Jill Konrath | Selling to Big Companies

A Title That's Not as Boss as It Looks

Over the past couple years I've written extensively on how difficult it is to find the right decision makers in big corporations. Patrick McGeehan, writer for the New York Times, stumbled across one of my articles last week and called me for an interview on the topic of "title inflation." Never being short for words, I did manage to put in my 2 cents. The article appeared yesterday in the Sunday edition.

Interested in reading it? You can check it out here: New York Times

You do have to register to read articles on their site, but it is free!
 

How To Find the Decision Maker Needle in the Big Company Haystack

Yesterday I was featured in this article in the Sales Management Newsletter about what it takes to locate corporate buyers.
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Finding the right decision maker in such massive corporations as GE or Chevron can be a lot like standing on the California coast and being told to swim to Guam. It’s a long way, it’s going to take a lot of work and while you know generally where you want to end up, you’re really not quite sure how to get there. Like the thought of that long-distance swim, the idea of penetrating a company where a single division might have 40,000 people spread all over the world can overwhelm even the most seasoned sales professional. So how can you help your reps find decision makers in large corporations?...

Read the rest of the article by Heather Baldwin at the Selling Power website.

Do You Sound Like an Idiot?

It's much easier to sound like one than you think - especially if you get caught up using business jargon. Amazingly enough, most of us don't even know when we've slipped into that trap. Recently I learned about an amazing new freeware called "Bullfighter" put out by the authors of "Why Business People Speak Like Idiots".

You can run drafts of your business letters through through Bullfighter to see just how bad they really sound.  At the end, you get a Bull Composite score that pinpoints your primary problems. Words such as leverage, customer-centric, partner and out-of-the-box are highlighted for you. Also, Bullfighter assesses overall readability, if your sentences are too long and much more.

You can get a free copy of the software at the Fight the Bull website.  Also, while you're there make sure you take a look at the Fight the Bull Films featuring such beloved corporate phrases such as "push the envelope" and "skin in the game."

Enjoy! And thanks to Cheryl Siemering from RSM McGladrey for turning me on to this wonderful resource.