Habit 43: Break Bread with Them
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 43: Break Bread with Them. I’m sure that you would agree that the sales lunch or dinner can be abused. I suggest that this is an incredibly powerful tool to build relationships and sell. It simply depends on how and when it’s used. Building credibility and building relationships is crucial to your success. Early on in a career it is pretty hard to spend all of your time on “C’s” (quotes submitted for approval) and “D’s” (quotes approved for purchase) as they simply do not exist. However, as your book of business ...
Habit 42: Make the Sales Calls!
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 42: Make the Sales Calls! Every salesman knows that making sales calls is really what they're all about. What separates the average salesperson from a "Top Performer" is the "Top Performer" knows who to call on, when to call and how often to call. This seems like pretty straightforward stuff and I'm sure that most salespeople believe that they truly are doing a great job. "Top Performers" develop "Target Account" lists. From these lists, they've developed a book of business that is based on leveraging their successes. In addition, these lists ...
Habit 41: Know your customer/prospect’s justification methodology
July 30, 2017
Selling
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To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 41: Know your customer/prospect's justification methodology and prepare and present a written justification for every "C" project. Knowing the customer/prospect's justification methodology is only half the battle. The other half is being able to prepare justifications so that you can determine if a project is likely to be funded or not. There is no sense chasing a project that does not have the possibility of being funded. Although, politically, you may have to go through some effort to maintain the relationship, this effort can be modified for poorly justified projects, ...
Habit 40: Do You Like Us or Not?
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 40: Know if your company is the preferred vendor or not and why. Once an opportunity has moved in the sales cycle and you've qualified the opportunity as a "C", submitted for approval, it's very important to find out if the customer/prospect likes you and/or your company or not. You do that by asking a simple question. That question is: "Are we the preferred vendor?" It's a straightforward and honest question that deserves an answer. I find many salespeople, particularly those who are not "Top Performers", have a lot of difficulty ...
Habits 38 & 39: Know Your Competition
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at: Habits 38 & 39: Know Your Competition. This should go without saying but I'm sorry to say that very few salespeople actually know anything about the competition. Understanding the competition needs to start with a list of competitors. Do you have a list of your competitors? If you don't, you need to get one and you need to get it soon. Once you have a list of your competitors, you need to list all the products and/or services that they supply and list your comparable product or service next to each of ...
Habit 37: Get the Prospect/Customer to Your Facility
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 37: Plan and execute a visit to your facilities to introduce your people, your company and your processes to every "D" opportunity. It's just as important, if not more important, to get your prospect/customer to come to your facility to view your facility and meet your people. During the visit, they can also view your products or services, develop a feel for your quality, make decisions about the kind of company you are and develop an overall feel for your business. If a facility visit would generate negative opinions in any ...
Habit 36: Let Your Customer Do the Selling
To continue with the "Account Development Habits", let's look at Habit 36: Let Your Customer Do the Selling. Why should you work so hard when you can let your customer do the selling? This doesn't sound right, does it? Or does it? Prospective customers/prospects field visits to existing customer sites to demonstrate your product or service is a crucial "Sales Cycle" event. Again, why should you sell when you can let your customer do the selling? Who is a more believable source, you or a customer that actually uses your product or service? The answer is obvious; a prospective customer will believe a ...
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