Tom Reilly's Sales Bytes - Archive

By Tom Reilly, author, How To Sell And Manage In Tough Times And Tough Markets.

You can see the most recent Sales Bytes here.

Less is More Communication

Added: November 4th, 2011

Salespeople face two challenges in communicating with customers. The first is getting their attention. The noise level and competition for their attention is at an all-time high. (read more...)

Do You Possess the Skill and Will to Succeed?

Added: November 3rd, 2011

Success in sales is about skill and will. You need both. Some salespeople are brilliant, yet fall short because they lack the will to succeed. (read more...)

Customerizing is a vital part of Value-Added Selling. It is learning to think as customers think. Customers want to buy from salespeople that understand their needs and design solutions that align with these needs. (read more...)

What I Love About Sales

Added: September 6th, 2011

In sales, there are winners and there are losers. We have become a society where merely showing up is good enough. (read more...)

Irritating Listening Habits

Added: August 30th, 2011

Top-achieving salespeople spend 60% of their time listening on a sales call. Listening is a core competency for salespeople, yet too few companies and managers emphasize its importance to success. (read more...)

Where Does The Time Go?

Added: August 25th, 2011

Salespeople spend most of their time on non-revenue producing activities. Really? (read more...)

How to Sell on Value Rather Than Price

Added: July 22nd, 2011

Check out the article in this week's Inc. Magazine: How to sell on value not price!

You may recognize some familiar themes.

In a famous video clip from Penn and Teller’s Showtime hidden camera show, diners are lured to an upscale restaurant branded as the world's first boutique vendor of bottled water. A water steward presents each table with a menu discussing the finer qualities of water purportedly shipped in from mountains and streams all over the world, some of which cost as much as $8 a bottle. (read more...)

The Art of War and Sales

Added: June 1st, 2011

Sun Tzu's Art of War is a perennial favorite of military leaders, business executives, and even athletic coaches that thrive on the metaphor that competition is war. (read more...)

Profit Piranhas and Your Bottom Line

Added: May 24th, 2011

Something is chewing away at your bottom line. Actually, many things are chewing away at your bottom line-profit piranhas. (read more...)

Celebrate the Impact of Your Value-Added

Added: May 13th, 2011

A standout difference of Value-Added Selling is the emphasis we place on defensive selling-the retention and growth of your existing base of business. (read more...)

Welcome Price Objections

Added: April 26th, 2011

Price objections remain the chief perceived obstacle that salespeople bring to our seminars. Yet, they need not be as threatening as most salespeople believe. (read more...)

It's the Us-and-Them Battle, Again!

Added: April 11th, 2011

In 1971, Walt Kelly published his famous Pogo cartoon "We have met the enemy … and he is us." Everyone that saw this got it. At times, we are our own worst enemies. Years ago, an attendee in one of my programs asked, "Whose customer is it? I'm in operations. Is it my customer, the sales force's customer, or our customer?" This rhetorical question needed no response beyond a smile of acknowledgement. It is everyone's customer. Unfortunately, this spirit of cooperation does not exist in most companies. (read more...)

What Is Your Victory Strategy?

Added: April 5th, 2011

"Let's go out there and get the business!" How many times have you heard that in a sales meeting? No plan. No strategy. Just rhetoric. The net result of this disconnect is a frustrated sales force because they lack the strategic guidance that a good plan offers. (read more...)

When Purchasing Agents Block the Door

Added: March 18th, 2011

What do you do when an indifferent purchasing agent is blocking you? This sounds like a purchasing agent that is "retired" on the job. When a purchasing agent is change-resistant, it is a special problem for salespeople. (read more...)

How to Lose Like a Winner

Added: March 1st, 2011

Sales is a metaphor for life: You win some, and you lose some. In sales, you work hard for an order, but it may not happen. (read more...)

A Disturbing Deficit

Added: February 23rd, 2011

In the United States, most people are concerned rightly about a 1.6 trillion dollar federal budget deficit, yet there is another deficit that is far more insidious and perilous to business—a diminution of empathy. (read more...)

The Purpose of Business

Added: February 2nd, 2011

Adam Smith, father of modern economic theory, believed that the purpose of a business was to make money. Peter Drucker, long considered to be the foremost thinker on management, wrote in his book, The Practice of Management, that the purpose of business was to create customers. (read more...)

How Not to Present Your Price

Added: January 4th, 2011

Over the Christmas break, I bought some new tires for my SUV. Since I did not like the ride or performance of the old tires, I wanted to upgrade to a different style, brand, or installer. I began my research by talking to several sources. (read more...)

No More Small Thinking

Added: December 10th, 2010

As we slog our way out of the Great Recession, one of the more insidious aftereffects is small thinking. (read more...)

How Much Does a Sales Call Really Cost?

Added: November 19th, 2010

Using metrics that span three decades of research, the average industrial (i.e. business-to-business) sales call is $412. Are you getting that much value from your sales calls? (read more...)

Take Pride in Your Work

Added: November 11th, 2010

Professionals take pride in their jobs. They hold themselves to high standards of excellence by asking several simple questions. (read more...)

Good Service is More Than No Problem

Added: October 28th, 2010

Good customer service should be gracious customer service. It seems that everywhere I go these days and thank people for their help, they respond with "No problem." (read more...)

Seek Problems, Not Projects

Added: October 20th, 2010

Give me a problem any day versus a project. Too many salespeople ask customers the wrong questions: (read more...)

Your Road to Success

Added: October 7th, 2010

In a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review, Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Management at USC, discusses his path to becoming a globally recognized expert on leadership. The energy for his circuitous journey is summed up in one sentence... (read more...)

Paradoxical Commandments for Salespeople

Added: September 29th, 2010

Having read the paradoxical commandments of Dr. Keith Kent and studied Mother Teresa’s unique spin on them, I decided to write some “paradoxical commandments” for salespeople: (read more...)

Inside The Mind of the Cheapskate

Added: September 9th, 2010

“I do not prize the word ‘cheap.’ It is not a badge of honor. It is a symbol of despair. Cheap prices make for cheap goods; cheap goods make for cheap men; and cheap men make for a cheap country.” William McKinley, 25th President of USA (1896-1901) (read more...)

How Persuasive Are You?

Added: August 5th, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a discussion with a client on the role of persuasion in sales. He shared with me his concerns that some people may be put off by the word itself. I have heard this often over the years. (read more...)

How many of these questions can you answer in-depth?

Added: July 27th, 2010

Here are some of the questions we answer in Value-Added Selling. If you can answer in-depth all of these questions, you may not need to attend or read Value-Added Selling. (read more...)

Dreaming Bigger about Business

Added: July 21st, 2010

How big do you think for and about your customer? This is another way of asking, “Are you thinking about their business or the next order?” (read more...)

Timing Mangement, The Value-Added Way

Added: June 30th, 2010

Long before the U.S. Military created a Green Zone in Bagdad or Old Spice launched a deodorant named Red Zone, we had been working on a new time management paradigm called Red Zone/Green Zone. It follows the value-added philosophy, and its brilliance is its simplicity. (read more...)

Value-Added Selling is Need-Satisfaction Selling

Added: June 29th, 2010

Reducing Value-Added Selling to its fundamental dynamic, it is a need-satisfaction, problem-solving business model. One the one hand, the buyer has a need for a solution, and the salesperson attempts to satisfy this need with his or her product and service. On the other hand, the salesperson has a need to pursue viable sales opportunities. (read more...)

Riding for the Brand

Added: June 17th, 2010

Louis L’Amour, perhaps the most prolific American writer, wrote a short story about it. Cowboy poet extraordinaire Red Steagall scribed a poem about it. (read more...)

The Pareto Principle and Value-Added Selling

Added: May 27th, 2010

At the end of the 19th Century, an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, was studying the wealth patterns of western Europe and observed a fundamental imbalance—most of the wealth was owned by a small number of people. Pareto, an avid gardener, observed this same imbalance in his garden. Most of the peas he harvested came from a small number of pods. These insights gave birth to a theory that has been called variably the Pareto Law, Pareto Rule, Pareto Principle, 80-20 Law, and 80-20 Principle. (read more...)

Changing Your Customer’s World

Added: May 21st, 2010

In its infancy, Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, realized he needed a real business person to run his company, "… a respectable face who could sell corporate America." He chose John Sculley, an executive at Pepsi Cola. Why would Sculley leave a plush corporate gig to work for a four-year-old start-up that began in a garage? (read more...)

The Business of Selling

Added: May 19th, 2010

There is the art of selling and the science of selling. How good are you at the “business” of selling? (read more...)

Why We Must Fight This Price War

Added: April 20th, 2010

As a salesperson, you are in a price war, but it’s not just a battle over getting your price—you are defending your right to compete as a for-profit organization. This means you are supposed to make money. (read more...)

Moving On

Added: April 16th, 2010

One problem with a long recession is the mindset that develops throughout the downturn. Survival is primary. (read more...)

Don’t Get Trapped in Time

Added: March 31st, 2010

Your past is not your potential. Today is only one-part yesterday and even less for tomorrow. Your future has more to do with your potential than your history, if you choose to live that way. (read more...)

Defeating Discouragement

Added: March 17th, 2010

Discouragement tastes bitter, feels overwhelming, reeks of quitting, looks like surrender, and sounds like failure. The toughest battles we fight are internal. Our toughest opponents are ourselves. Discouragement is a battle of wills: “Will I quit? Will I press on?” (read more...)

Is This as Good as it Gets?

Added: March 9th, 2010

Recessions may take the wind out of your sails for a while until you gain some momentum, but the Great Recession of 2008-09 has really beached some people and some companies. (read more...)

Cocky or Confident?

Added: March 3rd, 2010

Even though it seems that in sales there is a razor’s edge difference between cocky and confident, it is really a chasm that runs deeper than a label. (read more...)

The Economy-Is-Bad Price Objection

Added: February 22nd, 2010

For price shoppers, this economy offers an excuse for seeking price concessions. After all, everyone knows “how bad” things really are, right? A bad economy is potent negotiating leverage for the buyer if the seller in unprepared to argue his case. (read more...)

When the Competitor’s Price is Lower

Added: February 15th, 2010

Everyone wants to know how to deal with the competition’s offering a cheaper price for what appears to be the same product or service. What they present is more symptomatic than causal. (read more...)

Don’t Play Follow the Leader on Price

Added: February 9th, 2010

You cannot be a leader if you are a follower. You cannot be a market leader if you are a price follower. If the competition does something dumb or desperate with their prices, why would you follow their lead? (read more...)

Give the Buyer a Fair Price

Added: January 29th, 2010

The easiest way to avoid price resistance is to give the buyer a fair price. The tough part is determining a fair price. (read more...)

25 Years of Value-Added Selling Techniques

Added: January 11th, 2010

Even though I've been in sales training since 1981, 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the first edition of Value-Added Selling Techniques. (read more...)

How to Fail Forward

December 8th, 2009

There is a right way to fail and the wrong way to fail. The one thing you do not want to fail at is failure. (read more…)

The Top Ten Reasons Why Salespeople Lose the Sale on Price

December 2nd, 2009

Here is a checklist for you to discuss at your next sales meeting. (read more…)

McGwire Returns to Mudville

November 10th, 2009

Louis Cardinal, Mark McGwire, is returning to St. Louis as a batting coach. Notwithstanding the controversy, McGwire could hit a baseball. (read more…)

We Are Hope Merchants

November 6th, 2009

We have all stared into this economic abyss–the longest recession since the Great Depression–and it has stared back. (read more…)

Understanding and Selling To High-level Decision Makers

October 22nd, 2009

High-level decision makers (HLDMs) think differently than other people involved in the decision process. Since HLDMS create funding for ideas they like, it behooves you to understand how these decision makers think. (read more…)

Cheap is No Substitute for Value

September 25th, 2009

Price is not the only component of value; it is simply one. What makes a price look like an incredible bargain? (read more…)

Filling the Pipeline

September 14th, 2009

In our study of top-achieving salespeople, we discovered that even the most successful salespeople, those who are in the top 10% of their sales forces, prospect for new business. (read more...)

How Conscientious Are You?

August 11th, 2009

Successful people make habitual what most people consider a hassle. There is nothing convenient about success at anything. (read more…)

There Is Value in Struggle

July 7th, 2009

There is value in struggle. I didn't say there was pleasure or enjoyment in struggle, just value. The survivors of this Great Recession will one day be able to tell their stories of struggle and success to new generations of managers and salespeople. (read more…)

The Value of Discipline

July 2nd, 2009

“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves; self-discipline with all of them came first.” (President Harry S. Truman)

Discipline is bittersweet. We all know we need it, but we do not like the taste of it. It comes partially from the fact we often use it as a verb versus a noun. (read more…)

Run Like Ralph

June 29th, 2009

St. Louis has been hot and humid for the past two weeks, and today promises to be the hottest day of the year with a projected heat index of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. It was a good day to get out early for my morning walk. About 20 minutes into the walk, I saw Ralph. (read more…)