I’m back from my world-wide summer road trip training and certifying inside sales teams, managers and trainers on our TeleSmart 10 methodology. It’s been fun and very rewarding.
These days, I seem to find deeper meaning in my training as I believe the real message is helping inside sales people stay away from talking with ”No-Po’s.” I introduced this term this year and it has resonated with everyone. A No-Po is someone who has no power, authority or influence to make anything happen. They are a sophisticated gatekeeper and unlike the traditional gatekeepers who are very obvious about it such as receptionists and executive assistants, these No-Po’s are very knowledgeable and are part of the committee or department. The problem is they don’t know how little authority or influence they actually have. But what they know is that talking with vendors is a way for them to believe they have some power. 
Because of this, we naturally wind up spending time calling and talking with them. We even forecast sales opportunities based on discussions with them. Then one day, it’s usually after our deal has gone south, that we realize we’ve been hanging out with the wrong person and we feel betrayed by them.
That’s the part of my training that I find most significant as I help prevent the feeling of betrayal you can experience if you are not positioned well within the account. The cool thing is the sales cycle moves so much faster when you are aligned at the right level. So where are these No-Po’s? How do we stay away from them? How do we recognize we are talking with them?
Stay tuned for a podcast this week on this topic.
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[...] It’s the last week of a very important quarter and the time to take a close look at your forecast. Don’t wait until it’s too late and certainly don’t get betrayed by a No-Po. Check our our recent post on Have You Been Betrayed by No-Po’s Lately? Now, it’s time to hear a few people sound off about it. Stay tuned for our Podcast tomorrow on this topic. You’ll learn: [...]