Tweet

Some Good News Sales Stories

Guest post by: Sue Barrett

Article Overview: You don’t have to discount price to win good business and good customer relationships even in tough markets. I mentioned earlier this year my team and I are working on a large sales fitness training assignment in the finance sector around Australia. These guys are hard up against it when it come to ‘price’ being a key target at the moment. A number of their competitors are trying to buy market share with discounted prices. The market is being hammered with ‘discounting’ of all sorts – some clear, some not so clear and some very dubious. Many people have commented ‘Is this the right time to be investing in these people given the state of the market?”. My reply is ‘This is exactly the right time to be investing in your sales people’. And here is why.

Some Good News Sales Stories

You don’t have to discount price to win good business and good customer relationships even in tough markets.

I mentioned earlier this year my team and I are working on a large sales fitness training assignment in the finance sector around Australia. These guys are hard up against it when it come to ‘price’ being a key target at the moment. A number of their competitors are trying to buy market share with discounted prices. The market is being hammered with ‘discounting’ of all sorts – some clear, some not so clear and some very dubious.

Many people have commented ‘Is this the right time to be investing in these people given the state of the market?”.

My reply is ‘This is exactly the right time to be investing in your sales people’. And here is why.

Despite the doom and gloom and the current ‘price war’ trend this business and its people are winning good business and good customer relationships. They are really focusing on applying what they have learnt, following a disciplined sales process, focusing on real client issues and needs and delivering real value by way of integrated solutions that are well priced and fair for all.

So I thought it would be worthwhile to share some of good news sales coming from the ‘tough’ markets of finance and show you what can be done if you set your mind to it.

Here are some good news sales stories fresh from the field as of last 2 weeks:

Follow A Structured Sales Process:

‘Having a few wins, did an end-to-end solution presentation yesterday with all that wonderful structure. It went pretty well and the “prospect” was very happy with everything. He was absolutely thrilled that we could satisfy all of his concernsand that I could facilitate every need. I was pretty happy with it, went off track a few times but checked myself and went back to the process.’ Business Manager

Determine Priorities

‘Last week, we were invited by an accountant to meet with a company to discuss their business and finance needs. We were one several companies invited to present. We were informed after all the initial meetings were held that we were one of only two businesses invited back to talk further. It was stated that we were the only business to really take the time to understand the key priorities of this business and not go into product mode. They said this was refreshing and what the company was looking for in a partner. Outcome: Discussions progressed to next stage.” Business Manager

Offer Choice

‘We were approached by a current client with a pricing challenge i.e. the client said he wanted a cheaper price. Instead of dropping the price, we chose to put the ‘price’ to one side and actually focus on what the client really needed. Once we had a thorough understanding of what he needed we then presented him with 3 options – a basic, middle tier and end-to-end solution. We invited feedback from the customer and he ended up taking the end-to-end solution. It was also revealed that security was his key priority not price as originally stated. Outcome: Signed up to new deal not based on a discounted price.’ Senior Manager

Beware the ‘too good to be true deals’

‘One of our clients came in with a deal from a competitor. The client said it looked good on the surface but that he didn’t really understand it. Even with all my 30+ years of experience I admitted I couldn’t make sense of it either. It looked too good to be true and upon further investigation it was. I asked the client what he wanted to do. Outcome: Our Client tore up the competitor deal and stayed with us.’ Senior Manager

What can we learn from them?

• Address your customers key priorities first and create a solution that helps them achieve their objectives you can put ‘the price’ in the right perspective.
• Follow a structure sales process that keeps you on track helps you stay focused on your customer.
• Get any competitor deals in writing before quoting so you can compare apples with apples.
• Give your clients choice. Present some options which helps them make an informed decision about moving forward.
• Have a clear message.
• Be confident in your offerings. Don’t get spooked.
• Be honest, up front, transparent and ethical in your dealings always.

Happy selling.

Related Articles
  An interview with a newspaper journalist
  43% of news sharing online is through social media
  An Easy way of Link Building for your Web site's Link Reputation and Popularity.
  Don’t Read the News, Be the News!
  Living Stories: The Internet Strikes Again
  Evaluate Traders by Their Stories
  How to Get Your Blog Into Google News and Yahoo News
  Lesson #1: Out with the Old, In with the New
  Media Matters: Why talking to reporters makes good business sense
  Selling With Stories
  How to manage a press conference
  What are the elements of a good sales letter?
  Why Bad News Sells
  Lessons to be Learned When Politicians Attack the Media
  Press Conferences
  A South African’s Homemade Paraglider
  Make Sales the Culture of Your Company
  8 things which can happen to your press release
  Using PR to Generate Sales
  4 Secrets to Developing the Perfect PR Pitch

Article Tags: cambria, compatibility, endif, gte, math, mso, priority, true name, xml, zoom



Related Forum Posts
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: Join an inventor's group - This is a great list of inventors groups. Are online inventors meetings. We all try to protect our ideas and therefore are reluctant to talk about about ideas in the development phase in public. I'm interested in inventors Success Stories.
Enterpreneur News - Hi Don - do you have a good Entrepreneur News feed that you can recommend?
Re: Finance is the primary requirement of business - [quote="rauljoseph":36x8dadn]Finance is very important in a business. It is all about managing the business' money and other assets. Finance includes the study and analysis of processes, financial institutions, markets and instruments that are involved in the transfer of money or anything that has a monetary value among consumers, businesses and government.[/quote:36x8dadn] Good point. I'll just add that if I was going into business for myself and could only have one skill it would be Sales & Marketing. You need to be able to create customers first and foremost. Finance is more of a support function for entrepreneurs.


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

How To Become A Member of the Paparazzi

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Soda Vending Machine = Energy Hog

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.