If selling were simply a process of understanding our customer’s goals and objectives and then coming up with a way to help them achieve them, then we would win every sales opportunity we engage in, wouldn’t we? Unfortunately, there are a few other factors involved. Customers don’t pursue every ‘C’ they can imagine because they [...]
Monthly Archive for September, 2008
We find our customers at what I like to call point ‘A.’ It’s a current state. They probably have all kinds of needs, whether or not they recognize them as such. But what we are looking for is what I call a disparity. It might be a need, problem, pain, obstacle, or it might be [...]
What has been described here represents a major departure from the way many of us have been taught to sell. This approach takes the focus off the product or services solutions that we sell. Instead, it puts the focus on the business results that our clients are trying to achieve and the business value they [...]
Once we have this knowledge we can position our solutions as the means to help them accomplish the goals and objectives they already have, because . . . It’s a lot easier to sell somebody something if it’s positioned as a way to help them achieve a goal or an objective that they already want [...]
Some of the best resources from which to learn about your customer’s business are the various corporate reports that all publicly traded companies, and many private companies, produce and make available to the public. By reading key sections of these documents, you can get an overview of your customer’s business model, their high-level business strategy, [...]
Just about every company and every sales leader I meet and work with tells me, ‘We want our clients to think of us as more than just a vendor. We want to build strong partnerships with our clients.’ You know what? Your clients want that too! They wish somebody would come along who could help [...]
With the exception of those who make their living as purchasing agents or secret shoppers, most people aren’t professional customers. Rather, they are professional engineers, accountants, human resource managers, customer service reps, chief executive officers (CEOs), or whatever. They spend their time thinking about the things that are most important to them and to the [...]