by Art Waskey | Mar 10, 2021 | Art of Sales Weekly
My sales career has been in an industry that provides essential products. Sometimes those products can be in short supply, which makes customers vulnerable to pricing pressure. Salespeople may see product scarcity as an opportunity to maximize their margins at the customer’s expense. If you lose sight of your buyer’s best interest, however, it is likely to cost you in the long-term. I suggest that you carefully evaluate your position before taking advantage of a short supply situation.
Three common traps
Consider these three common selling traps and how they work against guarding your buyer’s best interest.
- Inflating price — When a customer’s urgent need makes it impossible for them to negotiate, you can sell at an inflated price. However, once the crisis passes and your competitor’s pricing is significantly lower, your buyer will likely change suppliers. The lowest price is always the buyer’s goal.
- Overstating capabilities — Leading a customer to believe that you can solve problems beyond your competency is never a good idea. Your buyer knows what he needs to get the job done. Over promising a solution in order to make a sale never ends well. When you hear, “…but you promised,” you have overstepped your reach and will likely not see any more business.
- Overselling the product — Are you pitching a product or service that is too sophisticated for the customer’s need? If your client’s original equipment does a better job than the new product you deliver, there will be complaints. Selling technical capabilities that are beyond a customer’s particular need leads to buyer’s revenge sooner or later.
Buyer’s Best Interest
If you are interested in developing long-term sales relationships, always keep the buyer’s best interest in mind. Most short-term deals made under the above circumstances lead to lack of buyer trust and future sales. I have seen these traps create great anxiety for sales professionals, and even job loss. Paraphrasing William Shakespeare: “Hell hath no fury like a buyer’s scorn.”
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by Art Waskey | Mar 2, 2021 | Art of Sales Weekly
You are feeling comfortable with your prospect. During your recent 20 minute conversation, you’ve asked good questions and now know 5 important things about him (see this post about building a business relationship). Your potential client even shares some of the problems he is having with his current supplier. Still, you sense the client hesitating when it comes to making a business commitment. In World-Class-Selling, Roy Chitwood suggests that before a potential customer makes a business commitment, he needs five key assurances.
Before a Buyer Commits
Chitwood describes the areas that are central to gaining a customer’s trust in order to close a deal.
- You – Once you’ve had the chance to get to know your prospect, it’s time to reciprocate. He needs to evaluate your integrity and measure your interest in serving his needs. He’ll assess how likely you are to be a valuable consultant and advisor, or even a close friend. The client also needs to learn how well you have studied his business. Are you capable of determining how your product or service fits his needs?
- The company – A customer needs to have confidence in your company before making a commitment. Make sure your mission statement and good reputation are well known.
- The product or service – The salesperson must demonstrate knowledge of his company’s product or service and how it meets the customer’s need. Can you show how you will solve the customer’s problem?
- The cost – Customers want more than a good price. They want value and to know how soon the product will pay for itself. Remember, people want to buy: they don’t want to be sold.
- Time to buy – If the prospect is satisfied with the above four areas, he then has to decide when is the best time to buy. No one wants to spend money before it is necessary. To get a business commitment, you need to provide assurance on why now is the right time to buy.
Keys to commitment
Think about it. Before you make a decision to buy don’t you look for these five assurances? The keys to a business commitment are universal. Use them to gain your prospect’s trust and signature on that proposal!
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by Art Waskey | Feb 16, 2021 | Art of Sales Weekly
I recently interviewed a man who had been the VP of Sales for a national manufacturer. The company he represented sold through a network of businesses and he was well-versed in developing strategic partnerships with distributors. He saw his buyers falling into three distinct categories.
Three types of customers
- Transactional – This type of customer is only concerned with price. Beware of the buyer focused solely on this — he will quickly switch to the supplier that offers a better deal.
- Engaged — Gaining the trust of a client builds brand loyalty. A customer who is engaged is one with whom you have developed a two-way relationship. You respond to their needs in a timely and honest manner. Be vigilant about guarding that hard won position from other brands trying to tempt your client to switch suppliers with a better value proposition.
- Embedded – An embedded relationship is one typified by mutual respect, long-term commitment, and a strategic partnership. This is a step above the engaged customer and the most ideal position from a sales perspective. Embedded customers are loyal.
Are you Developing Strategic Partnerships
The manufacturer’s long-term distributor relationships were all developed as strategic partnerships in which both parties shared business plans and problems. As VP of an independent distributor for 35 years, I agree. I met with my vendor managers regularly to create game plans that helped us sell their products. It is important to have close contact with your clients. If one of your vendors loses its footing and its brand loyalty deteriorates, it opens a door for your competition to walk in.
Your Value Proposition
It is important to consider these three customer relationships and how they play with your customer base. Are your current customer liaisons transitional, engaged, or embedded? Can they withstand disruption? Work on your value proposition to ensure you develop strategic and lasting partnerships.
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by Art Waskey | Feb 10, 2021 | Art of Sales Weekly, Featured
Were you able to pivot to online meetings when the pandemic closed traditional sales channels? The owner of a high performance car engine manufacturing company told me that he just had his best year, despite the fact that his customers faced completely closed or reduced schedules at race tracks. How did he accomplish this? The company moved fast when the pandemic hit and pivoted to a new sales strategy. To determine how demand for its product might change, engine production was paused and time was spent contacting existing and potential customers via virtual conferencing. The company found that the race community had more discretionary money to spend on engines than they ordinarily would as other business costs (like travel, entertainment, etc.) had been lowered or eliminated.
The benefits of online meetings
While in-person sales calls are still a great way to present your product, the pandemic has proven that online meetings are also a viable way to sell. Here are some of the benefits of virtual conferencing.
- Meet anytime, anywhere – There are significant time savings and productivity gains associated with meeting online. Without travel, the volume of calls can be greatly increased. At the engine shop, the owner reported bringing in more new customers in one day than they previously did in two.
- Put a name to a face – People like to see with whom they are dealing and video conferencing enables this. For the engine manufacturer, clients began requesting online meetings once that format was introduced.
- A quick path to the decision maker — With video conferencing, all the key players involved in a sale, including the owner, can come together at the same time, even if they are in different locations.
- Reach a wider network – Online video enables meetings with potential customers that previously may have been considered outside your territory. The engine maker now has out-of-state clients.
- Better customer follow-up – Virtual online checkups can rapidly measure a customer’s approval of your product or service. The engine manufacturer found that online follow-up improved their customer’s post-sales experience.
A new era
Make sure you are ready to pivot from traditional to online meetings. The pandemic has ushered in an effective new way to market goods and services —online sales communications — which are certain to remain an important part of business going forward.
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by Art Waskey | Jan 25, 2021 | Art of Sales Weekly
Unseating the Competition
Customers get comfortable with their existing suppliers and this makes it difficult to unseat the competition and win new business. I recently visited an account with a rep who saw flagrant safety protocols being breached by the business’ current supplier. As a producer of scientific glassware, this account required a large number of high-pressure hydrogen cylinders and their supplier had lax material handling procedures for this explosive gas. In addition, we identified that the company was not being provided the most efficient mode of supply. When we tried to win this account on the promise of safer and better service, the owner’s response was, “We have been doing it this way for years and have never had an issue.” Unfortunately it took an accident that led to both the competitor and customer being issued safety violations, to change his mind.
Response Modes
The above case illustrates how difficult it can be to overcome a client’s negative response to a sales proposal. In their book, The New Strategic Selling, Robert Miller and Stephen Heilman, address this issue and suggest that each Buying Influencer at an account will have one of four response modes to a proposal. They advise paying careful attention to these factors:
- Overconfident – Many customers have Buying Influencers who are overconfident with their current supplier. The Ultimate Decision-Maker in the above account was too comfortable with his method of supply.
- Growth – The glassmaker was growing and the User Buying Influencer agreed with us that they needed to move from cylinders to bulk supply of hydrogen. He was tired of the time it took his team to stop and exchange the manifolds of cylinders, but his voice fell on deaf ears.
- Trouble – The Technical Buying Influencer, an engineer, recognized the cost savings of going to bulk supply as well as the trouble with existing safety protocols, but he didn’t want to “rock the boat” with the owner.
- Even Keel – We discussed the cost savings of our proposal with the corporate controller, the Economic Buying Influencer, but he couldn’t be convinced. He liked to keep things on an even keel.
Spend More Time with Buying Influencers
You don’t have to let an accident be the factor that changes a customer’s mind. Take time to review your top prospects and key accounts. For each company, examine the response of each influencer to your proposal and make a coordinated effort to get them all on board. These are the people who are critical to supporting your proposal and enabling you to win new business.
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by Art Waskey | Jan 18, 2021 | Art of Sales Weekly
The tactical presentation
Selling involves strategy and the driver of any good tactical plan is a robust sales funnel. For a sales presentation to succeed, you need to be in the right place, with the right person, at the right time.
All this requires good data on your sales prospects. Why? Consider your odds at winning any sales deal. In an article by James Duffy, author of More Than Account, he explains that 8% of sales people capture 80% of the sales, and that 80% of their prospects buy after being asked for the fifth time. In other words to be among the top 8% of individuals who close most accounts, you need persistence, dedication, and a really good sales funnel. Your most precious commodity — selling time — is maximized if you have good data on your prospects.
A sales funnel
What should be in your sales funnel? Start with a list of your top 10 prospects and key account penetration opportunities. For each of these accounts, record the following information:
- Quantity —Quantify the product or service you are selling in either dollars or volumes. Be specific. For example, you are proposing 100 computers per month, or a $200,000 automated system.
- Next step – What needs to be done on the next call to move the decision forward? Do you plan to bring a specialist to demonstrate the product or service to prove the cost savings, for instance?
- Timing – When do you expect to accomplish the next step?
- End date – What is your estimated date for the completion of the sale?
Prioritize and Review
Your sales funnel should be prioritized, reviewed weekly, and discussed with a sales manager monthly. Operate with the adage, “If it isn’t measured and reviewed consistently, it won’t happen.” A good funnel allows you to see each sale in motion and gives you the confidence today that will ensure a closure tomorrow.
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