Downturn?

Downturn? What downturn? Learn the sales techniques Big Blue uses to maintain momentum in a tough economic climate.

Closing a sale is never easy, but when the economy goes into a ditch, it gets tougher still. Yet despite the 2009 downturn, IBM has been able to maintain momentum by expanding its sales efforts in new markets such as health care. What’s Big Blue’s secret? IBM has developed a focused sales process that stresses understanding what potential customers really need — then tailoring sales pitches to address those needs directly. We know, we know: Who doesn’t do that? But there’s a special rigor to how IBM trains its sales team and structures its pitches that makes all the difference. We’ll show you how IBM does it.

A steady stream of revolutionary products. Swarms of devoted fans. Advertising that laughs at the competition. How does Apple do it? We’ll show you.

Apple has plenty of mystique, but what looks like magic is something a lot more calculated. What works for Apple can be distilled into principles of sound management that could (in the right culture) flourish elsewhere too. The company recognizes its most valuable employees and coddles them. (Shouldn’t yours?) In the realm of product creation, it gives design an equal seat at the table with engineering (no magic there), and assures its products that distinctive look by insisting that all designers work from the same minimalist playbook. (No reason you couldn’t do something similar.) To be sure, Apple is one of the world’s best at leading its customers rather than following them. But it has no patent on the process.

We’ve pored through Apple’s storied history, took the measure of its successes and its failures, and with the help of experts who’ve followed the company for years, parsed the Apple mystique into a handful of how-tos and a few reliable principles that you can use in leading your own team. Will these axioms turn you into Steve Jobs overnight? No. Will they help you use the example of one of the world’s most inspired companies to add some inspiration to your next project?