A thought I had about sales approaches based on economic conditions: Booming Economy – Salespeople should focus their message (value proposition) on efficiency and velocity. Their solution should essentially provide an improvement in productivity. Recessionary Economy – Salespeople should focus their message on reducing waste/improving profits. Their solution should provide a method for getting more out of what the customer has today. Perhaps I am oversimplifying things, but I think this approach has merit.
Continue ReadingGetting Back To The Basics
I’ve been assessing many existing salespeople over the past couple weeks and have seen many different levels of abilities. The ones that stick in my mind are the salespeople who are presently struggling with their revenue production. Sales is one of, if not the most stressful positions within any company. The overt issue with a lack of sales performance is that everyone in the company can see it. The numbers are very visible. One underperforming salesperson I talked to recently has hit a true low point. He’s not certain where to start. I thought about that discussion for quite some time afterwards. The lack of performance becomes a spiraling nose… Read More
Continue ReadingThe External Focus Of Sales
I’ve bumped into a common tension point within a company – the battle between Human Resources and Sales. My observations (and participation) of this feud is that it comes down to a fundamental difference in perspective between the two departments. Human resources has the strongest internal focus of any department. Their world exists within the walls of the company and then spend most of their time examining, building, adjusting, etc. that world. Clearly this is an important aspect of building corporate culture. A weak HR department has a significant negative impact on the entire company. I have worked in those environments and they are tortuous at times. Sales as the… Read More
Continue ReadingProduct vs. Service Sales
I’ve been seeing this distinction first-hand among salespeople I have encountered of late. I’m not sure there is a clear-cut sales ability towards product vs. service sales, but I do know that certain salespeople have skills and aptitudes that support one over the other. In that vein I give you a quick breakdown of sales traits that come from these two forms of selling. Product Sales -Quantity-focused – the approach is to close frequently and success is measured in total numbers -Speed first – fast, frequent closing is their approach, 1-call closes are their ideal -Off-the-shelf – typically they prefer to sell a pre-designed solution -Discount – their drop-close is… Read More
Continue ReadingA Bad Place To Be In Sales
I do some IT consulting work on the side as a hobby/pastime. Call me a geek. In that arena, I have a customer who has been battling to get some information from a prospective vendor. He wants to use their services but has had trouble getting a response. Finally, today he got a response. His summation was filled with wisdom: Coming in obnoxiously late and extraordinarily high priced is not a good place to be. I couldn’t agree more. And I’ve been there myself in previous sales roles.
Continue ReadingSales Dumb
This is from the JustSell.com crew – it is a description of things salespeople do to upset prospects. I found it quite comprehensive: They (Ed.-prospects) don’t like it when… we’re pushy we call too much we’re “just checking in” we’re unprepared we’re disrespectful of their time we keep calling if they say they’re not interested we don’t respond fast enough we appear not to understand them, their industry, their situations, and their challenges we don’t work in their interest we don’t listen we don’t know about our own products/ services we’re rude, arrogant, or inattentive we’re vague or unclear they’re made to feel like they’re interrupting us we seem like… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Wrong Approach
I received an email recently from someone I presume to be a salesperson looking for work. Obviously this is a common occurrence these days, but here is the error in the delivery – the email had no writing. Yup, it was just a blank email with an MS Word attachment that appeared to be a resume. This approach is a wasted effort in today’s world. I never opened the attachment for fear it may be some malicious, virus-infested computer-killer. Dramatic, I know, but the point is valid. It is similar to a phone call that comes in on your home phone at night and lists nothing more than “Out of… Read More
Continue ReadingPreparation vs. Execution
SellingPower.com’s article – Help for Your Pre-Call Prep – makes a bold statement in the opening sentence: When you get right down to it, sales are won or lost on preparation. I would argue that sales are won or lost on execution. Give me a salesperson who executes flawlessly any day over one who prepares flawlessly. Again, the context is in terms of where deals are lost. Be that as it may, the article has an interesting statistic found in one of the later graphs. At a time when relatively few initial discussions with a client are progressing further into the sales cycle (40 percent of organizations say only 25… Read More
Continue ReadingBite-Sized Selling
I have come across many articles recently that promote selling tips in this recession. One common thread runs through all of them – chase smaller deals. Here is an example from Inc.com – 5 Tips for Selling a Service Now: “The big change for us in 2009 is that we are more flexible on minimum amount of an engagement that we’ll pursue,” says Gay Gaddis, the founder and CEO of T3, an Austin-based advertising and marketing agency that specializes in digital media. In years past, her firm only went after client engagements that were worth between $1.5 million and $2 million. Now, “some larger clients are breaking RFPs into smaller… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat Sells In A Recession
Here is an interesting story from abcnews.com – What Do iPhones and Designer Jeans Have in Common? The answer is found in the subheading – They Keep Selling, Even in Recession. Here is a list from the article in regards to hot-selling products during this recession: The iPhone Designer jeans Wal-Mart and Costco McDonald’s Internet access High-definition TV sets An odd list, wouldn’t you say? The low-price options are logical, the other ones not-so-much. The explanation from the article: “Even in down times,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president for strategy and analysis at Interpret LLC, “people still have some discretionary income. What happens is that they spend it more carefully.”… Read More
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