What business are you really in? It's not unusual for salespeople to say, "I'm in the real estate business," "I sell cars" or "I sell insurance."
The truth is that far too many people believe they are in the wrong business! Let's go further. Ask a salesperson what they sell, and wanting to appear knowledgeable they'll say, "I sell myself." Others will say, "I sell value."
The facts? All of them are wrong! Lots of salespeople have a surprisingly simplistic view that forces them to concentrate on their product, selling themselves or even pushing the benefits they believe their product brings to the customer.
Now that we are in the 21st century, it should become increasingly clear to sales organizations that they need to better define several issues. Here they are:
- Who is your real customer?
- How does that customer prefer to buy?
- How do you match your approach to their agenda?
Although this may look simple, it is not as fundamental as it may first appear. For example, do you sell through distributors or to end-users?
Internal or external customers? How essential is your product or service to your customers and their core business?
By the same token, do you sell to senior level decision makers (better yet, should you be?) or to middle level or technical buyers? How strategic should your approach be...or should it be purely transactional due to the nature of your product, its price and the expectations of the people who buy it? How well does your approach, strategy and solution interface with the most likely candidate who buys it? Do you force your sales process or philosophy on unwilling recipients?
There should be little doubt that the world of sales and marketing is really "heating up." Tougher competition, more demanding customers, a growing drive for maintaining margin and building customer loyalty are all part of the mix.
Given these dynamics, let's take a hard look at 10 questions you need to ask yourself in order to guarantee your approval will be on target. Here they are:
· How critical is your product or service to your customer's core business strategy?
· Based on the importance of your product or service, are you calling on the right level?
· Are you using a sales approach that is congruent with the expectations and demands of the level you are calling on regularly?
· Do you invest an adequate amount of time understanding the complexity of problems, solutions required and level of commitment your customers are seeking?
· Have you positioned yourself, your organization and your product in a way that attracts favorable attention?
· Are you having difficulty getting the attention of the most critical people you need to be in front of in order to sell your product?
· Do you have the appropriate sales tools, aids and resources that appeal to the correct level of prospect?
· Is the depth of understanding you have of your product at a sufficient level to ensure its proper application?
· Are you equipped to deliver the solutions appropriate to the demand and level of expertise your customer's demand or require?
· Do you have the necessary support from your organization to deliver the most effective solutions your product promises?
The bottom line is that sometimes we are not really in the business we believe we're in at all. Sometimes we're too complicated about things and sometimes we're not as complex as we need to be. Other times we miss the expectation on issues so basic as the type of approach our marketplace demands.
All of this simply means that we are in the business of identifying and delivering specific solutions our customer's demand. And providing them in the ways they expect and are most receptive toward receiving. If more salespeople and sales organizations understood this, there would be more satisfied customers, fewer problems and a better world for everybody.
Perhaps politicians and other public officials could learn a lesson from salespeople about how being in any business means providing effective and positive solutions to people's biggest problems. In the final analysis, isn't that the business everyone should really be in anyway?
