Posted at 12:19 AM in A-Player Planning | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This post was provided by my friend and colleague, Duane Cashin. Duane maintains over 20 years as a top salesperson and entrepreneur. He helps his clients understand how to effectively differentiate themselves in today's crowded marketplace. The first time I saw him speak was at the Rackspace User's Conference it was instantly apparent that his advice was as good as gold. So enjoy and if you want more visit Duane at The Differentiation Zone!
"The bar has been raised for all of us today. Information for information's sake doesn't cut it. You have to be smarter than that. When you link the information to my situation and demonstrate it's relevance to me, then you get my attention." "I don't buy products! I buy support. I buy vision. Things change so rapidly today I need the people I buy from to stick around. I need them to be my eyes and ears as it relates to their area of specialty and give me a heads up when things change. I hate surprises." "I want to do business with smart people. In fact I don't want to do business with "sales people" I want to do business with "business people". I will only give my loyalty to someone who can make it very clear to me they study, they observe and they understand. I want to do business with people that understand risk and what it's like to walk in my shoes. I want a competitive edge." Over the last 12 months I have personally witnessed four individuals, who are new to sales, embrace the above three elements. I have watched them study, learn and apply the concepts. And I have watched them systematically capture the attention of top decision makers and successfully sell their products and services. Do you Grok it?The Danger in Relationship Selling by Duane Cashin
If you ask executives and company owners how they define effective relationship selling they will often start with what it isn't. "It's not dropping off sell sheets with product information or tickets to some game or event. It's not a slick power point in a feature rich presentation. Heck my daughter, who is in high school, can put together a killer power point." So what does it take to develop a "meaningful" relationship with top decision makers?
Here are some of the key elements executive decision makers tell us they want in a business relationship:
Relationship selling can give us all a powerful advantage and help us differentiate ourselves in today's crowded markets. If we take the advice of executive level buyers we will realize our greatest success in transitioning our approach from thinking and acting like "sales people" to that of "business people"!
Posted at 12:58 AM in A-Player Planning | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
My Pops sent me an old book he came across at a book sale and I think the title is going to stick with you… Timid Salesmen have Skinny Kids, by Judge Ziglar (yes, the younger brother of Mr. Zig Ziglar). Judge Ziglar broke the world record in 1964 for selling more than $104k in cookware. By 1978, he had made more than 40,000 sales calls. Just thinking about Judge’s plight makes me feel pretty damn fortunate. We get to sell stuff that’s a hell of a lot more interesting (no offense to cookware fanatics) and we don’t have to spend 80-90% of our time on the road to reach our revenue goals! It’s been awhile since I’ve used the Ben Franklin close – so I laughed my butt off when it happened to be on the first page I opened.
Continue reading "Timid Salespeople Have Skinny Kids - the other Ziglar!" »
Posted at 02:26 AM in A-Player Planning | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
When I started in Sales, my boss threw me a call script and a printed sheet of company names to start calling (a few contacts were sprinkled in as a bonus). I remember how excited I got when someone on the other end was interested in what I was selling. Any of you that have ever cold called before, you know the feeling well! Let’s face it; cold calling has a negative reputation in sales and customer circles. “How dare someone I’ve never met call me and try to sell me something!” they say. I got news for you – if it weren’t for the tens of thousands of telesales reps out there plugging away at the phones, the world economy would be but a fragment of what it is today! So pick up the phone for goodness sakes!
Two thoughts before I tackle the topic of working for free. 1) How about we make everybody feel better and change “cold call” to “initial or intro call”? and 2) In today’s world, true cold calling is reserved for commodity sellers (and perhaps the lazy as you move up the value chain!).
Posted at 02:13 AM in A-Player Planning, Negotiate & Close | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
