Look back on your sales career.
Think about those critical business skills that really matter.
Not how to read a P&L or sandbag a budget.
But the real-life interpersonal skills that helped you succeed with customers.
Things like:
- Introducing yourself to customers at a trade association lunch
- Proper etiquette at a dinner meeting with customers
- Working the room at a formal cocktail party
- Getting customers to like you
These skills aren’t taught. You had to learn them yourself, tossed into the pool without water wings. (more…)
August 27th, 2010
You may already have it – that is if you’re a contract service supplier.
From the first day you started service you’re a potential victim of incumbent-itis.
As you work diligently towards “wowing” your new client, you’re also on the road towards the first rebid.
And there will be a rebid. (more…)
August 19th, 2010
Economic news these days is a jumble of cries about double dip recession and the U.S. succumbing to a Japanese-style “lost decade” with multiple recessions.
From the media’s perspective the economy is a very frightening animal. Fear-inducing articles sell ad space.
So their perspective is often short-term, the immediate take on last month, quarter, or year. Keep the fear factor up and so goes ad revenue.
Until one looks at a more historical view, which is what “The Recession Dating Game” by Michael Boskin does. He presents a longer term perspective on the economic situation and puts it in historical context. (more…)
August 5th, 2010
If there’s one must-have, die-without sales training, it’s understanding Points of View (POV)…that are not one’s own.
POV is the genesis of customers buying, contracting, managing, and changing suppliers. Of contractors selling, serving, retaining, and profiting from customers.
Can’t understand a customers’ POV? No business. Period. End of story.
Understand how customers view the world, and contractors can: (more…)
July 24th, 2010
“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” (Travis Bickle, Taxi Driver, 1976)
Many sales people feel calling on prospects’ C-suite is like confronting Travis on a bad day. It makes them anxious, sweaty. They’d rather talk to anyone other than the CEO.
Then there’s the fearless but clueless salesperson. The one who attempts ramming their way into the exec office totally unprepared. (more…)
July 13th, 2010
Facility service contracts don’t exist in a vacuum.
There’s always competition. Those you know about, and those that come out of the woods at the 11th hour.
Isn’t it tempting to tell customers what you really think about your competition?
While giving vent to your innermost feelings may be therapeutic for the moment, successful business lives another way. (more…)
June 28th, 2010
Obviously we do if we’re selling or managing sales. But buyers (aka prospects or customers) have no reason to care. They receive no benefit by helping sales people.
As dumb and basic as this sounds, most sales people still work as if this wishful thinking were true. They expect buyers to do the sellers’ work, helping sales people sell.
Doubt this? Ask a salesperson to answer the following: (more…)
June 17th, 2010
Service sales are odd, facility service sales even more so.
Sales investments are often made on the beginning stages of the sales cycle, i.e. awareness, lead generation, relationships, etc.
Most contractors budget for entertainment, tradeshows, marketing collateral, some even budget for sales training. All worthy and necessary, but………… (more…)
June 9th, 2010
Better than shooting in the dark, prospect profiles (aka targets or ideal customers) make sales and marketing more successful.
They screen out the undesirable and demote the mediocre, making efforts more effective, optimizing investments and producing more desired results (leads, meetings, bids, sales, etc.).
Traditional profiles are good for bucketing prospects’ demographic criteria, such as: (more…)
June 3rd, 2010
Some suspects become prospects -and- some prospects become customers. But attaining customerhood isn’t the end.
Not all customers are created equal. Some are toxic, some dribble in revenue or profit, and some are perfect (while “perfect” is impossible, think of it as “the closest thing to perfect”).
The point of perfect prospects is… (more…)
May 28th, 2010
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