Are you a talking brochure?

If you find at times you have become nothing more than a talking brochure when trying to influence a customer, it’s time you changed your approach.

The world of selling is continuing to change. Customers need partners to guide them and most are willing to a premium for this advice. If they are not they can always order:

• Online
• Via the phone (Have a free call number with the best customer service team in the country available to process orders)
• Via Fax

Last week I delivered a workshop for account managers on how to be a high performing salesperson. We had a great session together. It was just me and 22 account managers who sell to dentists. The client, one of the best known brands in the world, has engaged NRG Solutions in a bid to improve the results and efficiency of the sales team. We will be working closely together with the management team over this balance of the year helping to drive sales results.

Key messages

The majority of the session was devoted to the skills you would notice in high performing sales people. This included:

• How to offer more to the client than being a talking brochure – The 4p’s of questioning
• The importance of attitude, goal setting and focus
• How to conduct a sales call – The NRG Solutions PRINT sales process
• How to know you are moving forwards with a client
• How to manage your territory to most effectively grow your business
• How and when to adjust your selling style according to the customers buying preference
• Surfacing and dealing with objections
• When and how to close a sale

As the Chinese say a journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step. I think we took that first step last week.

Posted in Sales; Tagged Sales; Posted 18 January 2008 by Steve Herzberg