The Selling Process- As Seen by Customers
The Selling Process- As Seen by Customers
The REPorter 'Rep': A rep who tells rather than sells, easily recognisable because he talks about his own company and products, and not about how the customer can succeed with his products. If this rep had private plates on his car they’d be blank, which is why he will be replaced by tele-marketing or Internet services soon!
The REPlica 'Rep': This rep is remembered by how quickly he is forgotten. Offering no distinctive service or knowledge, he makes calls but does not make a positive difference to the customer's business. This rep is still paid by his company, even though he has already been fired by the customers!
The REProachful 'Rep': This rep depresses and worries the customer with negative business talk and gossip about other customers, and actively assigns blame to his own colleagues over service problems. Would probably complain about the noise when opportunity knocks!
The REPetitious 'Rep': This rep covers the same ground on every visit, making virtually 'one call several times a year', and every time he leaves a room it brightens up. His needle is stuck and when he separates the wheat from the chaff, he presents the chaff!
The REPertoire 'Rep': This rep engages in 'mouth-to-mouth-combat' with customers, using sure-fire sales techniques that conclude with the death-blow known as 'closing the sale'. Uses imaginative lines like 'So what do I have to do to get your business?' and usually speaks quite loudly, mainly so as to be heard over his clothes!
The REPlete 'Rep': Possibly a good performer once, this rep's future is now dependent on his past efforts. Interested only in 'harvesting', this rep no longer prepares the way for future business and usually blames 'management' for lousy sales. Operates without a sense of urgency, stays in a comfort zone and loves his job ... but hates the work!
The REPose 'Rep': This rep does not turn up the customer's business, he just turns up. If personal visits do not work then he makes phone calls, and if these do not result in sales, he will punish customers by ceasing all contact!
The REPulsive 'Rep': This is the worst of the bunch and the enemy of customers. This rep will do whatever it takes to get the order: lies, exaggeration, empty promises, absurd claims. He treats the customer's business as a dumping ground for his products, and the two things the customer hates most about this rep is his face!
There then are the negative profiles, and it should be noted that most of the reps who are guilty of displaying these dubious characteristics are quite nice people, representing good companies and good products. And it is also true to say that all reps display at least some of these traits, at various times, simply because they represent human conditions. Now for the two positive 'rep' profiles...
The REPlenishing 'Rep': This rep is a service provider and business builder, on every call! Seen as a breath of fresh air, this rep introduces and sells fresh ideas, concepts, opportunities, exciting new business propositions, critical information and dynamic plans ... all designed to contribute improved results for the customer, in a business language the customer can readily understand. This rep talks with the customer’s staff and helps them to succeed (with his products), and is perceived by customers to be like an unpaid employee!
The REPutable 'Rep': Aside from 'replenishing' by selling results rather than products, this rep positions himself as someone to be trusted. He offers accessibility, plans, responsibility, accountability and control of sales propositions. He is a 'self-manager', and can therefore talk the language of 'management' to customers. If this rep says he will do something it will be done, and if he can't do something that was promised he will keep the customer informed and make alternative arrangements. When problems occur, as they surely do for this rep, he will 'manage the problems' on behalf of his company.
Just two qualities required and admired in reps by customers…where do you stand on these issues?
The Selling Process As Seen by Customers - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees's Website.
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I have conducted many sales training seminars and I often organise for customers to take a small part in the training course, to invite their views on good and not so good sales reps. Throughout these interviews a theme has emerged, in which it is now clear that the customers see 8 negative 'rep profiles', and just 2 positive ones. Allow me to get the 8 negative profiles out of the way first, and then I'll focus on the two desirable traits in selling:
The REPorter 'Rep': A rep who tells rather than sells, easily recognisable because he talks about his own company and products, and not about how the customer can succeed with his products. If this rep had private plates on his car they’d be blank, which is why he will be replaced by tele-marketing or Internet services soon!
The REPlica 'Rep': This rep is remembered by how quickly he is forgotten. Offering no distinctive service or knowledge, he makes calls but does not make a positive difference to the customer's business. This rep is still paid by his company, even though he has already been fired by the customers!
The REProachful 'Rep': This rep depresses and worries the customer with negative business talk and gossip about other customers, and actively assigns blame to his own colleagues over service problems. Would probably complain about the noise when opportunity knocks!
The REPetitious 'Rep': This rep covers the same ground on every visit, making virtually 'one call several times a year', and every time he leaves a room it brightens up. His needle is stuck and when he separates the wheat from the chaff, he presents the chaff!
The REPertoire 'Rep': This rep engages in 'mouth-to-mouth-combat' with customers, using sure-fire sales techniques that conclude with the death-blow known as 'closing the sale'. Uses imaginative lines like 'So what do I have to do to get your business?' and usually speaks quite loudly, mainly so as to be heard over his clothes!
The REPlete 'Rep': Possibly a good performer once, this rep's future is now dependent on his past efforts. Interested only in 'harvesting', this rep no longer prepares the way for future business and usually blames 'management' for lousy sales. Operates without a sense of urgency, stays in a comfort zone and loves his job ... but hates the work!
The REPose 'Rep': This rep does not turn up the customer's business, he just turns up. If personal visits do not work then he makes phone calls, and if these do not result in sales, he will punish customers by ceasing all contact!
The REPulsive 'Rep': This is the worst of the bunch and the enemy of customers. This rep will do whatever it takes to get the order: lies, exaggeration, empty promises, absurd claims. He treats the customer's business as a dumping ground for his products, and the two things the customer hates most about this rep is his face!
There then are the negative profiles, and it should be noted that most of the reps who are guilty of displaying these dubious characteristics are quite nice people, representing good companies and good products. And it is also true to say that all reps display at least some of these traits, at various times, simply because they represent human conditions. Now for the two positive 'rep' profiles...
The REPlenishing 'Rep': This rep is a service provider and business builder, on every call! Seen as a breath of fresh air, this rep introduces and sells fresh ideas, concepts, opportunities, exciting new business propositions, critical information and dynamic plans ... all designed to contribute improved results for the customer, in a business language the customer can readily understand. This rep talks with the customer’s staff and helps them to succeed (with his products), and is perceived by customers to be like an unpaid employee!
The REPutable 'Rep': Aside from 'replenishing' by selling results rather than products, this rep positions himself as someone to be trusted. He offers accessibility, plans, responsibility, accountability and control of sales propositions. He is a 'self-manager', and can therefore talk the language of 'management' to customers. If this rep says he will do something it will be done, and if he can't do something that was promised he will keep the customer informed and make alternative arrangements. When problems occur, as they surely do for this rep, he will 'manage the problems' on behalf of his company.
Just two qualities required and admired in reps by customers…where do you stand on these issues?
The Selling Process As Seen by Customers - To learn more about this author, visit John Lees'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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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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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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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle'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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