask for Your Price and Get It." It’s an age-old dilemma: salespeople dropping their price at the first sign of resistance, or request for a better price. And the ones who do [...]

I’m on location in Cabo san Lucas, Mexico, searching for sales ideas.
Well, that wasn’t the purpose for coming here, but, of course I’m always on the lookout for sales situations we can learn from.
As I’ve written several times before over the years, this is a great place to observe and participate [...]

Many sales reps look at ads, direct mailing pieces, catalogs, the Internet, or anywhere there’s advertising as sources of prospects.
This is wise. But I find so many of these people ill-prepared for what they inevitably hear on calls.
Here’s an example of what I received.
Caller: “Hello, this is Bill Jones with Video Recorders. I [...]

 So who do you look for when trying to crack into new companies?
Do you start low, at the safe, comfortable, non-intimidating lower levels?
Or, do you aim high, starting at the top?
Many reps start low. And they stay there, perhaps getting lots of sales cycles started. And, as a result, getting many bogged down, stretched out, [...]

So who isn’t bitching about the price of gas right now?
Probably the oil company executives.
I do have to give credit to Phillips 66 though. They have taken a commodity–gas–and figured out a way to differentiate their gas from everyone else.

In radio commercials running locally in Omaha they promote Phillips 66 gas as "hard working," implying, I [...]