Lis Calandrino

So my friend and I decided to stop at a favorite restaurant, Legal Sea Foods. Legal Sea Foods started out as a market in Cambridge, MA and opened their first small restaurant next to the market in 1968. In 1994 they opened in Logan Airport outside of Boston. I have also discovered a LS in National Airport. The food is amazing and my friend who has eaten his way around the world says the clam chowder is second to none. I should also he add he never orders clam chowder—except at Legal Sea Foods.

As retailers we are always hung up in selling product. It’s as if we still think the customer builds a relationship with the product rather than the salesperson. More than ever, the customer wants to know if your “representative” is trustworthy. If the customer has done business with you before you have a better [...]

In sales, people are always talking about objections you can overcome. Yesterday I started thinking, are there objections that absolutely can't be overcome, no matter how good you are at sales?
Here are a few that I think are worth thinking about.
Poor appearance – What do you look like? Do you forget to use mouth wash [...]

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and New Years is right around the corner, but don't wait until then to start finding ways to drum up sales!
With business being so stinky, it’s time to get out of your comfort zone and go look for some new leads — and the earlier you start, the better. One of [...]

Customers often have trouble making decisions. Fear is one reason, guilt another. A few people have recently told me they aren't sure how to approach indecisive customers — especially in this economy. Is it appropriate to push them or not?  Should they offer more discounts or not? My thoughts are: why would the economy change the way you sell? If [...]

The other day I was talking to my friend J.D. Green about sales. 
J.D. has been a territory manager as well as trainer and I consider him a long-standing friend. J.D. always has an interesting take on sales and life so I thought I would share a conversation we had recently.

“Lis," he said, "no matter what [...]

My friend Chris Clark, a Mohawk Territory Manager, sent me an email the other day about the importance of calling on end users and contractors. With business having been so good in the 90's, Chris feels that many of his dealers may be neglecting this profitable aspect of their business. At this time it's wise to [...]

Sure, getting new customers and keeping the old ones is difficult, but this is no time to sit home and get depressed about it if you’re going to be in sales. Sales is all about having a plan and working your plan. Maybe this is the hard and not too exciting part, but things could [...]

As businesspeople, we spend so much time hyping up the details of a product when in the end, women don’t really buy products — they buy the outcome.  They're thinking "this is where I'll put it," "this is how I'll use it," "this is what it will look like" and "this is how it will feel."  In other words, women buy the [...]

I'm told the selling season is underway. By December, customers will be decorating for the holidays and there'll be shoppers right up until Christmas Eve. And then it's over.
How will you maximize these 10 weeks? Especially with customers expecting a long winter and worrying about heating and electric bills? It doesn't matter. Long or short winter, you just [...]