thats stuff is pretty appriciable. but let me put a notion in your head and in head of every sales person. while negotiating with customer put yourself in place of customer then you come to know the desire of customer thus make things in a easy go process

Thanks for the referral, Sheetal...
Very good article...
The stats are amazing and hope they are based on accurate data as it is difficult to collect accurate data in these areas...

Amazing insight, was really useful..... Thanks vishab for sharing !!! good job done .... keep posting such interesting insights......   

great work, and how much time did you spend on it?

That was a very insightful article...and Mr Lewis's comments were absolutely apt.  Indeed the sales field breeds all kinds and thus diluted the race of the true salesforce! Lets hope that a platform like this and Sales cult on Toostep will help all the like minded sales people to share all their gyan...keep posting such great insights Vishab.

The Sales community is mixed with a lot of people who have abused this line - these are people who fawn and suck ! e.g. TV journos. This breed of people make huge and colorful presentations that can go on for hours, but at the end of it, no one knows or wants to question (either from the buyer or the seller side) the purpose of this huge time wastage, excepting for being in a huge board room to escape some other commitment, or to check out the meals in the new 5-star joint and network. So like this breed of journos, they can ramble on and on of Aishwarya and what she is doing in Cannes.

Secondly, make it a point to keep ur company BS and branding out as much as possible. e.g if you are IBM, most buyers know u are a HW guy, but u also carry applications, Global software partners - so stick to telling him what u want to or plan to offer.  If u are a representing a small set up offering oracle, again be brief, tell him what u offer in say Oracle or Network management, what more u can offer him, be very particular about your support programs as ultimately the client would want excellent support to justify giving a project to a small guy.


If u have put in such effort to give a big presentation, u need to get value for ur time investment and get the target to get a feel of what he liked about the presentation, how relevant it was to his organization, does he have a need and where this is misaligned, get a commitment if he is fired up. If ur prospect is not fired up, u are just a TV commentator or news reader. None of your prospects will give u commitments after getting a free Gyan.

Thanks Vishab, very few formal books around in the market these days, and anyone who can give good literature always welcome. Marketing Management is a science, but without the Art part i.e. Sales combined with real gyan, it is only Ek Haath Ki Taali 

excellent insight vishab....thanks for the referral

Worth reading it, thanks for sharing with us...

Very Good Article !!
Thanks For Sharing !!

For a marketing person as well as sales person...lot can be learned from this post of yours...
Keep going....vishab

Are these some facts or what??
Vishab.. these are great insights. Thanks for sharing it with us with such an attractive presentation. These are such vital information which, at most times, go unnoticed. Sales is not just any job. It's an art. A salesman can't just get someone interested in his product. Even if someone prepares himself well, it depends on how well he can produce it when needed because, when the salesman is face to face with the customer, he becomes nervous and everything goes haywire.One must have good intuitive skills that is well supported with human psychology. He should be able to read what's going on in the customer's mind. I think a good psychologist can be a good salesman. :) what say?    

True to the word. One major aspect that I thought was not mentioned here is the lack of proper knowledge management that drives the entire process of sales and organizational development and progress. Unless there is a good framework that promotes the knowledge to be collected, collated and analyzed, it is very difficult to do any kind of a forecasting and customer analysis, which is the basic input that the sales folks need to be equipped with the rest of the things that are mentioned here. 
Thanks for sharing the article Vishab. 

great sharing....Vishab !!!

Amazing facts substantiated by the correct theory! Brilliant.

Reality always s***s. In any of the above given scenarios, what needs to be observed is that all of these are argued or even explained on a very IDEAL base. In Sales, you are never presented with such scenes 90% of the times. Generally speaking, Sales is a process that takes place on field. In the prospects office, shop floor, retail counter or in the most bizzare scenario on telephone. It is basically need based. If a sales person has made a presentation call and has got his audience right he may be able to conclude a SALE even on a mail.

Circumstances control the behavior of a sales call and its the versatility of a sales person that can get the person in question to assess the situation and turn the situation to his advantage! Super article to bear in mind ...