salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Sitting in yet another reception a Monday or two ago, I thumbed through the FT.  Isn’t it weird how you can tell an ‘old school’ company by the fact they have a pink-un at the ready, yet no-one ever reads it.  As an aside, how do you think FT ad sales people overcome the objection “you claim a couple of hundred thousand readers, but that’s bollocks isn’t it, as most of your rags go unread in dingy receptions…..”  Anyway, an article about Business schools teaching by example naturally caught my eye.

The talentless clowns at the Association of MBAs must have been piddling their pants when in 2002, Stanford prof Jeffrey Pfeffer stated an MBA was irrelevant to business success.  Finally accepting this, US biz schools started to undergo a potentially painful ‘change’ process.  The article referenced above explains how various schools achieved success.  I was immediately struck by how, for reps, there are two awesome messages:

Who’s Up For Change? - How often when you propose something new do you realise change is an obvious result?  Knowing most ‘influencers’ are anti-change, what can you do to expose the fact that change is good, and moreover change is wanted?  A tough call, but one place conducted a survey first (seeking to be ‘collaborative’) asking whether the school was ready for change - and an outstanding 82% said “yes!” (Canada - the Ivey school at the University of Western Ontario - Dean Carol Stephenson)

Overcome The Nos - Why let a ‘no’ get in your way, do things right and “It tells nobody ‘no’; it says ‘not now’.”  What a terrific message; alter the mindset of your prospect that options are either ‘yes’ or ‘not now’ and work on speeding the timeframe up.  (Dean Tom Campbell at Haas Business School in Berkeley in California)