Tweet

How Christmas Gift Giving Mirrors the Ideal Sales Process

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: The process for giving Christmas presents is a lot like the ideal sales process..

How Christmas Gift Giving Mirrors the Ideal Sales Process

Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.

You just finished selecting and wrapping the Christmas gifts for your significant other, parents, children or grandchildren. Normally, you would place the gifts that aren't from Santa under the tree and the intended recipients would anxiously count down the days until Christmas. Gifts from Santa will be placed under the tree late on Christmas Eve and the next morning, with tremendous anticipation, everyone excitedly unwraps their gifts and exclaims, "Oh, I love it - it's just what I wanted - thank you so much!!!"

How much of the falling in love with the gifts - the excitement of it all - comes from the anticipation - knowing that it's coming but having to wait for it? And of enormous importantance,how great is the disappointment if you were hoping for one thing and you got another?

Suppose you arrived home from shopping and rather than wrapping and placing the gifts under the tree and making your family wait with anticipation, you simply walked in the door and handed the unwrapped gifts to them - in the kitchen? They would still say they love it and thank you for it but...would the feeling be the same? Would the lack of anticipation take away the enthusiasm and sense that this was the perfect gift from the perfect person on the perfect day?

If you understand that, then why do so many executives and salespeople, from all industries, still insist that the first thing they must do with a new prospect is present? Even the word "present" suggests waiting for the perfect time. When you meet someone to celebrate a birthday or an anniversary you don't walk in their home or enter the restaurant and shove the gift in their hands. No, you wait for the ideal moment. Back to selling, how huge is the risk that what you present disappoints because your prospects were expecting one thing and they got another?Why would your presentation disappoint? Because you don't know exactly what they need - yet. It's the same as Christmas Day disappointment!

Why aren't your salespeople waiting for the ideal moment? Whey don't they allow their prospects to anticipate the presentation? After all, the first thing a prospect asks for is a present..."So what have you got?" or "How can you help?" or "Tell us about your capabilities" or "Show us that new technology". If it was one of your kids you'd make them wait for the right moment!

Selling isn't any different from gift-giving. You should wait for the ideal moment. Why aren't salespeople following a customer-focused, consultative sales process where they become trusted advisors instead of vendors, partners instead of suppliers and stand out from their competition? Why aren't they waiting to present until they know exactly what a needs and cost appropriate solution is? Why aren't they waiting until the decision makers are committed to moving forward so that they present in the right context, to the right people, at the right time?

It's really only fear and discomfort that stand in the way of getting this right.

What are they afraid of?

Just two things:

1. Change.
2. Asking questions.

Go ahead - might as well stop reading and just give everyone their presents right now!

Related Articles
  Did you really get what you wanted for Christmas?
  2009 Hottest Christmas Gift Idea
  The $8 billion story/scam
  12 Tips of Christmas
  Make this Christmas your best ever
  How to enjoy Christmas in your business
  5 Ways to Get Your Business Organised For Christmas
  A Goofy Christmas Mistake You CAN'T Make With Customers
  Surviving Christmas Without Grievous Bodily Harm – It Can Be Done!
  Adding Value to your Corporate Christmas Gift
  Stuck With A Zero Marketing Budget For Client Gifts
  The Spirit Of Giving
  Santa’s Ecommerce Sphere of Influence
  How to stay safe as you shop online for your Christmas gifts?
  What Does Christmas and The Holiday Season Mean to You?
  Surviving Shift Work – When you’re Rostered to Work on Christmas Day!
  What's Under Your Tree?
  Wrapping it Up!
  Prepare Early and Make a Big Increase in Your Holiday Sales
  SMEs and Client Gifts – should we or shouldn’t we?

Article Tags: christmas, sales, sales process



Related Forum Posts
Being generous has its rewards! - My friend wants to go around the streets on Christmas night giving homeless people $20 bills. Maybe I'll tell him to start a fundraiser, find a few sponsors and hold an event instead? It could be for everyone who don't have a families to be with during Christmas? They can all get together on Christmas day and have some fun and get to know each other. (sort of like a little family?) It probably sounds better in theory though, lol.
Re: Moderators on vacation - Off on my Christmas holidays with my family later today! Actually, we are flying to England and have been watching BBC World News reports about Heathrow struggling to cope with the snow... Hope the trains manage to run on Christmas Eve... I probably won't appear on the forum very often until around 5th January, DV... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everybody! David H
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Re: What are reasons to stay in touch with your customers? - To remind them of a holiday for which they may want to buy a gift from your business and give to the person (such as Mother's day or Christmas). Although I've never done it, I've heard that off holidays (such as Memorial Day) for which we don't think of getting a card on, are the best ones to send them on so they don't get lost in all the other Christmas or Easter cards people are sending at the typical times. I don't know if that's what you're looking for or not. That's all I can think of right now.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Executives and Elevators Perfecting That Pitch

How To Calculate A Minimum Fee For Your Services

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.