In hard times, cutting back on costs does not take talent…but moving forward in sales does involve a special gift!
In hard times, cutting back on costs does not take talent…but moving forward in sales does involve a special gift!
• Are you selling a form of interference or improvement for my business, and if it is an improvement will it be a worthy ‘net gain’?
• Do you have evidence of having created serious, net gain improvements for businesses like mine?
• Do you have a definite and creative ‘test plan’ to ensure that my business achieves the serious improvement in results…so that my current buying arrangements with other suppliers are still intact for the time being at least?
• Is your test plan uncomplicated and inexpensive for me to run with?
• Will you take an active part in helping to implement the plan, throughout each of the steps…to the point of mutual success?
The nature of your propositions might involve less or more questions, but the essence of what is needed by the market is represented in the five questions listed. The challenges then are to put in the effort to answer the questions, and to design sales behaviour to ensure that the performance-enhancing proposition is presented and managed professionally by your sales team.
When sales people are armed with propositions that meet the higher, unexpressed performance needs of the market, they will immediately make the decision to move forward with gusto…for the simple but compelling reason that they will feel as though they are the bearers of good tidings for customers and prospects. There is not, and never has been, a substitute for such a feeling in selling…and so it is a form of crime for management to push staff to sell more when they do not have more to give in what they sell!
There is one other quite simple challenge to face when creating new and powerful propositions, and that is to brand them as a special form of service…so that your unique offering is seen as being yours and yours alone. As an example, I am spending two days at a conference with the Rheem company this week, and we are launching a very dynamic sales proposition that is designed to win much new business…by offering new and valuable opportunities to their customers and prospects. It has taken only a few hours for two senior managers and I to design the new sales story, which was helped by brief conversations between me and a key Rheem distributor and the customer of a distributor, and so the company is poised to win more business with an exciting new service. At the other end of the scale I recently worked with a business coaching client, a mortgage broker, to create new, quality leads at a time when that market is suffering in various and serious ways…and because we answered the five questions with nerve and verve, he is now busy and happy in a hapless market.
Finally, the markets you serve might also be facing potentially difficult times…and so they will be actively looking for ways to improve results in the immediate future. To do this they usually put price pressure on suppliers, and to avoid this fate it is vital to sell much better results. The key question then in hard times is this: is your company prepared to be a gifted competitor?
In hard times cutting back on costs does not take talentbut moving forward in sales does involve a special gift - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.
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As all businesses prepare for a downturn in demand, the corresponding upturn needed in activity and proactive sales action are often difficult to create. Managers and staff are of course capable of lifting their efforts, but people find it difficult to do more work if they are less than confident at ‘creating demand’. A clue to how this problem can be solved is found in a simple question: ‘if staff were asked to deliver gifts of value to customers and prospects, for good reasons…would they move forward with this initiative with enthusiasm and effort?’ If the answer is yes then the solution to the proactive sales problem is to transform your sales propositions into the equivalent of ‘gifts’! If you can answer the following imaginary but incisive questions from customers and prospects, you will have created the platform for selling the equivalent of gifts. Here are the questions:
• Are you selling a form of interference or improvement for my business, and if it is an improvement will it be a worthy ‘net gain’?
• Do you have evidence of having created serious, net gain improvements for businesses like mine?
• Do you have a definite and creative ‘test plan’ to ensure that my business achieves the serious improvement in results…so that my current buying arrangements with other suppliers are still intact for the time being at least?
• Is your test plan uncomplicated and inexpensive for me to run with?
• Will you take an active part in helping to implement the plan, throughout each of the steps…to the point of mutual success?
The nature of your propositions might involve less or more questions, but the essence of what is needed by the market is represented in the five questions listed. The challenges then are to put in the effort to answer the questions, and to design sales behaviour to ensure that the performance-enhancing proposition is presented and managed professionally by your sales team.
When sales people are armed with propositions that meet the higher, unexpressed performance needs of the market, they will immediately make the decision to move forward with gusto…for the simple but compelling reason that they will feel as though they are the bearers of good tidings for customers and prospects. There is not, and never has been, a substitute for such a feeling in selling…and so it is a form of crime for management to push staff to sell more when they do not have more to give in what they sell!
There is one other quite simple challenge to face when creating new and powerful propositions, and that is to brand them as a special form of service…so that your unique offering is seen as being yours and yours alone. As an example, I am spending two days at a conference with the Rheem company this week, and we are launching a very dynamic sales proposition that is designed to win much new business…by offering new and valuable opportunities to their customers and prospects. It has taken only a few hours for two senior managers and I to design the new sales story, which was helped by brief conversations between me and a key Rheem distributor and the customer of a distributor, and so the company is poised to win more business with an exciting new service. At the other end of the scale I recently worked with a business coaching client, a mortgage broker, to create new, quality leads at a time when that market is suffering in various and serious ways…and because we answered the five questions with nerve and verve, he is now busy and happy in a hapless market.
Finally, the markets you serve might also be facing potentially difficult times…and so they will be actively looking for ways to improve results in the immediate future. To do this they usually put price pressure on suppliers, and to avoid this fate it is vital to sell much better results. The key question then in hard times is this: is your company prepared to be a gifted competitor?
In hard times cutting back on costs does not take talentbut moving forward in sales does involve a special gift - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees'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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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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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith'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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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander'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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