Strategic Selling
Strategic Selling
WHO - a prospect who has a current or future need for your product or service.
WHAT - your specific offering used by your prospect or customer.
WHERE - wherever your customer is located.
WHEN - how quickly can you deliver your product or service.
Let’s focus on the “HOW”. Selling skills are painted with a broad brush of generalities, a kind of “one size fits all” approach. Most have worked for generations. Will they continue to work? Are you presenting the same old sales story packaged and repackaged? Have they heard it all before and are looking for a new motivation? As your customer becomes more discriminating and selective the battle on the sales front becomes more challenging. It is time to devise a strategy tailor made for the needs of your prospect, one aimed at their “Hot Buttons”, solving their problem NOT yours.
Before you attempt to close your prospect you must develop a strategy based on what he or she has been telling you in the interview. The more time you invest in counseling, more clues will become apparent. The goal is a close more typical of a rifle shot than a shotgun blast hoping you’d hit or come near the target. We’ve been given TWO ears and ONE mouth encouraging us to listen twice as much as we talk. It’s time to subscribe to this sales philosophy rather than the usual “talking and waiting to talk”. Your prospect will tell you how to sell them. Glue these points into a strategic closing “stew”. Once your customer recognizes his own words, they will be easier to close. If you are trying to close on the first visit than you need to think on your feet, it may require you to take some notes. Be a student of human nature, body language, and use some detective skills to prepare your strategy. You may just need to make an educated guess. Much of science is predicated on a hypothesis, a theory, an accidental find, or an educated guess. Sales is part science part art. You must have a clear vision of your prospect’s goals. It may be as simple as just asking them what they are and how to sell them. Go figure.
Strategic Selling - To learn more about this author, visit Gary Silverman's Website.
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Let’s look at the four “W’s” and one “H”, the fundamentals.
WHO - a prospect who has a current or future need for your product or service.
WHAT - your specific offering used by your prospect or customer.
WHERE - wherever your customer is located.
WHEN - how quickly can you deliver your product or service.
Let’s focus on the “HOW”. Selling skills are painted with a broad brush of generalities, a kind of “one size fits all” approach. Most have worked for generations. Will they continue to work? Are you presenting the same old sales story packaged and repackaged? Have they heard it all before and are looking for a new motivation? As your customer becomes more discriminating and selective the battle on the sales front becomes more challenging. It is time to devise a strategy tailor made for the needs of your prospect, one aimed at their “Hot Buttons”, solving their problem NOT yours.
Before you attempt to close your prospect you must develop a strategy based on what he or she has been telling you in the interview. The more time you invest in counseling, more clues will become apparent. The goal is a close more typical of a rifle shot than a shotgun blast hoping you’d hit or come near the target. We’ve been given TWO ears and ONE mouth encouraging us to listen twice as much as we talk. It’s time to subscribe to this sales philosophy rather than the usual “talking and waiting to talk”. Your prospect will tell you how to sell them. Glue these points into a strategic closing “stew”. Once your customer recognizes his own words, they will be easier to close. If you are trying to close on the first visit than you need to think on your feet, it may require you to take some notes. Be a student of human nature, body language, and use some detective skills to prepare your strategy. You may just need to make an educated guess. Much of science is predicated on a hypothesis, a theory, an accidental find, or an educated guess. Sales is part science part art. You must have a clear vision of your prospect’s goals. It may be as simple as just asking them what they are and how to sell them. Go figure.
Strategic Selling - To learn more about this author, visit Gary Silverman's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Staging DivaDebra Gould, aka The Staging Diva®, is President of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company. Inspired by many requests from aspiring home stagers wanting to start similar businesses, Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. Gould has trained over 1000 Staging Diva Graduates worldwide to start staging businesses. Buying decorating and selling six of her own homes in four years lead to an interest in real estate staging which she turned into a career with the launch of sixelements.com in 2002. Since then she has staged hundreds of homes in addition to teaching home staging training. Gould is the author of several home staging resources including a series of popular ebooks made up of a Design Guide, Color Guide and Portfolio Guide. For more information about Debra Gould visit stagingdiva.com. - Visit Staging Diva's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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