Michael Webb
Michael Webb
How Can We Convince Sales and Marketing About the Advantages of Lean in Their Processes?
A reader recently asked: How can we convince sales and marketing about the advantages of lean in their processes? This is a great question, and I get it a lot. The primary issue is that salespeople and marketers do not see how Lean will help them sell or do marketing. This is aggravated by […]
Is Lean Certification Effective for Practitioners in Sales and Marketing? If not, How Does it Need to Change?
A recently asked question from a LinkedIn Group titled “The Shingo Prize:” Lean Bronze Certification – Is it Effective for Practitioners in Sales and Marketing? If Not, How Does It Need to Change? (Note: this link requires you to log into the Linked-In website.)
Managing to Connect the Business with the Customer
John Shook, Chairman and CEO of the Lean Enterprise institute, just released a newsletter titled “Managing to Connect the Macro with the Micro.” In it he chronicles another of the steps the Lean movement has taken from being “just a kit of process improvement tools” to being a method for thinking scientifically about business problems. […]
A Recent Readers Question: How Easy & Quickly can I Implement Some of the Key Changes to Realize Sales Process Improvements in a Reasonable Short Time?
Thanks for your recent question on my website. Several people have asked it. How easy and quickly can I implement some of the key changes to realize sales process improvements in a reasonable short time? The answer looks different if you are in a large account/complex selling environment than if you are in a more […]
How Can The Salesforce Use Lean?
A recent visitor asked “How can the salesforce use Lean?” There are lots of possible answers, and the reader left no context for what they might be concerned about. Here are a couple of general thoughts that might be useful: Lean can help sell more stuff! Lean seeks to maximize value to the customer and […]
Five Powerful Sales and Marketing Productivity Tips (That are Also Free)
There are tons of ways to improve productivity in sales and marketing. Here are five improvements that will make a big difference and yet don’t cost a thing.
Get Sales and Marketing Data Now – Simple Steps that Make the Difference
It is true that people/customers seem to be driven by emotions (and relationships) in their decision-making process. However, this does not mean you can’t rationally improve these important business functions. The lack of data in sales and marketing (and all the challenges this creates) is not caused by the customers, it is caused by how […]
Are Your Salespeople (and Your Senior Executives) Seeing the World as it REALLY IS?
As a salesperson and a sales manager I loved it when I could get a glimpse of how the senior executives of my company thought. Sometimes, I was shocked to learn they were seeing the world as it really wasn’t. Other times I was chagrined to learn I was the one perceiving things incorrectly.
How Salespeople Earn Respect from their Customer’s Senior Management
As business becomes more complex, the demands of salespeople’s jobs tend to increase as well. Unfortunately, few guideposts exist to help businesspeople understand how to both get into a senior executive’s office, AND earn the right to be invited back.
Book Review: A Seat at the Table
By Marc Miller Reviewed by Michael Webb In B2B sales, selling to senior executives and key decision makers has become the main event. But how do you get past the velvet rope? Sales trainer and entrepreneur Marc Miller’s A Seat at The Table (Greenleaf Enterprises, 2010, paperback, 186 pages) gives salespeople and their managers valuable […]
