To succeed, you need to interpret what the client tells you, and often educate your customer about what's out there.
Being a successful salesperson today involves you in collaboration, facilitation, and a sense of partnership with your customer. Long gone are the days of one-way persuasion -- the canned pitch is considered the lowest level of selling. Ideas about selling have evolved rapidly as globalization and fast communication have produced more savvy and demanding buyers. Selling reflects wider changes in business and today goes far beyond pushing product, embracing an understand of how organizations work, management structures, psychology, and self-awareness.
In the past, a salesperson could get by through eloquently telling the customer everything he or she knew about their product, and explaining why their company was the best in its field. This approach may still win you business today in some areas, but most customers now demand much more from their salespeople. they expect them to add value to their business -- to understand fully their needs and to offer up solutions to problems they didn't even realize they had. To succeed, you need to interpret what the client tells you, and often educate your customer about what's out there. Then you need to mesh together the abilities of your organization with that of the client for the benefit of both. You need a measure of curiosity and good listening skills to uncover what the client really needs. and you must be a brilliant innovator, with the ability to think creatively and manage creative processes that find answers.
ACTION POINT: Don't limit yourself to thinking about only your products and services -- your customers need your creativity to help solve their problems.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Building Meaningful Relationships
Offering good products at competitive prices just isn't enough to win sales in today's competitive market.
People buy from people whom they like, respect, and trust, so selling is really about building and managing relationships. The first step is to find out what your customers expect and demand, and what you need to do to respond accordingly.
Offering good products at competitive prices just isn't enough to win sales in today's competitive market. You can bet that your best ideas will be emulated by others sooner or later. Today's customers expect you to add value to their business - to address their needs an deliver solutions.
ACTION POINT: Focus on adding value to your relationships.
People buy from people whom they like, respect, and trust, so selling is really about building and managing relationships. The first step is to find out what your customers expect and demand, and what you need to do to respond accordingly.
Offering good products at competitive prices just isn't enough to win sales in today's competitive market. You can bet that your best ideas will be emulated by others sooner or later. Today's customers expect you to add value to their business - to address their needs an deliver solutions.
ACTION POINT: Focus on adding value to your relationships.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Selling
Selling is all about combining a set of attitudes, behaviors, and skills in a way that forges long-term relationships with customers.
Selling is a time-honored profession and one that constantly moves with, and adapts to, broader changes in business practice, human interactions, and psychology. Selling is also -- as every salesperson will tell you -- the cutting edge of every business. Without the eyes, ears, and intuition of a good salesperson, the business itself founders.
Every good salesperson knows their products inside and out -- whether these are paper clips, aircraft engines, or consultancy services - and can present them capably to their customers. However, a great salesperson does so much more. He or she understands the customers' needs and brings a problem-solving mentality and real creativity to all interactions.
Selling is all about combining a set of attitudes, behaviors, and skills in a way that forges long-term relationships with customers -- relationships that add value to the customer's business and that yield not just one deal, but many.
Despite some bad press over the years, selling is a worthy profession. The goal of this series is to open your mid in a way that helps you approach selling in a very different way and that introduces you to skills you must demonstrate every day.
ACTION POINT: Study the profession of selling.
Selling is a time-honored profession and one that constantly moves with, and adapts to, broader changes in business practice, human interactions, and psychology. Selling is also -- as every salesperson will tell you -- the cutting edge of every business. Without the eyes, ears, and intuition of a good salesperson, the business itself founders.
Every good salesperson knows their products inside and out -- whether these are paper clips, aircraft engines, or consultancy services - and can present them capably to their customers. However, a great salesperson does so much more. He or she understands the customers' needs and brings a problem-solving mentality and real creativity to all interactions.
Selling is all about combining a set of attitudes, behaviors, and skills in a way that forges long-term relationships with customers -- relationships that add value to the customer's business and that yield not just one deal, but many.
Despite some bad press over the years, selling is a worthy profession. The goal of this series is to open your mid in a way that helps you approach selling in a very different way and that introduces you to skills you must demonstrate every day.
ACTION POINT: Study the profession of selling.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Staying On Top
...it is about making a conscious choice to create your future.
Strategy is not about devising and implementing a linear path toward one particular outcome -- it is a way of thinking that must be in the forefront of your mind as you observe the world around you, and it must permeate every decision you make. It may take time to adopt a strategic way of thinking, but once you do it will become second nature.
At its heart, strategic thinking is very simple. In fact, it is as simple as one, tow, three: One, where are we now? Two, where do we want to go? and three, how do we get there? It is within the role of any team leader, manager, small business owner, or organizational leader to know their current situation and what they want to achieve in the next three to five years, and to work with others to reach that goal. However, strategy is not about designing a map for the future and then setting it in stone -- it is a dynamic process that defines a broad path along which you and your organization or team will achieve success.
You must always be thinking strategically. When something unexpected happens, your first thought should be " how does this affect our strategy?" and you must be ready to reevaluate or change strategy if you need to. Even once you have implemented a strategy and achieved the outcome you were hoping for, you must fight the thought that you can simply do the same again and still be successful. The world around you -- the context in which you are making strategic decisions -- never stays still. Stay alert to your changing environment and always look for new and better options. Strategic management is not about making continuous knee-jerk reactions to a series of unconnected events -- it is about making a conscious choice to create your future.
ACTION POINT: Develop and practice the habit of thinking strategically.
Strategy is not about devising and implementing a linear path toward one particular outcome -- it is a way of thinking that must be in the forefront of your mind as you observe the world around you, and it must permeate every decision you make. It may take time to adopt a strategic way of thinking, but once you do it will become second nature.
At its heart, strategic thinking is very simple. In fact, it is as simple as one, tow, three: One, where are we now? Two, where do we want to go? and three, how do we get there? It is within the role of any team leader, manager, small business owner, or organizational leader to know their current situation and what they want to achieve in the next three to five years, and to work with others to reach that goal. However, strategy is not about designing a map for the future and then setting it in stone -- it is a dynamic process that defines a broad path along which you and your organization or team will achieve success.
You must always be thinking strategically. When something unexpected happens, your first thought should be " how does this affect our strategy?" and you must be ready to reevaluate or change strategy if you need to. Even once you have implemented a strategy and achieved the outcome you were hoping for, you must fight the thought that you can simply do the same again and still be successful. The world around you -- the context in which you are making strategic decisions -- never stays still. Stay alert to your changing environment and always look for new and better options. Strategic management is not about making continuous knee-jerk reactions to a series of unconnected events -- it is about making a conscious choice to create your future.
ACTION POINT: Develop and practice the habit of thinking strategically.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Work Environment and People Development
We must place great importance on the personal lives and character of our employees
A healthy work environment creates a good foundation that permits people to work effectively, develop themselves, and achieve their aspirations. The good manager places strong emphasis on creating a good work environment.
Is the daily focus on real work or on psycho-politics? Which gets more attention office politics and employee feuds or things such as marketing, planing,and production. Regardless of the goals, the problem is all organizations are social systems plagued with all the imperfections associated with human beings. While people set out to cooperate as a team moving toward the corporate goals, people want to control their own destiny and people have problems. These problems do more to squelch real work than anything else in the work environment.
Anxiety is one of these human imperfections. Anxiety is that awful feeling in the pit of our stomach when uncertainty reigns and the fear of the future abounds. People don't tolerate anxiety well. Good managers work quickly to resolve this problem.
The condition of ones self-esteem is also powerfully at work. It can be a stabilizer or your emotional buzz-saw. We must destroy the age old myth - I can build myself up by tearing him down.
The ever present "personal problem" also greatly affects how we work. One can only focus on so many things. Which problem do you think is at the top of the priority list, how to increase production or ones personal problem? We must place great importance on the personal lives and character of our employees and certainly potential employees.
The manager must work hard in this area. We must be sensitive. The goal is to drive real work while diminishing political aspirations, occupational sparring and relational problems.
We should teach that self-development and positive contribution are the route to freedom from anxiety and to positive self-esteem. We should teach that good relationships are established and nourished by giving, not taking.
ACTION POINT: Create a good work environment and encourage the self development of your team.
A healthy work environment creates a good foundation that permits people to work effectively, develop themselves, and achieve their aspirations. The good manager places strong emphasis on creating a good work environment.
Is the daily focus on real work or on psycho-politics? Which gets more attention office politics and employee feuds or things such as marketing, planing,and production. Regardless of the goals, the problem is all organizations are social systems plagued with all the imperfections associated with human beings. While people set out to cooperate as a team moving toward the corporate goals, people want to control their own destiny and people have problems. These problems do more to squelch real work than anything else in the work environment.
Anxiety is one of these human imperfections. Anxiety is that awful feeling in the pit of our stomach when uncertainty reigns and the fear of the future abounds. People don't tolerate anxiety well. Good managers work quickly to resolve this problem.
The condition of ones self-esteem is also powerfully at work. It can be a stabilizer or your emotional buzz-saw. We must destroy the age old myth - I can build myself up by tearing him down.
The ever present "personal problem" also greatly affects how we work. One can only focus on so many things. Which problem do you think is at the top of the priority list, how to increase production or ones personal problem? We must place great importance on the personal lives and character of our employees and certainly potential employees.
The manager must work hard in this area. We must be sensitive. The goal is to drive real work while diminishing political aspirations, occupational sparring and relational problems.
We should teach that self-development and positive contribution are the route to freedom from anxiety and to positive self-esteem. We should teach that good relationships are established and nourished by giving, not taking.
ACTION POINT: Create a good work environment and encourage the self development of your team.
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