Sales2001 Tom Peters/08.01.2001

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Sales2001Tom Peters/08.01.2001
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The Sales25 Great Salespeople 1.
Know the product. (Find cool mentors, and use
them.)2. Know the company.3. Know the customer.
(Including the customers consultants.) (And
especially the corporate culture.)4. Love
internal politics at home and abroad.5.
Religiously respect competitors. (No badmouthing,
no matter how provoked.)6. Wire the customers
org. (Relationships at all levels
functions.)7. Wire the home teams org. and
vendors orgs. (INVEST Big Time time in
relationships at all levels functions.) (Take
junior people in all functions to client
meetings.)
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Great Salespeople 8.
Never overpromise. (Even if it costs you your
job.) 9. Sell only by solving problems-creating
profitable opportunities. (Our product solves
these problems, creates these unimagined
INCREDIBLE opportunities, and will make you a ton
of moneyheres exactly how.) (IS THIS A
PRODUCT SALE OR A WOW-ORIGINAL SOLUTION YOULL
BE DINING OFF 5 YEARS FROM NOW? THAT WILL BE
WRITTEN UP IN THE TRADE PRESS?)10. Will involve
anybodyincluding mortal enemiesif it enhances
the scope of the problem we can solve and
increases the scope of the opportunity we can
encompass.11. Know the Brand Story cold live
the Brand Story. (If not, leave.)
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Great Salespeople 12.
Think Turnkey. (Its always your problem!)13.
Act as orchestra conductor You are responsible
for making the whole-damn-network respond.
(PERIOD.)14. Help the customer get to know the
vendors organization build up their
Rolodex.15. Walk away from bad business. (Even
if it gets you fired.)16. Understand the idea of
a good loss. (A bold effort thats sometimes
better than a lousy win.)17. Think those who
regularly say Its all a price issue suffer
from rampant immaturity shrunken
imagination.18. Will not give away the store to
get a foot in the door. 19. Are wary
respectful of upstartsthe real enemy.20. Seek
several cool customerswholl drag you into
Tomorrowland.
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Great Salespeople
21. Use the word partnership obsessively,
even though it is way overused. (Partnership
includes folks at all levels throughout the
supply chain.)22. Send thank you notes by the
truckload. (NOT E-NOTES.) (Most are for little
things.) (50 of those notes are sent to those
in our company!) Remember birthdays. Use the word
we. 23. When you look across the table at the
customer, think religiously to yourself HOW CAN
I MAKE THIS DUDE RICH FAMOUS GET HIM-HER
PROMOTED? 24. Great salespeople in great
technology companies can affirmatively respond to
the query in an HP banner ad HAVE YOU CHANGED
CIVILIZATION TODAY?25. Keep your bloody
PowerPoint slides simple!