Define the Steps of Your Sales Process in Customer Terms
Once you have become clear and specific about the steps customers take as they move through their buying process, replace your “sales process” labels with “customer actions” (or something similar). Having the customer take those actions then becomes the objectives for the salesperson. For example, early in the sales process,… Read More
Skills for Business to Business Selling
People and organizations buy in two ways: Buy-knowing:When buyers already know as much as they need to know in order to buy, they quickly make a decision. Buy-learning: When buyers do not have all the information they need to make an educated purchasing decision, they need to do some research… Read More
Teach Your Salespeople About How Customers Buy
I’ve delivered hundreds of sales training seminars, and always start by asking salespeople two questions. First, “What are the steps of your selling process?” Here, I get clear, concise answers. Most salespeople can describe how they sell. While the answers vary from one salesperson to another, and from one company… Read More
Sales Training Tip #10
Have your sales managers make a list of customer actions that typically occur during the buying process. Get managers to ask salespeople about customer actions that are being taken, before asking about sales rep actions. Measure the success of a sales call based on what actions the customer takes, not… Read More
Sales Training Tip #9
Convert intangible customer criteria into tangible criteria. You cannot make a case that some feature or capability of your solution is tied to a customer need if you don’t know how the customer defines that need. Ask your customers to describe what they will see or notice if a particular… Read More
Sales Training Tip #8
Sales Training Tip #7
Keep close contact with the customer, especially when they are in a comparison mode (evaluating solutions from multiple vendors). If you are asked to deliver a proposal or presentation, the odds are high that the customer is asking other vendors as well. Talk to your sponsor ahead of time to… Read More
Sales Training Tip #6
Don’t “pitch” differentiators that have no connection to customer needs. Pick your company’s top five differentiators, and mention typical customer problems those differentiators solve when you talk to a prospect. See where you get a strong reaction. For a differentiator to become a competitive advantage it must be connected to… Read More
Sales Training Tip #5
If you are brought into the customer’s buying cycle late in the game, try to diagnose a need that your competitors have missed. Coming into a sales opportunity late means you have a lot of catching up to do. All of the customer’s thinking will have been shaped by the… Read More
Sales Training Tip #4
Go down the corporate ladder before going up. Have you been taught to get to executive-level decisions makers as quickly as you can? That’s not bad advice… unless you go there with nothing interesting or important to say about the customer’s business! Going down the organizational chart to talk to… Read More
