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Guest post by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith Become an Author

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Sales professionals are very much like hunters in that they are seeking a quarry. By bringing down their victim, they receive a prize that being a sale. In many cases these salespeople select the wrong weapon because their focus is not prey, but on the prize.

Of course, it is difficult to blame these exceptional hunters because they have been trained using a sales based hunting (marketing) approach. The prize must be secured regardless of the cost to the prey. What happens in many cases, these individuals use an elephant gun to ensure that they have secured the quarry.

Taking this sales based marketing (hunting) approach not only damages the customer, but it costs more in many different ways. For example, the elephant gun is far more expensive than the fly swatter. Then there is the ammunition. Oh, and do not forget the training (sales) in how to use this magnificent weapon along with all of the sales (hunting) support. Time is another expenditure from finding the tracks of the elephant to actually seeing the elephant. Availability of prey is another cost. How many elephants (potential qualified customers) can be found within your designated target jungle?

Maybe now is the time to change your hunting approach if you want to increase sales by changing your weapon of choice. Instead of hunting down the quarry, why now have the quarry come to you? If you engage in education based marketing, this is exactly what will happen.

Of course, that does mean you, as the sales professional, will have to define your prey (potential qualified customer a.k.a. prospect) and be in those open clearings in the jungle. Then you need to forget about the prize (sale) and look to help your customers through education. By demonstrating your expertise, your business acumen, you showcase your value.

When you can determine the needs of your customers, you have the option of providing a solution through your sales skills and the weapon of choice (solution). In many cases, you may only need the fly swatter to kill the fly (need that requires attention). As you build the relationship, you may discover other flies that need to be eradicated. Now that your customer trusts you, he or she calls you and the opportunity to further demonstrate your excellent sales skills arises.

When using the education based marketing approach, you will not only increase sales because there are a lot more flies out there than elephants. Additionally costs such as time have been dramatically reduced along with some other marketing costs that translate into lower customer acquisition costs to sales training costs.

One of the most important reasons to stop using the elephant gun is that the gun makes a lot of noise, attracts a lot of attention. Others can hear and then see the results of your overkill. And simply speaking, overkill is not good for any business especially one that wants to increase sales.

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