At the end of the day why does a customer choose to do business with you? Was it because you had the best price? The product with the best features? The delivery? Because you were in the right place at the right time? Let's face it, at the end of the day in a competitive sales situation (particularly a large enterprise one) all the factors come pretty close in the final analysis: price generally meets price within a narrow bandwidth, the schedules are close and the feature set has pluses and minuses on each side...it isn't any one thing that puts you over the top and makes the sale. It isn't some magical closing line you have practiced in the mirror or a single compelling presentation. Or is it?
I think it is simply this: It is the sales person's personality and demeanor that makes the difference. In my experience I have seen buyers choose the lesser product, sometimes at a higher price and I can only see one common thread among all the sales reps that I have managed, coached or fired. The customer wants to be around you when the problems come - they have decided that you are person that they want to solve problems with. You have that chemistry, that flexibility, that quick mind, empathy, that understanding of their business and their own personal plight that they believe will be there throughout the sale and delivery. They somehow know that you will not only be their advocate but their bodyguard and friend. An overstatement? Not really, since deep down we are all driven by similar needs and desires. And buyers are analytical and emotional at the same time - and when the side-by-side analysis is complete with full knowledge and all the numbers spread out there, emotion comes into play and trumps it all.
Put another way, a customer often buys from the person who they want to see hanging round their office helping them, somebody who when they call it is a relief not a dread to here from them - whether it is a glitch or it is great news.
Call it a fancy name like 'Partnering', or whatever you like. Just look in the mirror and ask what you can do to be more like that person that every customer is looking for. Sure maybe you have to bone up on your product knowledge, presentation skills or writing - or maybe you just have to figure out how to be a better person: and your career will take care of itself.
Yeah, I kn
ow: Who wants a self-help sermon when readers are looking for some quick sales tips? But stay with me here....I ran across an item posted in a non-profit website at www.becauseitmatters.net They outline the "10 Ways to Increase Civility". And when reading that list and the explanations - it occurred to me that isn't that the profile of the perfect salesperson - one who you would want to be solving your problems, partnering with you and propelling your own career forward? This whole topic was also echoed recently in a USA Today article (12/31/07) about "The Return to Civility" as a reaction to a web-based world where we are connected yet personally detached from one another at the same time. Here is another encouraging and related development: Research indicates that the largest segment of new buyers of high-quality stationary (at Crane/Papyrus Stores etc) are the Millennium generation. Imagine that, young people are buying Thank-you cards and letter-writing materials in huge numbers.
So taken all together, it seems to me that if you took steps to embrace the 10 Steps to Civility you might just see your customers embrace you, and that sales career of yours take off.
