Be Honest With Yourself

Customers are smarter and more educated today; market dynamics demand this.

Ask yourself ----- Do I demonstrate these key characteristics? If not study the key factors. Practice on improving your skills. Take the information you have as a sales professional in your market and build unique solutions that solve your customer’s problems even if those problems have nothing to do with selling them product. They can buy stuff from anyone. They will buy it from you to get the “out of the box” benefits.

Customers no longer spout off about quality products and reliable deliveries. That’s a given. And, relationship equity today is still extremely important but it often becomes the ante to even play the game. Although all customers are trained to say, “Your Price is too High,” if you find their pain and provide solutions you can become “Supplier of Choice”.

Some Pain Examples:

•Recruiting & retention of employees

•Training of employees

•Getting and keeping customers

•Emergency crises

•Business management skills

•Constant stream of new competitors

•Profitability

•Productivity

•Cost effectiveness

•Inventory management

•Employee turnover

In today’s turbulent economy it’s not about the features and benefits of your product. It’s about value and how your customers are going to make a profit, improve productivity or reduce costs. You no longer just sell yourself and everything falls into place. Customers are smarter and more educated today; market dynamics demand this. You must bring every resource your company has into play and leverage those resources to create competitive advantage. Learn to really listen to your customers. Let them talk and when there seems to be a pause in the conversation and resist the temptation to start talking again. Chances are good that the customer has more to say. The quieter you are the more they will tell you. Listen long enough with a few strategically placed questions and the customer might just tell you exactly how to gain their business (and it won’t just be about price).

ACTION POINT: Practice on improving your sales skills to become the supplier of choice.