|
|
| Sales Management Information |
|
|
Commodity Sales Prospecting - How to Stand Out From Your Competitors
I have received a number of requests for advice from salespeople and sales managers that sell "commodity" products and services. When I refer to commodities, I don't just mean pork bellies or frozen concentrated orange juice. A commodity is any product or service where the target prospect is likely to be thinking: "I get contacted by (X) salespeople a day that sell (whatever they perceive your product or service to be). Why should I spend any of my time with you?" How can salespeople prospect successfully if their target prospects see them as just one of many possible (and nearly identical) sources for a product or service? The key challenge when prospecting in a crowded field is finding some way to capture enough of a prospect's attention to convince them to meet with you. This all-important first meeting is the starting point for building a relationship, which in turn is a crucial element of success in "commodity" sales. Here are four strategies that will help you win more of these elusive first meetings: 1. Write and distribute Special Reports. What special report could you write that would be useful to your target prospects? Conduct the necessary research, write the report, make sure your name is highlighted on the cover page, and get the report into your prospect's hands. What is the value of a special report that you have authored? Think about it -- How many of your competitors have authored a special report? Do you think authoring a special report might create the impression of significant or unusual expertise? Do you think it might increase your credibility with your target prospects? 2. Deliver Business Interest Seminars. Seminars are another great way to build credibility and initiate relationships. To be effective, they need to address subjects (ideally, problems or frustrations that your company solves) that your target prospects really care about. You and your company can offer these seminars on your own or in partnership with suppliers or other (non-competing) companies that wish to pursue the same target prospects. 3. Build relationships with other salespeople that sell to your target prospects. What other products and services do your target prospects buy? Which companies provide those products and services? Who are the salespeople for those companies? Look to establish mutually beneficial relationships with salespeople from non-competing companies where you can refer prospects to each other. Your success rate for booking appointments from referrals should be much higher than your success rate with cold calls. 4. Learn from successful salespeople in your company that have "cracked the code". You don't have to re-invent the wheel. Invite the successful salespeople in your company to lunch or dinner. Use your time together to pick their brains by asking them the following questions:
Conclusion The key challenge when prospecting for "commodity" product or service sales opportunities is capturing enough of your prospect's attention to convince them to meet with you. This article suggested four strategies to help you win more of these elusive first meetings. Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rigg Sales performance expert Alan Rigg is the author of How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Selling: Why Most Salespeople Don't Perform and What to Do About It. To learn more about his book and sign up for more FREE sales and sales management tips, visit http://www.8020performance.com.
Google News |
|
|
|
Careers and Employment Building Trust For Lifetime Success Trust. What Is A Proposal? And Why Do You Need One? Do you know anyone who regularly wins bids? Or can boast a balanced relationship between doing the hard work of producing proposals and regularly winning the business? How Exhibitors Can Move More Attendees Closer to Buying Q. What's the single, biggest change exhibitors can make to move more prospects closer to a buying? Sales Marketing: 12 Sneaky Tricks To Help You Outsell Your Competition Business can be like war sometimes. Change in Sales Organizations Starts with Me Question: What do the following have in common? Sales Coaching... Fact or Fiction? The old adage in selling has always been, "Find out what they want, then, give it to them." The fundamentals of selling are clearly that elemental. The application thereof, however, continues to be the litmus test that quickly separates the skilled from the rest. Small Business Marketing: Overtaking Your Competitors Few businesses keep tabs on competitors, yet such knowledge can give you a distinctive competitive edge. Building a file on them, looking at everything from the customer's viewpoint and asking suppliers and employees what they know about them can be worthwhile. Keeping a jump ahead of the competition means knowing precisely what they are up to. Here are some tips to help you stay one, if not several, leaps ahead. The Hidden Competition: Avoiding the 2 Most Common Competitors There are really only two types of competitor: The Differences Between A Commercial Collections Agency & Lawyer If your letter writing and phone calls have all failed to resolve a debt issue, it is time to call in a professional - a commercial collection agency or a lawyer specializing in commercial debt collection. How To Have A Successful Retail Sales Event In the 30-plus years I spent working in advertising and marketing, one of the most frequently asked questions I got from retailers was "how can I make sure I have successful sale?" While there are no hard and fast answers to this question, there are some guidelines you can follow to maximize your chances of that sale being successful. 7 Tips for Testing Your Sales and Marketing One marketing technique may work wonders for someone, but that doesn't guarantee that it will do the same for you. The only way to really know what works for YOUR products and YOUR target audience is to experiment. Testing and experimentation are crucial to increasing your profits. How to Beat the 80/20 Rule in Sales Performance -- Part 2 Another key reason why companies suffer from 80/20 performance is their processes for hiring, training and managing salespeople rely almost entirely upon subjective information. Think about it: What are resumes? They are an individual's subjective portrayal of their capabilities and experiences. Profitable Relationships: Is It Amateur Hour or King of the Hill? "We're in the relationship business...airplanes are what we use to provide a service." remarked Colleen Barrett, President and COO Southwest Airlines remarked, How to Keep Projects From Spinning Out Of Control Are you involved in projects that seem to go nowhere in a hurry? Keeping Your Sales Team Motivated Sales managers frequently approach me for advice on how to keep salespeople motivated, especially when sales reps get into a rut - and seem to keep slipping deeper into it. Telling managers what not to do usually solves the problem. Most managers do things to de-motivate salespeople without even knowing it. 6 Common Mistakes in the Sales Hiring Process Is lack of sales results, more sales training costs, months of unearned salary and damage to your company's image or reputation your company's method of NOT finding good salespeople? For most companies it is! Set Yourself up for Trade Show Success Of the many mistakes small business owners make, a big one is participating in trade shows and business expos without a strategy for turning those marketing opportunities into sales. Here are five tips to get you started. Increasing Business Through Distributors You're a small company with a good product. You are confident that the product can sell, but you don't have the financial resources to hire a team of fifty salespeople to market and sell the product for you. You also don't have the staff resources to support those that purchase the product. How do you make your good idea and good product create success for you? Leadership Lessons for Sales Managers Leadership, like class, is hard to define, but easy to spot. Effective Sales Territory Management How you prioritize your sales territory management activities depends upon whether you are managing a territory that has existing customers, or whether you are building your customer base from scratch.
|
| home|Sales Training|Telesales Training|Site map | 
|
© 2006 www.elearn-university.org |
