Another Great Read....

Re-Imagine: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age (by Tom Peters; DK Publishing 2003). In Part VII called "New Business - New People", Peters outlines what he believes are the 25 "rules" for great salespeople. He calls it The Sales25. Take a look below.

1. Know Your Product
... Remember: More, more, more and deeper, deeper, deeper. In sum: He or she who has the largest appetite for deep knowledge wins.

2. Know Your Company
...You're selling your company as much or more than you're selling a product or service.

3. Know Your Customer
...Get to know the flavor or corporate culture of the customer's enterprise...You need to know cold, the politics of the customer's procedures.

4. Love the Politics
...All sales is politics - meaning the way people work with one another to get things done.

5. Respect Your Competitors
...Don't bad-mouth competitors, period. Nothing makes you look smaller than dissing a legitimate competitor.

6. Wire Your Customer's Organization
...Develop close congenial relationships at all levels and within all functions of your customer's enterprise.

7. Wire Your Organization
...Get to know the talent throughout your supply chain. Wire that talent and make them connect for your customers.

8. Never Over-Promise
...You feel an overwhelming temptation to shave a few days off the expected delivery date. Do not listen to that voice.

9. Sell the Solution
...Great salepeople don't sell widgets, they sell solutions to problems.

10. Ask For Help
...Draw on every possible resource (read people) including mortal enemies, to solve a customer's problem.

11. Live the Brand Story
...Know your brand story cold. Tell it, use it, make it your own. Take advantage of the company's goodwill.

12. Celebrate the "Good Loss"
...A good loss can be better than a lousy win over the long haul.

13. Make Every Problem Your Problem
...All customer problems are your problems. Don't ever blame someone inside your company.

14. Take Full Responsibility
...You are the customer's point-person for your entire enterprise...Orchestrate your entire organization.

15. Don't Hoard Information
...You do not want the client to be slavishly dependent on you. You want him/her to have a scintillating experience with you and your entire team.

16. Walk Away from Bad Business
...Don't work with people who are dishonest, who don't keep their word, who care only about themselves.

17. Don't Whine About Price
...Those who say it's all a price issue suffer from rampant immaturity and a shrunken imagination.

18. Don't Give Away the Store...to Get a Foot in the Door
...Remember, the line between "loss leader" and "lead loser" is very thin. Once perceived as a sucker, always a sucker.

19. Respect Upstarts (the Real Enemy)
...The real enemy is rarely your chief competitor but rather the one that doesn't make it on the radar screen.
20. Seek Cool Customers
...You the salesperson and your company are as cool as your customer portfolio is cool.

21. Talk "Partnership"
...Your job is to bring to bear - in a seamless fashion - the full power of your company's entire supply chain.

22. Send Thank-You Notes
...Sales is a relationship business. At least 50% of your thank-you notes should go to people inside your company.

23. Make Your Customer a Hero
...Individuals buy successful relationships from other individuals. Make your customer a solid-gold hero.

24. Aim to Change the Damn World
...Flash back to Apple Computer boss Steve Jobs. "Let's make a dent in the universe".

25. Keep Your Slides Simple
...Keep your bloody slides lean and full of meaning. The point of a presentation is to persuade...not perplex.