Unfortunately for all buyers, each selling organization and their individual sales professionals are unique and often require immense amounts of energy to build a relationship with. This keeps buyers guessing, which in turn keeps the sales organization guessing. It's a constant game being played out across offices across the country.
To help both sides, it may be prudent to go back to root cause of these ambiguity. The only common denominator across all sales organizations and all buying organizations is the dollar sign. Surprise! Buyers and sellers are concerned about the same thing! The buying organization wants more revenue through decreased revenue; the selling organization wants more revenue through sales. The bottom line-- we all want more revenue.
The item that keeps most C-level executives up at night is how to engage in the global marketplace to increase revenue or reduce costs-that's it. All decisions being made today, whether it's compliance to new laws, expansion into new markets, or whether to lay anyone off, can be traced back to these two sides of the dollar sign. The key for many companies is to focus on aligning marketing, sales, and customer service functions to that common dollar sign--but this is easier said than done. What many companies fail to do is to align these systems to the buying organization and their actual buying processes instead of forcing their process onto the buying organization.
This approach can be summarized as:
(1) Know your customer,
(2) Know your product,
(3) Be ready for the customer to buy, and
(4) Stay engaged with the customer after the sale.
Many organizations train their sales professionals, marketing departments, and customer service representatives on their product, but stop there. As a result, they have spent millions of dollars on training with little results. The problem with this approach is quite simple; they have not first asked "what is the process the buying organization uses in relation to these four phases?"
Believe it or not, the occupation that must understand this question absolutely and definitively is the sales profession. This is because the sales profession has the responsibility for converting market demand into revenue for the selling organization by understanding the desire to increase revenue in the selling organization. Sales professionals fill a critical position in any company by spanning boundaries from one organization to the other. The sales organization (sale professionals, and all supporting infrastructure) must build relationships, understand the customer, and articulate how bring value to the lives of their buyers. This in turn helps the subsequent customer. Sound confusing? Try doing it with a CFO of a telecom firm in the morning, a VP of Marketing in an IT software firm at lunch, and a CEO of a fortune 1000 at night!
The question is not "how do project our sales process onto the buyer?" The real question is "how do we facilitate the customer experience?"
As an example, how would your organization sell to the federal government? Would it be easy to do so if your organization had never done it before? The reason why it is difficult to sell to the federal government lies in difficulty of understanding how the federal government procures their goods and services. By understanding how the government buys obviously helps companies understand how to sell. This needs to happen in every industry, with every buying customer. Unfortunately, this crucial understanding is often overlooked, at the expense of driving lop-line growth.
Brian is the Chairman and Founder of the the United Professional Sales Association (UPSA). UPSA is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington DC that has addressed the concerns and challenges of individual sales professionals. Brian has authored the world's first universal selling standards and open-source selling framework for free distribution. This 'Compendium of Professional Selling' containing the commonly accepted and universally functional knowledge that all sales professionals possess. The open-source selling standards have been downloaded in 16 countries by over 300 people. Over 30 people have made contributions.
Because UPSA is not owned by one person or any company, it is a member organization and guardian of the global standard of entry into the sales profession.
Find out about the membership organization and understand the processes and framework of professional selling at the UPSA Website at http://www.upsa-intl.org. Find out more about Brian at: http://www.upsa-intl.org
"If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't... Read More
Opportunities for home show businesses have never been more abundant.... Read More
Today is a Red Letter Day! It's special because today... Read More
Small business owners often enter their field with great expectations.... Read More
In the first article we mentioned the main characteristics that... Read More
The day care industry is expanding. There are now more... Read More
Business Process Automation or BPA for short. This was a... Read More
As a franchisor I am always asked by new and... Read More
When starting a business, you have to determine the method... Read More
What's your job profitability? I meet with business owners every... Read More
A suggestion box is a really good idea for your... Read More
The FTC Franchise Rule maybe changed, as the Federal trade... Read More
As a practitioner and student of Small Business Marketing, I... Read More
When you awoke this morning, you found yourself buzzing with... Read More
What does buying a fat pig have to do with... Read More
Why do you need an account plan?When you first decide... Read More
Many companies wish to expand and a few wish to... Read More
How do you find groups that are in need of... Read More
With all the cabinet refacing business opportunities out there, you... Read More
CONSIDERING COMPANY NEEDS: In identifying your needs for the internship,... Read More
And is having a logo really that important?My answer to... Read More
It's a strange anomaly.Most people who set out to start... Read More
Looking for ways to boost your cash flow? As a... Read More
Many new ventures are preoccupied with all the money they... Read More
What is the best time to expand a mobile car... Read More
A Private Investigator is a professional trained in the art... Read More
Do you have a Business Plan? Congratulations, but you are... Read More
One of the major complaints in the QSR Quick Service-Fast... Read More
Has this ever happened to you... 'John, you have a... Read More
Perhaps you are building a new home office or you... Read More
Most business owners do not think of selling their companies... Read More
If you own a Pressure Washing Company and wish to... Read More
Everything starts with a business plan: If you don't have... Read More
How do we keep track of our business deals?If you... Read More
I started working with another new client last week. He... Read More
Back when I owned an inventory-based business, one of my... Read More
You want to know more about making money with your... Read More
The Federal Trade Commission which governs the franchise industry thru... Read More
To maximum potential profits and dollars in a mobile washing... Read More
Incorporation in Nevada has become an attractive option for savvy... Read More
After over thirty years advising small business it still comes... Read More
We hear a lot of talk about junk mail nowadays.... Read More
There were only an estimated 1800 active franchisors in this... Read More
I have a confession to make. My name is Caroline... Read More
My colleague, Jane, recently lamented to me an all too... Read More
I recently met with a very successful magazine publisher who... Read More
What is in an information plan?Before you even meet with... Read More
There are several well-known truck washes in the Great State... Read More
In the heavy equipment cleaning business you can make good... Read More
It's the dream of every person who starts a business... Read More
Small Business |