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Developing New Business: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Prospecting

SalesAnimals — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:52:40 +0000

With competition becoming fiercer, many companies are relying more and more on developing new business to make their bottom line. For many salespeople who prospered in the past, this shift in strategy is a real dilemma. Why? Because for many of these salespeople, prospecting has become something of a lost art.

As one sales manager said, “Many of my salespeople have never had to make a cold call. The thought of having to do so have made some of them break into a cold sweat. The reality is they are facing the task of actually selling something, instead of just taking orders.”For these salespeople it has become “prospect or parish”.

For those who need to jump on the prospecting band wagon fast I’ll outline four simple principles and four proven strategies to ignite your new business development initiatives.

There is nothing magical about effective prospecting. In fact, it requires four principles:

Focus- talk to the right people.
Discipline- make it a habit, not an exception.
Persistence- stay with it.
Resilience- don’t take it personally.

Based on the research done in several sales organizations, I’ve found four sales strategies that were common among top new business developers. This research covered many industries including automotive, broadcasting, software, security, healthcare, and others. In field research, evaluations by management and self-assessment exercises, the top new business producer scored significantly higher in these four strategies than their less productive associates. Top new business development people: use these prospecting strategies:

1. Know who their best prospects are. They recognize that not all prospects are equal and that different prospects respond to different approaches. If you prospect for “C” accounts, you’ll build a business of “C” accounts. If you want “A” accounts, you have to know what they look like and what they’re looking for. This is accomplished by profiling your existing clients and really understanding thing such as:

What they bought.
Why they bought.
How much and how often they buy.
Why they continue to buy.
What would stop them from buying?

Asking these questions of your “A, B, and C” accounts should give you several critical differences that will allow you to recognize potential “A, B and C” accounts early in the sales process. Doing so lets you decide on the acquisition strategy that is best suited for each type of account. Remember, in prospecting you usually get what you look for. So, be sure you look for the type of account you really want.

2. Develop multiple sources of prospecting. For many salespeople, prospecting either means picking up the phone with a list of names or walking up and down the street knocking on doors. Although these are staples of the prospecting arsenal, they are best used with other approaches. Top performing salespeople develop a multi-faceted system that expands their prospecting net and leverages their time and resources. Some of the more common prospecting activities include:

Telemarketing
Direct Mail
Cold Calling (face-to-face/by phone)
Advertising
Speeches
Public Relations
Lead Clubs
Seminars
Personal Networking
Contacting Inactive Clients
Newsletters
Community Involvement
Referral Programs
Webinars
Tele-seminars
Lunch and learn
Dinner seminars

The key is determining which activities are best suited for the type of prospect you want. For example, a mortgage broker found tremendous success targeting selected neighborhoods and hanging doorknob flyers followed up with a phone call. Be creative and always be on the lookout for a new way to gain access to your best prospects.

3. Develop a prospecting strategy that utilizes your unique competitive advantage. Prospecting is essentially a salesperson’s personal marketing plan and the key to marketing is differentiation. Most salespeople don’t understand the power differentiating themselves can have on their success. Their approach to prospecting is to offer buyers a non-descriptive and unfocused plea for business that offers no specific value, benefit or service. Their approach is often little more than, “Buy from me because I’m here.” In today’s competitive marketplace, that simply isn’t good enough.

To be successful, salespeople like a business must differentiate or “position” themselves to take best advantage of available marketing niches. To do this, they must develop their own Strategic Selling Advantage (SSA). A SSA is based on a variety of unique strengths or advantages, but it must meet the following test:

Clearly differentiate you from the competition
Addresses a real need
Describes a feature or benefit you can deliver. Successful companies, such as Federal Express, understand the power of having and delivering on a SSA. After all, who do you think of “When it absolutely has to get there overnight?”
Develop a prospecting mindset.Prospecting is a little like being on the high wire act without the net. Contacting prospects who are unknown puts you at risk of rejection and surprises. Once you contact them, anything can happen. To prevent getting shell-shocked, take the following actions:
Concentrate on making a number of prospecting calls during one set time. This allows them to get “in the grove.”
Get yourself in the right frame of mind before they start making prospecting calls.
Always devote a specified amount of time each week to developing new business.
Play the numbers. Remember prospecting is equal parts of skill, effort, timing, and luck.
Do most of their prospecting at times when prospects are available (prospecting Prime Time).
Have a plan for each prospecting call.
Use a friendly and personalized approach for each call.

Developing new business is a skill that you must develop in a competitive marketplace. To increase your prospecting effectiveness, you must make it a habit and incorporate each of the four strategies into your daily routine. What you’ll discover is, that the more you do it, the better you’ll get. And, as your effectiveness increases, so will your sales results.

For more information on how to increase your new business development effectiveness go to: philfaris.com

Phil Faris is a business development consultant, coach, speaker and author. He is president of Phil Faris Associates a firm that specializes in helping organizations hire, train, develop, lead and retain the sales talent required to succeed in a competitive marketplace. For more information on how to increase sales, profits and customer loyalty go to: http://philfaris.com

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3 Rookie Sales Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

SalesAnimals — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:45:46 +0000

In every profession, experience separates the “rookies” from the “pros.” Rookies have little or no experience, and consequently often make basic mistakes that would not be made by a seasoned professional. For sales professionals, this means fewer customers, lost revenue, and lower commissions. Only after they have been through the “school of hard knocks” do some sales people become more effective and earn more money. If you are a sales professional, be sure not to make these common mistakes:

Rookies fail to understand customer’s needs: The first thing that any seasoned sales professional wants to know is what are the prospect’s needs. They want to know what are the prospect’s problems, and what causes them pain. Only after the needs are clearly understood by the sales person can they present a solution. Rookies often want to start selling their products or services before they understand the prospects needs. Seasoned professionals only start selling after the needs are clear to both the sales person and the prospect. So to avoid this rookie mistake, ask the prospect questions. Use open-ended questions to let the prospect explain their situation. When the prospect explains their problem, then confirm the need with a closed end (yes/no) question.

Rookies sell features not benefits: Seasoned sales professionals know that customers buy benefits, not features. They buy products and services that offer convenience, save time and money, or solve a problem. For example, people buy a smart phone not for the touch pad, but for the ability to stay connected and get information easily and conveniently. So to avoid this rookie mistake, don’t just explain the feature of a product or service, but connect the feature with benefit or benefits for the prospect.

Rookies quit after the first trial close. Seasoned sales professionals know that prospects normally don’t say “yes” after the first trial close. More often than not, they raise an objection. Sales professionals know how to handle objections and continue to ask another closing question, because they know that most prospects will say “no” three to seven times before they will finally say “yes.” Rookies give up too early. So seasoned professionals know that to avoid this mistake, they need to persist in asking the customer to buy and handling objections multiple times before they get to “yes.”

These are three rookie mistakes that seasoned professionals know how to avoid. If you are new to the sales profession, then keep these sales tips in mind next time you are face-to-face with a prospect: identify the needs, sell benefits, and keep on closing until you get to “yes.” If you avoid these mistakes, you will have more customers than prospects, and you will be making more money for yourself too.

Leonard Kloeber is an author and leadership consultant. He has extensive leadership experience as business executive and as a military officer. He has been a hands-on leader in a variety of organizations large and small. Most recently he was a human resources executive for a Fortune 100 company. His book – Victory Principles, Leadership Lessons from D-Day – illustrates seven bedrock leadership principles that all successful leaders use. Download a free summary of the Victory Principles at: http://www.victoryprinciples.com and find other bonus materials for leaders. Contact him at staffride@gmail.com or find his book Victory Principles at http://www.leadershipthebook.com

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What “NO” Really Means – Handling Rejection In A New Way

SalesAnimals — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:59:40 +0000

What I’m revealing in this article could change your sales career forever. It will make you think differently and it will change your behavior overnight. Big promises you say? Read on…

If you’re a sales professional there’s one thing you can count on like clockwork. And when you meet it it’s like a punch in the stomach. Some of you have learned to take the punch. Others of you double over and need a few minutes back in your corner.

So, what is this punch? It’s rejection. Daily constant rejection. Every time you are in a selling situation rejection is a possible outcome. It’s not avoidable but mastering it requires understanding one concept.

To survive the rejection punch you need to take its power away.

I’m about to show to you how. This technique will allow you to take a punch like a world-class boxer and raise your hand in victory at the end of the match.

What’s the secret?

First let’s look at the glove that’s covering the punch. It’s the word “NO”. No is what you hear. Rejection is what you feel. The word no is how rejection is delivered to you. Rejection is what makes you weak in the knees. So weak you feel like throwing in the towel. But hold on…there’s hope. Think about this…

What gives any word its power? Isn’t it the meaning we attach to it? If I said you were katoozappy, would you feel offended? Probably not. Because the word has no meaning to you. But if I said you were lazy. That would get a reaction from you.

So, the word “no” has a meaning we attach to it – the feeling of rejection. They are both tied together. No equals rejection. Inseparable until now.

Here’s the game changer. What if we change the meaning of no. What if we could attach a new empowering meaning that would get you motivated and, yes, excited when you hear the word no.

Here’s the secret.

When you hear or think about the word no I want you to think of this formula.

N + O = New Opportunity.

That’s right. Every NO you hear is a New Opportunity to get more sales. How? By moving on to the next appointment and leaving the no behind.

Your prospect that says no is actually giving you the opportunity to talk to a better prospect where you have a better chance at getting a yes. They are freeing you to take advantage of a better opportunity. A New Opportunity for success.

So how do you change your thinking to take advantage of your new success formula?

Write the formula “N + O = New Opportunity” on a post it note and put one on your mirror. On the refrigerator. On the visor of your car. On your computer. On your telephone.

You’ll see the formula repeatedly. Repetition will make it part of your thinking. You’ll absorb it subconsciously. It will trigger a new positive feeling every time you hear the word no. The amazing thing is that you won’t realize it’s happening. You’ll feel confident and optimistic and unstoppable.

That powerful punch of rejection now feels more like a feather hitting a battleship. You’ll confidently cold call or visit the next appointment with a “can’t fail” attitude. There are no more rejections. There are only new opportunities.

Try the new New Opportunity formula. I guarantee that in the boxing match with rejection you’ll emerge as the world champion every time.

James Lindsey is a copywriter that specializes in helping businesses grow and the author of “7 Ways To Double Your Sales In he Next 12 Months”. Additional ideas to drive customer growth can be found at http://www.JamesLindseyCopywriter.com.

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Make the Sale and Avoid Frustration With Open-Ended Questions

SalesAnimals — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:39:21 +0000

How many of you know that effective selling is about asking questions? Many people believe that selling is about “explaining” to the prospect, why he or she needs their product or service. Show and tell, features and benefits: these are phrases which come to mind. Well, it’s really neither — it’s all about the questions. Not the exact questions you ask but more in how you ask them. Obviously the questions must be relevant. However, there are no perfect questions. More importantly, if you ask the right questions the wrong way, chances are you will walk away from your appointment frustrated and disappointed.

One way to avoid frustration and disappointment is to word your questions correctly. Closed ended questions are those which can be answered yes or no. You know, “Would you like fries with that?” Basically, your prospect can provide you with a one word answer and this one word answer won’t really help you learn more about what your prospect needs at all and it will stop the sales process in its tracks. On the other hand, an open ended question is one which gets the prospect talking. When a prospect talks, the sales rep, practitioner, or business owner is the beneficiary of valuable information. How is this information used? It enables you to assess the needs of the prospect and begin to position oneself as the solution.

Let’s look at an example of each type of question, applied to the same situation. Your prospect is buying from one of your competitors and you want to find out if there are any holes in their relationship.

Closed ended questions:

Sales Rep: Are you happy with the service?

Prospect: Yes.

Sales rep: Does the product perform according to your expectations?

Prospect: Yes

Sales Rep: Would you consider doing business with me?

Prospect: No

As you can see, there’s no discussion when you ask these questions — each question leads to a dead end. Let’s take a look at the same questions worded just a bit differently.

Sales Rep: How do you feel about the service you’re receiving?

Prospect: Now that you mention it, I haven’t heard from our contact in a while.

Sales Rep: How’s the product performing?

Prospect: Overall it’s not bad, but I would like to see it (last longer, run faster, etc.)

Sales Rep: How open are you to doing business with another vendor?

Prospect: We currently have a contract which expires next year. Or we may consider doing business with other vendors in the near future.

These are just a few examples of how tweaking the wording can change the whole composition of a sales interview. Get them talking and you’ll get better information. This will result in more sales and better relationships with your clients and customers.

Don Talbert, founder of Centurion Business Coach, has a passion for networking and consultative selling. Don leverages his passion and experience to help others excel in business. As the author of The Networking Success Kit, Don applies his experiences and packages it into a practical, real world guide to networking success.

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Sales Simulations – What Are the Benefits of Using Them?

SalesAnimals — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:02:54 +0000

Top sales performers in today’s competitive environment must develop their skills to an unprecedented level. Since the performance demands are greater but budgets more limited, innovative companies have turned to a new generation of sales training ideas for building top performance. Sales simulations are one idea receiving a lot of attention. We strongly believe in the value of sales simulations as a cornerstone of providing sales training that not only “sticks”, but also supports a company’s strategic initiative. Some of the hallmarks of sales simulations are, they:

maximizes the principles of adult learning
optimizes practice and feedback while it minimizes lecture
emphasis the learning power of the team
provides the potential to incorporate real-time updates
focuses on skill application and integration not just knowledge transfer

Interestingly, we came across a piece written by the Boston Consulting Group (remember the matrix – Stars, Question Marks, Cash Cows, and Dogs?) about the advantages of simulations. According to the BCG, a growing number of companies are using an array of new approaches and technologies to create and test strategies. In doing so, they can more quickly create a strategic advantage by leveraging the superior “economics of experimentation.” They generate, test, and replicate a greater number of innovative ideas quicker, at lower cost, and risk than their rivals by employing simulation methodology. Many of the key benefits of simulations that create corporate strategy are the same as the benefits of sales training simulations. For example:

Generate and capture ideas a greater speed and lower costs – One of the outcomes of the practice + feedback sessions in sales simulations is the collaboration among members of the sales team that generate new ideas for attacking sales challenges.
Lower the cost of failure – Especially when selling new solutions or selling to new audiences, sales simulations provide an opportunity to “practice” before “prime time”. They provide a safe environment to try new ideas, make mistakes, and get it right the second time.
Enhance predictive power – Some companies use sales training simulations as diagnostics – to observe sales performance and determine additional training requirements.
Accelerate learning and scale up – With sales training simulations, the sales team can experience actual sales challenges they will be facing, ramping up their learning curve rather than putting the total onus on the sales reps to make the transition. If your company is experiencing a time of transformational change, only a few sales reps can, by themselves, adjust and adapt to the “new reality”.

For more than 30 years Dr. Richard Ruff and Dr. Janet Spirer – the founders of Sales Horizons – have worked with the Fortune 1000 to design and develop sales training programs that make a difference. By working with market leaders – such as UPS, Canon USA, Smith & Nephew, Boston Scientific, Xerox, Covidien, Owens & Minor – we have learned that today’s standard for a great sales force significantly differs from yesterday’s picture.

To learn more about how Sales Horizons helps companies achieve sales success, visit our web site at http://www.saleshorizons.com/. Or visit our blog at http://www.salestrainingconnection.com/.

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Sales Management Training: How To Destroy Your Sales Quota in 5 Easy Steps

SalesAnimals — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:43:57 +0000

Here’s some so great news for you: your potential customers have got too many additional vendors to buy from.

Your own sales team is usually way too savvy (as well as a little bit spoiled) too…they are simply a product of a “feel good” era of unlimited success.

There are tons of solutions almost exactly like the ones you have which are simply a mouse click away. Even worse is that chances are your current product or service is likely bordering on a being a commodity!

Now in this kind of super competitive, price-driven business universe most of us reside in, precisely what can a sales manager do regarding this?

The vital thing you will need to try to is to decide on a strategic sales approach which optimizes your own sales results while maximizing and bettering your prospects satisfaction with your products or services.

Seems like a mouthful…but allow me to explain.

With information simply a mouse click away, if you sell a product to a person and they are unhappy with it, the swiftness which that knowledge will get passed from the let-down customer to a would-be client is faster than you can say “Follow me on Twitter”…

For that reason, your own sales team’s sales tactics need to evolve with the times.

What your sales managers need to do is position your product or service under the ultra-high powered electron microscope of scrutiny and determine precisely what “features” of your products and services are TRULY better-quality than the competition.

Several examples are:

* Your expanded support is longer
* Your consumer support number is open a bit longer
* Your price is a little bit cheaper
* Your product or service saves office time because it delivers fewer errors when used
* Your replacement items are built with better quality material

When you figure out those 1 or 2 features you are genuinely outstanding at then implement the 5 key techniques to beating sales quota below:

1. Identify which of those “feature” distinctions between you and your competition are actually significant
2. Figure out precisely what the “benefit” of that particular feature is
3. Figure out the “benefit behind the benefit” of that benefit
4. Coach your salespeople on the correct way to articulate this “feature – benefit behind the benefit” tactic in a sales call
5. Settle back and enjoy your sales budgets getting blown out

In our next post we’re going to train your sales managers specifically what questions they need to ask to complete #1 above, in addition to how to find out exactly what the “benefit behind the benefit” actually is.

To learn more about sales management training, click here to get your choice of free sales management training courses.

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Trust Me I’m a Car Salesman!

SalesAnimals — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:29:00 +0000

I have never lied to a customer. Most people feel that the most untrustworthy person alive is the car salesman. I personally have never ever lied to a customer. It’s just not worth it.

My father rest in peace passed on his unblemished name to me who have worked hard over the years to keep it unblemished in the honesty department. Like my father and his father before him we have been womanizers, gamblers and have had our share of fights and skirmishes with the law. Patriotic to a fault (as some may say) I would never take financial advantage of a customer or sell a product I know to be bad.

As a car dealer, test every car, have it serviced, provide a warranty and offer it for sale at a fair price. If you wouldn’t allow a family member to drive a car do not sell it retail. When you buy cars from dealers, select the very best available and often pay a premium price. Good is not cheap and cheap is not good! When dealing with a potential customer, urge them to investigate the online reputation of who they are dealing with, call the dept. of motor vehicles and see any eBay feedback on the dealer. Advise customers that cheapest is not the best.

I promise you one and all Trust is something that must be earned! “Trust me I am a car salesman” is something you must work hard to prove and earn. When selling a car and cannot convince the customer that an extended warranty is indeed necessary for all cars, (after all they are machines) put one on the car anyway at the cost of profit, without disclosing the fact to the customer. If a situation does raise the issue is covered. Sure you reduced my profit by several hundred dollars but the payoff in positive customer satisfaction cannot be measured.

Repeat customers or “selling to sell again” is something I learned at a Ford seminar many years ago and it made sense! Why start with its not covered by lemon law and you have nothing coming when you can say it is not covered but fortunately I did put a warranty on the car just in case of a non-covered breakdown and look I will be covering it! I do these things to protect my good name and to be able to take care of my customer. When you deal with me you deal with World Class Business-practices. Some pay lip service I deliver! “Trust me I’m a Car Salesman” is something customers laugh about but have come to believe when they deal with your company. Profit is not my #1 motivator it’s my good name and reputation.

In a society that has accepted mediocrity try to deliver World-Class customer Service! I urge every dealer to follow this business model and you will be amazed at the payback.

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http://agoodusedcar.com

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Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference in Sales

SalesAnimals — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:36:07 +0000

When you’re working in sales, in fact, any field of business it’s often the case that small changes can have a profound effect on how much you make over the year. Making many small changes for the positive can increase income in a large way as they add up to become a bigger change over all.

Often it’s hard to make a big change all at once, so it’s often easier to make some small changes each day, or week and keep them up until they become a habit. Once a positive habit has formed you can go ahead and create another change that will have a positive effect.

Try some of the following as examples of some areas you can change easily to have a good positive effect on your income today:

1. Increase your intensity to 110%. This little trick improves your output by adding a sense of urgency to your day. It’s a perfect example of how to improve your day by just a little bit at a time. Just add that extra 10% today and over time you’ll find that you’ve increased your output by much more. You’ll have set the benchmark higher and you’ll automatically work at a higher intensity and therefore get more done.

2. Improve your processes. This is a great way to get more time out of your day. If you’ve got a system in place that you use often during your work day and you’ve got the ability to adjust how it’s done then do it! Take the time to check out all the areas of your system and make changes that will make it work better. No shortcuts. Even add steps that make it more efficient in the long run. This will prevent double handling and make sure you have more time to do the important things.

3. If you’re in sales, then add an up-sell question to every single sale you perform. This is similar to the McDonald’s term: “Would you like fries with that?” and it works! If you can get every person in your business to ask such a simple question then you’ll get a massive increase in sales. Even if your rate of increased sales is only 3-5 % then you’ll still increase your sales dramatically! Then it’s time to add another!

Try adding something to your business today. And then something else tomorrow! Keep going until you achieve your goals as it’s the little steps that make up a long journey.

Written by Dave Vower

The author has been writing articles online for over 4 years now. Not only does this author specialize in health, fitness and relationships you can also check out his latest websites on Spring Free Trampoline and Roller Hockey Equipment

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The New Sales and Marketing, Playing a Different Game! by Dave Brock, Partners in Excellence

SalesAnimals — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:56:01 +0000

We all know that customers are changing the way they buy. It’s driving profound change in the way sales and marketing need to engage customers. Traditionally, we have been somewhat at odds with each other, working in our own silo’s.

Marketing would conduct all sorts of programs to increase awareness, drive demand, generate leads. Marketing would hand those off to sales-sales would reject them, we would go back and forth a little, a few leads would be qualified and then sales took over, marketing’s job was finished, the ball was in sales court, it became sales’ responsibility to close the customer. Marketing’s role was relatively independent of sales, and the processes were executed sequentially. Often one could be successful-achieve their own metrics or goals, while the other might not.

Things have changed. Customers are buying differently. The game has changed for marketing and sales. My friend, Rich Bravman describes the new marketing and sales as something like a basketball team.

Each person on the team has a role, the team moves up and down the court together, passing the ball to each other, running plays, all trying to get someone in the best position to score. The team works together, defending against the opponent, each person taking a role, whether it is to cover a specific opponent or cover a zone. Fluidity and adaptability is key to the success of the team. The ball always is passed to the person that can move the ball further down court or is in the best position to score.

The new sales and marketing is much like playing basketball. Each of us has our role, but we need to work together through the entire customer engagement cycle. Our goals are aligned-we are all working together to make goals and to win the game. Our roles are intertwined, we work together through the entire process, passing the ball back and forth. We pass the ball to the person who can move it further down court, position us best for making a goal. It may be sales in some cases, in others it may be marketing.

Plays become more dynamic-changing to fit the situation. It’s no longer a sequential process, but interleaved. In the new sales and marketing, sales must engage sooner-and differently. Marketing stays engaged longer. We pass the ball back and forth to each other, we go down court together, we are aligned around our goals and metrics.

Are your sales and marketing teams aligned and playing the new game?

Dave Brock is President and CEO of Partners In EXCELLENCE, a global management, leadership, sales, and marketing consulting company. Partners In EXCELLENCE helps clients achieve the highest levels of performance by focusing on the customer.

Read more at Dave’s blog: Making A Difference– http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com, or visit Partners In EXCELLENCE website: http://www.excellenc.com

Dave can be reached directly at dabrock@excellenc.com

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re-printed with permission from the author

You’re Not A Consultant, You’re a Salesperson!

SalesAnimals — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 17:25:47 +0000

Today, I was coaching a good friend on some sales calls. We were role playing the call, he was struggling with telling the customer who he was and what his company did (they developed and sold software products). He had the same problem I see many sales people have. We have been so indoctrinated with being consultative and solutions focused that we are reluctant to call ourselves “sales people.” We dance around the issue, we don’t even put the title “Sales Person” on our business cards, we cloud it with some different kind of title. (I particularly like Relationship Manager, we have some friends that are having some problems in their marriage, maybe they can use a Relationship Manager.)

We are not consultants-unless you really are. We sell solutions that solve very specific problems for customers. When we are prospecting, we are looking for people and organizations that have the problems we solve. We are not interested in helping our customers solve world hunger-unless our company develops these solutions. We want to be consultative and solutions focused in understanding our customers problems, requirements, and goals-but only as they pertain to solutions we provide. Otherwise, we are wasting their time and our time. Customers want to know what we can do for them very quickly. They want to hear, “We help people who want to achieve this. We do it by providing software tools that enable your people to do this.” If we have done our homework, hopefully we have an inkling that they are worried about these issues before we even call them. Have they responded to our marketing campaigns? Have we seen news about their company that indicate they may have a need or requirement? Are all the companies in their industry having the same problems?

Let’s give our customers credit. They know we are sales people, they know that we will be trying to present our products and services, possibly persuading them to buy. These days, they probably won’t be interested in meeting with us unless they had some potential, possibly very remote interest in what we are selling-that still doesn’t make them a qualified customer, but it does make them a possible prospect. We want to determine if they have problems we can solve. They want to determine if we have the potential of solving their problem, if they are interested in talking to us further.

A customer isn’t looking for a consultant-unless they really are. They are looking for people to help them solve problems. They are looking to address new opportunities. They want to talk to people that can solve their problems. They may not know they have a problem, then they may not want to talk to anyone-getting their interest in this case is another blog.

We’re sales people, we provide solutions to help our customers do certain things. We want to find customers who want to do that. Let’s give our customers the respect to be direct with them and hope they are direct with us. Seems so much simpler.

Read more at Dave’s blog: Making A Difference– http://partnersinexcellenceblog.com, or visit Partnes In EXCELLENCE website: http://www.excellenc.com.

Dave can be reached directly at dabrock@excellenc.com.

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