Golf Tees, Dog clipper and Armor All
Posted by: Michel Chiasson on: August 11, 2009
I am always impressed and – let’s be honest – very happy when I need to visit Canadian Tire. In one visit the other day,
I went in, spent 15 minutes, grabbed three items that were most unrelated, and left. If this was a start up business, it would fail or be expected to fail right away. This is not what one can consider….focused. Now let’s be honest, from their corporate website but also from the name, it is easy to know that when it all started, Canadian Tire was selling – well – tires!
Imagine that…one of the most diversified stores in the country, was extremely focused when it started. The diversification happens when you are successfull at doing what you do best. You don’t start with “being everything to everybody”….the same goes with any companies.
It is a good lesson for entrepreneurs as well. People in the biz call this “trying to boil the ocean”. Be focused. Take something you are good at, develop it and work hard at it.
This is what we are trying to do as well. More to follow on that story….but now that the dog looks good and my wheels are shiny, time to head to the golf course!
Local wine blogger finalist for
Posted by: Michel Chiasson on: July 15, 2009
What are we doing here again?(sales call)
Posted by: Michel Chiasson on: June 10, 2009
The best questions are often the most simple ones. Whether you run a large sales organization or a small one, every once in a while, you will be called in to help on a call. The question to ask is obviously about where we are in the process at this point, where do we plan to be at the end of the call and put a call plan together to make it happen. Did I say obviously?????? Oops. Sorry.
More often then not, the sales exec will get in a stage that I call a funk….where it is all mechanics, and by experience, none of that planning occurs….this is why it is good to throw a wrench in the process and not wait to be invited to a call, but to invite yourself.
Review your team pipeline, pick 2 or 3 of your top reps, and call them. Tell them that you want to be on the next call with the client you are looking at, and ask them about the call objectives. Ask for the call plan or the account plan. You know that if you are invited to a call by the rep, he/she will be prepared, because they specifically asked you to be there. Don’t wait, you will find the exercise quite telling.
This clip, not necessarily related and not endorsed as an organization….highlights at least the results of what can happen when you are not prepared…..if nothing, it will give you a good laugh at the sales exec expense!
How can you track relationships in an account?
Posted by: Michel Chiasson on: May 28, 2009
Obviously, I have the solution to this problem. I wan to know if you do. I might have talked about this before. I had a series of articles on managing contacts in an account as it was getting more and more complex. The reality is that the business we were targeting was a 2 billion dollars business. On our side, a presales, myself as vp sales, the director of client support, 5 people in marketing including the vp, the vp finance, the vp of client services, a client relationship manager, a partner manager and a consultant. And all this, was only on our side. So there were 13 resources on our side interfacing with a potential client at any given time.
On the client side, there were people in global sourcing, the vp of dev, the vp of IT, the vp of admin, internal resources evaluating the solutions from all vendors, and 15 different departments playing some roles in the evaluation process.
So here is the question – Who do we know? Who knows who best? How could I see this matrix in one view? Any thoughts? We were running a CRM solution from Epicor called Clientele and i can assure you, other than putting notes in the comments section, there was no way we could track this. And people buy from people, people they know and trust. http://www.alphainventions.com
If you have a solution for this, I would be very excited to hear about it. I will be waiting for your commments…..
Would this be the answer????
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