CSC Graduates Participate in Expert Super-Seller™ Panel at Sales Association Annual Conference

Graduates of the Consultative Sales Certification (CSC) program contributed to an expert sales panel discussion during The Sales Association’s Annual Conference in Denver Colorado on November 13, 2014. The panel, Stories from Super-Sellers™ highlighted the successes and best practices of top performing sales and service professionals.

“We refer to CSC graduates as Super-Sellers™ because they have proven consistency and performance in eight consultative sales competencies. While they have all mastered each of these, every sales professional brings unique insights and field application of these skills,” said Jeff Arnold, Executive Director of The Sales Association.

Moderated by Marcia Gauger, CLO of DVR Learning, LLC and co-developer of the Consultative Sales Certification program and Tom D’Agostino, CSC Coach and Chief Training Officer of The Consultative Sales Academy, the panelists shared personal stories of how they build strategic relationships, grow sales opportunities and overcome challenges in dynamic sales environments.

“You have to come to client meetings with a point of view,” said panelist Rick Batia, Vice President of Sales, Mach 1 Global. “The days of just stopping in are long gone.” Batia shared best practices that he instills with his sales team such as using online tools like Newsie and Google Alerts to stay on top of what is changing and relevant to client businesses. “That way, you can bring insights to your clients that really add value and help them solve significant business challenges.”

Consultative Sales Certification is offered as a Sales Association member benefit. Graduates have not only demonstrated capability in eight core consultative sales competencies, but have also committed to excellence in each. CSC graduates subscribe to consultative selling and see themselves as advisors, seeking first to understand. This goes beyond understanding basic needs. They seek to understand their customer’s core business, their goals and vision and the motivation for each influencer. They position their solutions according to the impact on the business and address the individual motivation for each buying influencer.

“While training is a key component of the program, it is application and performance that matters,” says Gauger. “We have proven that sales and service performance is best enhanced when you concentrate on one competency at a time, deliberately apply the concepts during interactions with customers and receive coaching.”

“My environment is very technical and as an engineer, I never considered myself to be a salesperson,” said Richard Bowers, Technical Sales, Sandvik Coromant, Canada. “Now, I can say that sales is the career path that I am actively pursuing. Through this program I have learned that selling is a very teachable and learnable process. This has made a tremendous difference in my ability to read my customers and modify my sales approach according to what best appeals to each.”

Other panelists included Yvette Cheesebrew, Regional Sales Manager, Mach 1 Global and Jeff Rohr, Media Consultant. Cheesebrew shared the importance of communicating as a team and including inside sales and other operations team members in account planning in order to provide holistic solutions to clients. “I grew up in operations and am acutely aware of the importance of training all team members on consultative selling skills. I have learned that everyone, even the most veteran sales people have opportunities to grow.”

With a background in complex sales and strategic negotiations, Rohr emphasized the need to develop strong business relationships and partnerships with clients, “Especially with long sales cycles, you have to get creative and really listen to the customer to keep driving the sale forward.”
In addition to the panelist discussion, several recent CSC graduates were honored including Rob Spangler, Director of the Sales Association who was awarded his certification at the event.


Pictured left to right: Rob Spangler, CSC and Chief Operating Officer-The Sales Association; Jeff Arnold, President-The Sales Association; Jeff Rohr, CSC and VP of Sales Media Consultant; Marcia Gauger, CLO DVR Learning; Yvette Cheesebrew, CSC and Regional Sales Manager-Mach 1 Global; Tom D’Agostino, CSC Coach and Chief Learning Officer – Consultative Sales Academy; Richard Bowers, CSC and Technical Sales Representative-Sandvik Coromant Canada; Rick Batia, CSC and VP of Sales-Mach 1 Global.

Sandvik Sales Team Members Awarded Sales Association Certification

On May 16th, 2014, 19 members of the Sandvik Coromant sales departments from eight countries and nine different time zones were awarded Consultative Sales Certification™ (CSC) in a virtual graduation ceremony.  “This was not just an online meeting, but an actual graduation ceremony with presentations from students, faculty and awarding of diplomas”, said Jeff Arnold, Executive Director of the Sales Association who delivered the commencement address during the event.

The graduates have demonstrated the required knowledge and on the job application to achieve this prestigious certification.

CSC Program Administrator Marcia Gauger states “While training is a key component of the program, actual application and performance are what matter. Through our research we have proven that sales and service performance is enhanced when you concentrate on one competency at a time, deliberately apply the concepts learned during interactions with customers (real life role play) report on your experiences and receive coaching and feedback.”


Graduates have not only demonstrated capability in eight core consultative sales competencies, but have also committed to excellence in each.  CSC graduates subscribe to consultative selling and see themselves as advisors, seeking first to understand.  This goes beyond understanding basic needs.  They seek to understand their customer’s core business, their goals and vision and the motivation for each influencer.  They position their solutions according to the impact on the business and address the individual motivation for each buying influencer.  And, they position value according to each.   Building Value only works if it matters to each particular customer.  They understand the personal motivation and business impact and use this to position solutions. 


“My biggest gain was confidence. I have been in sales for five years and technically I was fine,” said Richard Bowers, a Sandvik Sales Productivity Engineer -Canada in his graduation address to the group.  “This was just one eye-opener after another. Every module was directly relevant to what I do every day.  At the end of the day, I am selling the same things, but now I present and communicate more effectively, have built better relationships with my internal and external customers, negotiate better and just approach my whole territory more efficiently.”


According to Emerson Aparecido, Sandvik Coromant – Argentina, “CSC is a complete program – it provides skills for how to plan and think before you act. CSC program provides global skills in terms of understanding customer needs, how to help customers with their accomplishments, how to handle complicated negotiations. Even though we have excellent value that we offer, if we don’t know how to address it, unfortunately we may not get the desired outcomes. I really appreciated the group conferences where we share best practices with other participants and review exercises and coach feedback that is fundamental to enhance our knowledge and development.”


Sandvik Coromant is the world’s leading supplier of tools, tooling solutions and know-how to the metalworking industry. With extensive investments in research and development they create unique innovations and set new productivity standards together with their customers. These include the world's major automotive, aerospace and energy industries. Sandvik Coromant has 8,000 employees and is represented in 130 countries and over 1,000 sales professionals.


The Sales Association is the premier professional society dedicated specifically to sales and business development professionals. For more information visit www.salesassociation.org.

The Components of a Metric-based Strategic Account Plan

When setting out to write or optimize a strategic account plan (the playbook for managing strategic customers / key accounts) to some, a reasonable first step may be searching the web for a strategic account plan template or for examples of actual account plans used by organizations in your industry or other reputable B2B sales organizations.  Microsoft Office Templates is one top-ranked resource in Google results for ‘strategic account plan’ where a standard ‘strategic account business plan template’ is provided. At the time of this post it has been downloaded over 200,000 times! 

The number of downloads suggests that a significant volume of sales and account professionals have needed a guide on developing an account plan for their business and perhaps, are even using this type of static template as their means to define their intent on meeting customers’ needs.  When you’re managing a customer of this magnitude, simply put– they deserve more than blanks filled out in a cookie-cut form.

When it comes to managing a ‘strategic’ customer, (an account that has been segmented by criteria to be managed strategically as such), you need an account plan that performs more than as a report on static facts, objectives and your organization’s intent to meet the customer’s known needs.  In order to manage the health and profitability of the account you need metrics and measurements that will enable the account team to identify opportunities and define strategy to expand profit margins, grow revenues, and develop a loyal, committed, and prosperous strategic account.

World-class Fortune 1000 and mid-tier suppliers with dependent, committed customers won’t share their account plan for reasons that keep them and their customers competitive— and if they did, it may not be one you’d want to borrow from necessarily!  As an adviser to prominent companies on sales and account management strategy, we can’t give away our clients proprietary secrets to strategic account management success, but we can provide you with a guide on developing a best-in-class metric-based strategic account plan.  Here’s how:

The Chapman Group has defined the components and metrics you’ll need to develop a Strategic Account Plan in this concise 2-page guide: The Components of a Metric-based Strategic Account Plan

We’ve also covered the mechanics necessary to drive and perform the right decisions and the right actions with the metric-based strategic account plan in a podcast titled Executing the Strategic Account Plan.

Click to play the podcast here:  http://chapmanhq.com/executing-the-strategic-account-plan-sam-best-practices/

Follow the best practices in the guide and in Executing the Strategic Account Plan so you can optimize your strategic accounts to realize exponential success in the growth of your strategic accounts’ relationships, revenues, and profits.

The Chapman Group
8955 Guilford Road, Suite 150
Columbia, MD 21046
Phone: 800.755.1905
http://chapmanhq.com/

Philosophy of Pipeliner CRM

The Austrian School has played only a negligible role in its country of origin but has enjoyed unbroken popularity in the United States since the 1970s with the work of Friedrich August von Hayek, Israel M. Kirzner, Murray Rothbard and especially Ludwig von Mises. The Austrians are central to the philosophy of Pipeliner CRM, because they are the only economic school of thought that assigns entrepreneurship a pivotal role in economic development. A businessman’s task is to apply his resourcefulness to track down knowledge and opportunities for profits—in other words, to utilize the advantages that come from information. Taking a risk while protecting the existing business is at the crux of every decision a businessman makes. The more successfully he makes each decision, the more successful his business will be. The more successful the businessman is in the economy, the more successful the economy will be.

An Intuitive Product

This paradigm of entrepreneurship has left its imprint and shaped the Pipeliner CRM principles. This Easy Sales CRM solution is an instrument that enables businesses to shape their own risk and security from a single source, all in keeping with the Austrian School. Of course, it can also be applied to the salespeople, who today are nothing other than “entrepreneurs in the enterprise”. Pipeline management allows entrepreneurial actions to be considered not only in retrospect as is traditional but also in advance gearing them to risk and security. The positive potential of entrepreneurial action is not only protected in the process, it is multiplied. Therefore a programmatic product that is based on the highly relevant findings of 150 years of economic history and economic theory as developed by the Austrians. The objective is to provide the best possible support for entrepreneurship.

An entrepreneur’s task is to create knowledge and seek out opportunities for profits—in other words, to utilize the advantages that come from information. Taking a risk while protecting existing business is at the crux of every decision a businessman makes. As Jesus Huerto de Soto describes this principle of the Austrian School Economics best in his introduction Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity:

“By its very nature and definition, entrepreneurship is always competitive. This means that once an actor discovers a certain profit opportunity and acts to take advantage of it, the opportunity tends to disappear, and no other actor can then perceive and seize it. Likewise, if an actor only partially discovers an opportunity for profit, or, having discovered it completely, takes only partial advantage of it, then a portion of that opportunity will remain latent for other actors to discover and grasp. Therefore, the social process is markedly competitive, in the sense that different actors compete with each other, consciously and unconsciously, to be the first to perceive and embrace profit opportunities.”

This application provides well-founded support precisely for this balancing act.
In day-to-day business, it builds its benchmarks for the salespeople as “entrepreneurs in the enterprise”—with the specific requirements and challenges they face in shaping customer relationships in an optimum and successful fashion. But the software also opens up to salespeople and businesses completely new perspectives for better managing the future of the enterprise plus the IT-supported retrospective analysis of the enterprise through a “real-time view.” The competitive situation of the company improves as a result and it has an easier time obtaining liquidity. Investors appreciate being able to use a company’s systematic, well-founded analysis of its future as a basis for their own decision-making.

Shortcomings of Classic CRM Tools

Classic sales and distribution structures and instruments are fundamentally based on a centralistic, top-down approach. Salespeople face the challenge of attaining goals imposed from above. There is just one motto and one measure. The figures have to be on the mark. When conventional CRM tools are phased in, pressure mounts on the salespeople of being controlled from above. In addition, they face the challenge of carrying out extensive reporting tasks and other activities that are definitely not among their core skills.  As John Golden, CEO from Huthwaite writes in Winning the Battle for Sales:

“When Salespople are asked to use CRM Systems, they generally  drop their shoulders, roll their eyes, and in their mind kiss their valuable selling time goodbye. For them, it´s anything but automation. For a big part of that day, the perceive themselves turning into a data-enty clerk inputting their deals into a seemingly redundant system only to turn around and discuss those same deals later in the week with their managers.”

Salespeople are not bookkeepers—and have no interest in becoming bookkeepers. They are individuals who think and act as entrepreneurs, who take personal responsibility in freely shaping economic events.
Conventional CRM tools are classic top-down instruments serving as control and monitoring instruments or intensifying previous control and monitoring mechanisms. They turn salespeople into data collectors and data managers. Systems of this kind generally benefit organizational entities within the company, not the individual members on the sales team. Little thought has been given to the benefit for sales up until now—and to the fact that people only enjoy and are good at doing what benefits them.

Avoiding a Reduction in Potential Sales

Finally, this situation underscores the lack of appreciation shown to sales and its employees. In reality, the quality of the sales organization stems from the team actively preparing and building customer relationships based on information, not from coping with burgeoning administrative responsibilities. Selling means knowledgeably interacting, not merely engaging in unlimited data collection. It is no wonder that these types of tools tend to reduce the potential of good salespeople rather than unleash it.
It is also an expression of a humanization of IT makes people and their needs the focal point of attention after simplifying complex interrelationships. This objective and this approach have given rise to a completely new type of CRM instrument. The solution is an expression at companies that democratizes entrepreneurial thinking and action.

Program with Principles

Pipeliner revolutionizes the sales process in the interest of employees and businesses. The solution empowers individuals to act in a personally responsible manner based on their own individual ideas and goals. Thanks to flexibility and self-determination, users are given genuine latitude to shape their own course instead of simply following rules. This approach has positive effects in every respect. Employees become genuine “entrepreneurs within the enterprise”, Sales managers become “coaches”.
Pipeliner is an expression of serving people, not structures. It lays the kind of lasting groundwork for the knowledge management at businesses that is so decisive for growth.

Sales Association Members Earn Distinguished Consultative Sales Certification (CSC) ™

Comcast Media Group, Zygo Corporation and JJ Keller have invested in their sales team to ensure sales and services offered are enhanced with consultative selling skills.

On June 6^th, 2013 5 members of the Sales Association were awarded Consultative Sales Certification™ (CSC) at the Sales Association National Sales Conference held in Denver, CO. The Sales Association's mission is to connect the professional sales community, providing its members powerful and strategic means to grow professionally and drive profits.

Kasia Skotnicki, Ron Maes and Jeff Rohr of Comcast Media Group, Jason Enz from the Zygo Corporation, and Eric Tschurwald of JJ Keller have demonstrated required knowledge, on the job application and sales results. These individuals have not only met the requirements of certification, but also demonstrate integrity and a commitment to excellence within their organizations and community.

CSC Program Administrator and CLO of DVR Learning, LLC Marcia Gauger states “While training is a key component of this program, it is application and performance that matters. Through our research we have proven that sales and service performance is enhanced when you concentrate on one competency at a time, deliberately apply the concepts learned during interactions with customers (real life role play) report on your experiences and receive coaching and feedback.”

Graduates have not only demonstrated capability in eight core consultative sales competencies, but have also committed to excellence in each.  CSC graduates subscribe to consultative selling and see themselves as advisors, seeking first to understand.  This goes beyond understanding basic needs.  They seek to understand their customer’s core business, their goals and vision and the motivation for each influencer.  They position their solutions according to the impact on the business and address the individual motivation for each buying influencer.  And, they position value according to each.   Building Value only works if it matters to each particular customer.  Graduates understand the personal motivation and business impact and use this to position solutions and drive outcomes.  

Pictured are; Jeff Arnold- Sales Association Executive Director, Kasia Skotnicki, Comcast Media Sales, Marcia Gauger - CSC program Administrator and CLO, Ron Maes, Comcast Media Sales (CSC Graduates not pictured, Jeff Rohr, Comcast Media Sales and Jason Enz from Zygo Corporation).

Those who earn CSC report increased sales and customer satisfaction. 

The Sales Association is the premier professional society dedicated specifically to sales and business development professionals. For more information visit www.sa.getcsc.com  .

Congratulations also goes to the Sales Association member Eric Tschurwald from JJ Keller and Associates, Inc. located in Neenah, WI.  Pictured here with Ryan McGovern National Sales Manager at JJ Keller and Marcia Gauger CSC program Administrator and CLO.

Make a This Year's Resolution

I'm as guilty as any of the tendency to write off December as much of a high achievement month, instead focusing on my goals starting the new year.

But I'm trying something different this year. Right now, instead of making New Year's Resolutions, I'm making "This Year's Resolutions."

Since I'm from Denver, I am, of course, a Broncos football fan. Watching the game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday reminded me that even if you've had a lackluster performance and been behind until the last two minutes of the 4th quarter, you can still come back and win the game. You just need to be clear that the game's not over and play that way.

It's mid-December. We're all in the last two minutes of the 4th quarter but the game's not over yet.

I was reminded of this again recently in my business life. We had been working on a new real estate investing venture for several months seeking only to close a couple of deals. After a number of false starts, we didn't seem close to achieving our goal. I was already beginning to think, "Maybe next year. . . " Now, not one, but two deals are closing in the third week of December. It all came together over the past few weeks.

Instead of putting off the big challenges I have until after January 1, I'm taking action to tackle them now. And I'm doing this because, ironically, I'll have a less stressful Holiday season. If I go headlong into my goals now, I won't have "The Things I want to Accomplish in 2012" hanging over my head while I'm on "vacation."

I don't know about you, but I rarely enjoy vacations when I have major work goals hanging over my head. I may relax for a few days, but by the last one or two days I'm already back at the office, even if I'm on a beach. So, if I start knocking out my goals now, I can truly take time off from the office over the Holidays -- especially in my head. The only true time off we have is when we can be present in the moment.

So, what are your "This Year's Resolutions" for 2011?

Ode to The Salespeople Customers Can’t Wait To Meet…

Salespeople – Help me think differently, help me be better at what I do. Do that and you will be adding value to my role – anything else and you are like everyone else.

Salespeople- Be generous! Go where your competition fear to tread and give me the extras. The extras, the overs, the information, the ideas, the shortcuts, help me help my clients, because it won’t be long and your competition will be! We now expect the extras.

Salespeople – Thank you for challenging my thinking and not backing down and being a ‘yes’ person. I need to know you won’t change your stance when I cross question you. I need to know I can trust your character and your judgement no matter what!

Salespeople – I love it when you can hear what I say simply by listening to what I don’t say. Not many of you have that gift – the gift of sensory acuity, just like not many of you have the gift of acknowledging a mistake, recognising and remedying it immediately. And while we are talking gifts, the gift of taking feedback is paramount.

Salespeople – I am just like you. I don’t like being ‘sold to’, I am wary of salespeople using all those ‘ity’ words with me like productivity, reliability and versatility. I like to hear new words that are flavoured with growth and contribution, certainty and consideration, persuasive not prescriptive.

Salespeople – We will follow you on your journey, we will treat you as trusted advisors because you converse with us, you humanise the process, you speak WITH us not broadcast TO us. We really do need you and are willing to reciprocate by paying well those who serve us well.

Bernadette McClelland mentors and teaches salespeople within B2B markets in Australia, NZ and India to sell more effectively, step up their sales leadership skills and become trusted advisors. Email her or visit her blog at http://www.bernadettemcclelland.com/Blog/.

Cold Calling Lives

If you are anything like me, you are sick and tired of hearing reports that cold calling is dead, especially when as part of your role you are required to cold call. I know, I know, management provides you with these snazzy Web leads and purchased lists and calls it "warm calling"—whatever that means. "But these prospects raised their hands," they tell you. Just because someone downloads a white paper or attends a Webinar doesn't mean they are even remotely interested in doing a sales call. In the description of the job you applied for, they specifically said there would be no cold calling. Anything to make us feel better about our job—as if cold calling is somehow evil or a virus to be spread. And then you sit down and get to work for the first day and—guess what—it sure feels a whole lot like cold calling, doesn't it? You are calling a bunch of people who don't know you. You can call it cold calling, warm calling, or quasi-cold calling, but in the end, it is up to you to have the skill, ability, and savvy to take the first conversation and use it to advance the sales cycle—while your VP stands on his soapbox and or on a Webinar proclaiming cold calling is dead.

Let me ask you this…how do you feel about making an introduction face to face with a person you are meeting for the first time at a trade show? Some 95 percent of salespeople I work with inevitably say it doesn't bother them in the least. In fact, they kind of like it. After all, they got into sales because they like working with people. Why is it then that people have this phobia of making introductions by phone? If anything, the phone gives you the comfort of anonymity and space that potentially could ease a first interaction. The phone gives you the ability to be anywhere, anytime. There is so much training and support for people who conduct sales face to face, but what about the phone? Most salespeople dread calling simply because they were never taught how.

Case Study

We do phone sales training with a Fortune 50 wireless telecom client that has a large SMB field sales team in the Midwest. Let's call them Anycom. Anycom's reps are required to hunt and farm out of predetermined geographic regions. When we started working with them, they avoided the phone in favor of pounding the pavement. Much of the territory is sparsely populated with businesses far apart from each other. The reps spent a ton of time driving from location to location dropping off materials (brochures, discount vouchers, etc.) at the reception desks. Once in a while, the strategy paid off, and they got a call back with an invite to meet and offer a proposal. However, the vast majority of the time nothing happened except a finger point to the "No Solicitors" sign. Rather than gaining access to the head of the IT department or telecom, they instead might be greeted by a random assistant from inside. They had a problem. They needed access to the decision-makers at these mid-sized local businesses.

Tips and Tactics

1. Flip the gatekeeper paradigm on its head.

When first cold calling into a switchboard, most sales pros simply ask for the name of the person they want to speak to or the head of the department. Try switching it up and instead saying, "I'm calling to verify the spelling of a name for Ann Durant." What we're trying to do here is get the switchboard operator to pull up the directory record. Most companies will have an electronic directory. Once the record is in front of them, pepper them with questions to gather the contact info, reporting structure, etc.

2. Lead into the conversation like a pro. When you get a prospect on the phone, always ask, "Do you have a quick sec?"This differentiates you from the telemarketers who launch right into the spiel because it shows you respect that they may be in the middle of something. When they say yes, then ask, "I was pointed in your direction as the head of marketing, is that right?" Using the person's title shows you have done your homework and are not simply smiling and dialing through the Yellow Pages.

3. Get the direct line. There is a perfect correlation between the proportion of direct lines you have on your calling list and the number of meetings you are able to land. Invest the time to get the direct 10-digit phone number. Why? Think about caller ID. If you are an executive sitting at your desk and you see a call come in through reception, are you going to answer it? What about the same call to your direct line?

4. E-mail and voicemail can do a lot more for you than meets the eye. Use your social media tools such as LinkedIn to learn a little bit about your prospect and tailor a message to that person. A little bit of customization goes a long way. The purpose for e-mail and voicemail is not simply to get a call back. Have you ever spent time customizing an e-mail with no write back? Try going into your sent items folder and forwarding the same message with the original date and time and this line on top, Just a brief note to ensure you had a chance to see my note. Please let me know if I may work with your assistant to find some time.This works incredibly well.

5. Plan your week for the greatest returns. Statistically, you are more likely to have a conversation with an executive during certain key call windows—early, late, lunch, five minutes before the top and bottom of the hour, etc. Plan your days by phone stalking the executives during these key call windows and reserving other times for different sales-related activities. Remember that travel time is the enemy of the salesperson. If you meet with prospects in person, set up appointments in the middle of the week during the middle of the day when airports and roads are less crowded.

Anycom adopted these tips and tactics and increased the number of new lines by 10 percent across 60 reps. It filled the top of its sales funnels with a ton of potential opportunities. Michigan, previously the lowest-performing Anycom state, jumped to the middle of the pack of the 50 U.S. states. This happened while Michigan's unemployment soared to 15 percent, the highest in the nation. If these ideas worked in the rust belt during the downturn of 2008-2009, they will work for you.

Steve Richard is head of training at Vorsight (http://www.vorsight.com/). Contact him at srichard@vorsight.com

Are You Prepared to Undo Doubt?

Question: Lately, new potential customers have requested references from me early in the sales process. When and how is the best way to approach this?

It’s important to understand why your customers are asking for references. Simply providing references may or may not address the issue. Additionally, if receiving this request is out of the norm for you, you may want to examine any changes you have made to your sales interactions. In other words, are you doing something to cause concern or prompt the request?

Generally, when a customer asks for references, there is uncertainty or doubt about what you or your company can do for them. Do they doubt that you can do what you say? Or do they want reassurance that you will service what you are providing? Anytime you experience doubt in a sales situation, you need to prove that there is no reason to be concerned. Before you do, make sure that you understand what the true concern is. You may simply ask your potential client, “What do you expect to learn from the references that I provide?” How they answer may reveal a concern that you can answer on the spot, and may give you an opportunity to resell your product.

Your proof sources should be someone other than yourself. Think through all of the possible situations where you may experience doubt on sales calls, and collect proof sources to handle these. Make sure you carry your proof sources with you on all of your calls so you can eliminate concern as they occur.

Here are some examples:

No matter how prepared you are for the skepticism and doubt that you will encounter, some customers will still need references. Here are guidelines for utilizing them:

Be Respectful of Your Reference Sources - It’s perfectly acceptable to share an established reference list with serious potential customers. However, be careful not exhaust your current references by responding to every request with a complete list of phone numbers and contact names. Give potential customers a list of current successes and a list of client companies. Explain that once you get closer to an agreement, you will supply phone numbers and contact names. Don’t be afraid to tell them that you respect your references and don’t want to overwhelm them.

Call Your References – If you are placing names on a reference list, make sure you call each and ask their permission to do so. When a potential customer asks for references, determine who would be the best resource for the concern that the customer has. Try to give no more than two or three names and phone numbers at a time. Then, make contact with the reference to let them know that they will be called. Briefly review the purpose of the call and what you would like them to stress. And, be sure to thank your references! A handwritten thank you note is a nice touch.

Ask for Written Testimonials – It will be important for some potential customers to make direct contact with your reference sources. However, most will be satisfied with written testimonial letters. There are several advantages. First, written testimonials eliminate the amount of calls that your references are exposed to. Secondly, using written testimonials will enable you to control the quality and content. Collect written testimonials whenever a customer raves about you! You may simply say something like, “Thank you so much. Would you mind if I shared your experience with our company with others whom are considering using our services?” Then, offer to draft a letter recapping what the customer stated and send it to them for approval.

Define it or Deny It – What’s the Problem With the Word “Sales”?

How you feel about the word “sales” largely depends on the culture of your organization. Companies that are driven by sales vision and leadership tend to embrace and reward the sales role. More operational focused companies, or those that don’t traditionally see themselves as sales focused, do not embrace the semantics as well.

Many recent LinkedIn discussions have focused on the word “sales”. “Does the word “sales” have negative connotations?” “Should you call yourself something other than “sales”? “What is the difference between “sales” and “business development?”

While working with a client to define sales and service outcomes, one of the project team members said, “This is exactly what we need. One thing though, let’s not call this sales. Let’s think of a different title, one that is not so intimidating.” We had agreed to the expected outcomes of the program, which was for representatives to recognize customer needs and position solutions to help them reach their personal and business financial goals. Sounds like sales to me!

Titles are not that significant. What really matters is that you define what “sales” means to your organization and to your customers. My advice to the client was simple – “Call it what it is. Don’t deny it – define it!”

As the sales profession has evolved, so have the methods, beliefs and descriptions thereof. We define the primary approaches to sales and service as transactional, emotional and consultative. Most sales-oriented companies have embraced some form of consultative selling. With that said – that does not guarantee that everyone in the organization understands what that means to the company or what it means to customers, or that they are skilled in related competencies. Communicating your company beliefs and expectations regarding sales and customer service is critical. If your people are uneasy about the word “sales”, consider clarification such as:

• You are not going to “convince” anyone to buy anything if they do not have a need or want, realized or not.
• Great service is foundational to customer relationships and is foundational to the sales process, but it is not selling. Just providing good service will not gain you more sales.
• Selling is a two way street – the solutions should be good for you and for your customer.
• Consultative selling is a matter of understanding the customer’s core business, their goals and needs and positioning solutions that are valued for each individual stakeholder.
• You should feel good about what you recommend to customers, that taking your recommendation is positive for them.

Three Ways to Define Sales

Traditional/Transactional Selling – Those who subscribe to traditional selling tend to take a product-oriented approach to sales. They respond to customer inquiries with little regard or understanding of the customer’s situation or latent needs. They may seek to understand customer needs, but with the focus on making a sale. Traditional salespeople tend to stress features and benefits over value for the customer. Presentations tend to be more of a monologue.

Emotional Selling - This is very seller-centric. Those who subscribe to emotional selling take the stance that if the customer likes them and they provide good service, that is most important and they will get whatever opportunities are available. This is a very non-assertive approach to selling, one which is not a good use of time for the customer or the salesperson.

Consultative Selling – Salespeople who use a consultative approach are collaborative and agile, adjusting to the needs of the customer and their specific circumstances. They are advisors, seeking to understand their customer’s core business, their goals and vision and the motivation for each influencer. They position solutions according to the impact on the business and address value for each influencer.

If you embrace consultative selling, or a similar approach, then defining what that means should encourage your people to embrace the word “sales” as well. Make sure that you are specific. Enlist your employees to help set the corresponding expectations and standards in order to promote ownership.

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Just Making More Calls Doesn’t Guarantee Sales Success

by Susan A. Enns

Do you find that there are just not enough hours in a day? Are you working long hours, making call after call, but you still don’t sell enough to even come close to reaching quota? If you answered yes to these questions, you may be one of the many sales representatives who mistakenly believe that being busy is the same as being effective.

You can be successful in sales and not have to work 24 hours a day. It may be an old cliché, but you just need to learn to work smarter, not harder.

For example, I was coaching a sales representative who was a cold calling buzz saw. From morning until night, he would bang on doors, rarely stopping to even eat. Was he busy? You bet! Effective? Not even close! In fact, this sales rep was on the verge of dismissal for lack of sales production.

It wasn’t that he was new to sales either; he had been selling for over 10 years. The problem was he didn’t have 10 years sales experience, he had 1 year’s bad experience repeated 10 times!
This sales rep knew he had to make prospecting calls to be successful. The problem was that he really didn’t know how! On every call, instead of qualifying the prospect, he was just dropping off his business card at each door he called on. When you think about it, a postal letter carrier could have done that for him!

The purpose of any prospecting call is to for you and the prospect to agree to move to the next step in the sales process, normally the fact find. Not only must it be the right solution, it also must be at the right time.

In other words, a prospecting call is considered successful if you can answer the following questions:

1.Is this company actually a prospect?
2.If yes, are they a prospect today?
3.If not today, then when?


Whether you are knocking on a door, telemarketing, or about to send an email to another social network contact, if you do not plan to answer these questions, you are only wasting your and the prospect’s time.

Before you make your next prospecting call, rehearse a headline that generates interest. Then create 3 to 5 qualifying questions to help you determine if you are working with the right prospect at the right time. For those that are not prospects today, create a follow up file system to make sure you contact them when they will be. Lastly, script a question that obtains agreement from your prospect to move to the next step in the sales process.

Would the sales rep I told you about agree this works? I think so, however, we’ll have to wait until he gets back from attending another one of his company’s monthly quota buster’s lunch before we can ask him.

Susan A. Enns is Managing Partner at B2B Sales Connections, which provides Coaching, Training, Recruiting & Resources for Business to Business Sales. www.b2bsalesconnections.com, http://www.b2bscblog.com www.linkedin.com/in/susanenns, or www.twitter.com/SusanEnns, email or call 613-825-9139.

Why Telemarketing Remains the Unsung Hero of Lead Generation

By Kathy Tito

Denise Clancey is a true luminary in the field of telesales and telemarketing. She is the former Vice President of Telesales & Customer Service at Lotus Development, a subsidiary of IBM. In this position, her organization delivered $151 million in sales from corporate customers in addition to managing one million plus Customer Service inquiries. She also established a successful Small Business Sales organization that was responsible for bringing in $32 million in new business its first full year of operation, 100% via telephone.

Today Denise runs her own firm to help organizations launch, re-engineer, or re-claim the management of their telesales and telemarketing organizations. Unlike many sales professionals that represent their own consultancy, you won’t find Denise tweeting, liking, posting, or promoting her latest adventures online (gasp!). So let’s start with that curious point.

The Bootstrap: Denise – how do you live without a constant stream of social media pouring from your keyboard? Surely your client roster must be down to zero at this point (I’m being facetious of course!). Or are you making a statement, intentional or otherwise, about the tele-industry?

Denise: Okay, I admit that I am a telephone zealot. I would rather make a call than write a paragraph (surprising statement from English major). That said, though, I do live with a healthy dose of social media. I have my favorite sites, I follow my favorite experts, and, occasionally, when I feel like I have something to add, I will.

More often than not, I respond to requests for referrals, candidates, and suggestions…any way I can link requests from business associates with the talent that I know and information that would be useful. I like to make connections and social media, in its many forms, allows me to do that quickly and easily. As for the lack of abundance of posting and blogging from my computer, no statement, intentional or unintentional. I just would rather pick up a phone than spend time editing my writing.

The Bootstrap: You’ve got some weighty bullet points on your list of achievements as a corporate executive with Lotus/IBM. Frankly, this is why you were approached for this interview. Do you think that companies can achieve the same efficiencies you brought to your telesales organization today, with the variety of marketing channels that have entered the scene? How does a sales organization reconcile all of the options?

Denise: One of my first jobs at MCI had me running a B2B telemarketing team, reporting to the head of Direct Marketing who reported to the VP of Marketing. I cut my teeth on marketing clusters and verticals. From the beginning, I saw the value of leveraging and integrating many marketing and sales channels in support of the customer relationship and the sale. And, although most of my corporate titles said ‘Telesales’, ‘Inside Sales’, and ‘Customer Service’, a key success factor was my departments’ ability to coordinate with the marketing programs that made the initial contact and with the Field Sales team that may be involved in the larger deals long term.

The key to coordinating and leveraging these channels is to test, determine the best ones to use (cost vs. results vs. effort) and to be sure to connect them tightly. Just as it is a waste of time and money to launch a direct mail campaign without determining the follow-up, it is also a waste of time to invest in cold calling if you are not in a position to capture the information on every call, assign them to a communication path, and stay in touch, consistently.

Just as it is a waste of time and money to launch a direct mail campaign without determining the follow-up, it is also a waste of time to invest in cold calling if you are not in a position to capture the information on every call, assign them to a communication path, and stay in touch, consistently.

I often encourage prospective clients to test and leverage inbound and direct mail before they invest in telemarketing. These can be lower cost providers of leads and inquiries. Once these are in place, telemarketing is the obvious channel for ongoing correspondence.

The Bootstrap: How is tele-management (on every level) at your client firms dealing with the online media phenomenon?

Denise: Online media means different things to different clients. My larger clients tend to have a plan in place (or being formulated) with the right focus and resources to match. These larger companies tend to organize online under Marketing or Customer Operations. In larger clients, the work is to coordinate the calling with online Marketing just as Telemanagement would coordinate with other Marketing channels.

For smaller clients, it is a whole different ballgame. Many of my smaller clients are just dipping their toe in the online world and, often, Telemarketing plays a frontline role. In these cases, the prospect and customer will likely be using online information to form an opinion about the client.

A cold call results in the savvy prospect pulling up the client’s website in the moment or ‘Googling’ the client to see what appears. It is important for the Telemarketers to see what the prospect sees…and to see it before the prospect does. I encourage these clients to brief their Telemarketers early and often and to build company searches (for their prospects as well as searching their own company name) into the Telemarketers’ prep time. Just as a good Telemarketer will search for information about their prospects before picking up the phone, a good Telemarketer will also search for information about their own company and how it is represented online. Management is well served by keeping up on the news and allowing their Telemarketers to do the same.


The Bootstrap: When you are working with a telemarketing team, are they being supported by systems that facilitate information distribution via email? What are some popular solutions you are seeing?

Denise: Everyone is using email, more often than not, the standard bearers (Constant Contact, Exact Target, Vertical Response). Smaller companies look to Emma for their solution. Some are taking a more comprehensive approach using tools like Marketo and Eloqua. For those want to combine sales efforts with prospect responses, Amacus delivers a solution that delivers a ‘digital sales assistant’.


The Bootstrap: Are there any recent case studies that you’d like to mention where you’ve seen organizations really hit the ground running with their telemarketing, and surprise everyone with the results. What were some of the driving forces?

Denise: A recent client had great success with opening up a new market using teleselling. They decided to launch their effort using an outsourced telemarketing partner and bring the team in house when they decided that they had the right formula in place.

The key to their success was their willingness to jump in head first and be willing to make changes quickly and often. The project was intense to start. It meant my client had to be available to respond frequent inquiries from the Telesales Reps and to participate in daily reviews. From these reviews, we were able to develop a plan and methodology for selling their services by phone.

It took about 60 days to get things to the point where we felt we had a workable go-to-market strategy but it was well worth it. Within six months, the team was hitting its number. By the end of the year, my client decided to staff it in-house and continue to use the outsourced partner to develop leads.

The most significant aspect of this client’s success was their willingness to get started, to test assumptions and make changes as needed. Don’t wait to get it perfect before you start.

The most significant aspect in a client’s telemarketing success is their willingness to get started, to test assumptions and make changes as needed. Don’t wait to get it perfect before you start.

The Bootstrap: Do you feel that overall, a telemarketing investment is the most reliable method to fill a sales pipeline with qualified leads, in the shortest term possible?

Denise: Telemarketing is the quickest way to fill your pipeline and to understand what the market is saying about your products and services and about your competitors. It can stand alone as a lead generator but is more effective if combined with inbound marketing and direct marketing.


The Bootstrap: As you know, some firms are not able to make sales or marketing investments in equivalent proportions across all platforms. Which “new media” practices present an opportunity to fortify the lead generation process when used in conjunction with telemarketing? For example, email, blogging, twitter, websites/landing pages, twitter, or video.

Denise: I agree, there are so many options out there. Some would argue too many.

The single best piece of advice that I was given and that I, in turn, give clients is to identify a few platforms that work well for your company and to execute them consistently and unfailingly.

Direct Marketing and Telemarketing are ripe for testing to determine what works. One of the keys to this is to clearly understand not only what it takes to launch a communication channel but also to identify what it takes to manage and maintain that channel over time. It is the managing and maintaining where many of my clients make the brilliant choice to engage outside services.

One of the keys to this is to clearly understand not only what it takes to launch a communication channel but also to identify what it takes to manage and maintain that channel over time. It is the managing and maintaining where many of my clients make the brilliant choice to engage outside services.


The Bootstrap: Telemarketing – primary pipeline driver for the foreseeable future?

Denise: Telemarketing can be a primary pipeline driver. Or it can complement a full cycle marketing communication plan. If you don’t know where to start and don’t have a reliable list, purchase a list, create a prospecting script, and start cold calling. The right telephone approach can identify prospects, isolate target companies and industries, and create a prospect database that can support inbound & outbound marketing and sales.


The Bootstrap: Why is telemarketing often misunderstood as “too expensive” or questioned – “do people really respond to that?”

Telemarketing gets a bad rap because people often conjure up images of having been interrupted at home. These experiences overshadow their experience with B2B telephone sales calls, which can be welcomed, if they are well-timed and well-run.

Denise: People do respond to telemarketing and teleselling. Telemarketing gets a bad rap because people often conjure up images of having been interrupted at home. These experiences overshadow their experience with B2B telephone sales calls. Business people are appreciative of well timed and well managed telesales calls. A knowledgeable Telesales person calling with a solution for the customer is a welcome call.

Just as Telemarketing can be the low cost provider for selling, it can also be an expensive investment. It all goes back to testing and coordinating the communication plan.

The results speak for themselves. The industry is thriving and, for the savvy business leader, it is an integral part of their company’s overall marketing and sales mix.

Kathy Tito, President and Founder of New England Sales & Marketing, conducted this interview. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to either post them here, contact her directly at (978)387-0999, or email her. Her blog is: http://www.bootstrapb2bmarketing.com/

Help! I Need To Develop New Business – Now What?

by Marcia Gauger

Question:

Over the years, I have been fortunate to have enough new business development in my current customer base. However, I am to the point that I have reached my potential within that base and need to develop brand new business relationships. I feel like I’m starting over. Quite frankly, I don’t know where to begin. Any suggestions?

Answer:

If you’re like most salespeople, you find yourself busy nurturing your current customer base with little time for new relationships. There are two issues. First, how do you maintain and maximize current relationships while developing new business? Second, how do you specifically go about generating new business?

The answer to the first part of the equation is to evaluate and prioritize potential new business as you do your current customers. For instance, if you call “A” type customers every week, you should also call “A” type potential customers with the same frequency. If you call “B” type customers once a quarter and send written communication monthly, you should do the same with “B” potential customers. This method draws no distinction between current customers and potential new customers.

Am I suggesting that you place some potential customers ahead of current customers? Yes! Rest assured, all customers are valuable. However, all customers don’t warrant the same amount of time. You have to look at this in terms of prioritizing sales activity rather than whether or not someone has purchased from you yet.

The second part of your sales development issue is a little more complex, only because there are so many different ways to attract new business, depending on your industry and market. The first thing you should do is identify new potential business. Qualify and prioritize them based on how they fit your current customer profile. If they look like a current “A” customer, they probably are a potential “A” customer. Then, you need to make contact.

Here Are Some Prospecting Tips and Truisms:

• You can close a referred lead in half the time that it takes to close a non-referred lead. You need to develop referrals, they don’t just happen!


• Persistence pays. Even though national averages say that it takes more than five calls on a potential customer to close a sale, more than 50% of salespeople only make one call and then give up if they hear “no”.


• Being a salesperson can be discouraging at times, especially if you have put significant time into preparing a proposal or bid and then lost the sale. It’s easy to start thinking of what you could have been doing with the time that you just “wasted” working on a sale that you didn’t get, like fishing or golfing. But just as with fishing, you need to throw the line in before you can catch fish. If you wait to throw the line in only when you think there will be a big catch, it will never happen. Top sales people realize this and often “pay themselves” for each sales call, knowing that they need to have sales activity in order to get sales at all.


• When prospecting over the telephone, you have 30 seconds to answer three questions that the potential customer is thinking, “Who’s calling?” “What do they want?” and “Why should I listen?”


• Schedule time everyday for prospecting, or it won’t happen! Learn the best times based on when you have been most successful.


• Analyze your activities. Are they really all urgent? Should some be transferred to another area? Can you get another person involved?


• Focus on your overall sales objectives and then break them into small consumable chunks.

Here Are Some of the Most Common Sources for Developing New Business:

Cold Calls

• These are just what they say, potential opportunities that are cold, or ones that you make direct contact with, without a direct connection.


• Even though cold calling generally produces fewer results than referred leads, you can increase your results by prospecting intelligently. Tap into online sources like LinkedIn to see who you know that can provide information about companies that you are interested in. Research companies and join groups that your potential customers join.


• Look for creative ways to find new leads. For instance, because we offer instructional design services, we contact companies that have want ads for instructional designers.


• Read the local papers, blogs, etc. with a keen eye. Are there companies that are introducing processes, which would require your products/services?

Referrals

• Referrals are simply a recommendation from a source.


• Most salespeople think that referrals just happen if you do a good job. This is not true.


• You need to nurture referral sources.


• Referrals may come from inside the companies that you serve and may be opportunities to serve other departments as well as other companies.


• You should actively pursue referrals.


• A significant opportunity to develop referral sources is simply to network with other salespeople who serve the same types of accounts that you do but are not competitors.

Internal Referrals/Cross Selling

• How much do you communicate with other sales reps within your company?


• Are there opportunities to cross-reference accounts?


• Consider starting a wiki or LinkedIn private group to share best practices and internal leads.

Associations/Networking

• Find out what associations your key contacts belong to.


• There is an association of association executives for every state.


• Get their directory and attend meetings of the ones that have members served by the companies that you represent.


• Attending meetings can be a big waste of time, or very productive. If you attend these meetings, know why you are attending.


• Prepare a thirty-second commercial about who you are and what you do for your customers. For instance don’t say, “Hi, I’m Nancy from Nancy’s Designs.” Instead, “Hi, I’m Nancy from Nancy’s designs. We help companies make more money by increasing the effectiveness of their marketing pieces.”

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Pull Out The Stops – To Gain Commitments!

by Marcia Gauger

Question:

I finished presenting a proposal & pricing for a fairly large project that I am about to undertake. I have a verbal commitment from my customer, now what should I do in terms of the next step? Should I put together another proposal outlining the specific pricing that we looked at?

Answer:

Assume the sale! You said you have a commitment from your customer, so proceed as if you do. If you put together another proposal, you may give your customer reason to second-guess the decision. The bottom line is, make it easy for your customer to move forward. For instance, if after reviewing your proposal the customer and you agree on certain aspects but not others, you may simply put together a letter of confirmation stating the work to be accomplished and a timeline. You may even say something like, “I’ll get started on the first phase of the project and in the meantime I’ll put together an outline of our agreement for our records.” Don’t say, “Now that we’ve had a chance to meet, let me revise the proposal and get it back to you for your approval.”

Salespeople have to be very careful not to become their own obstacles to gaining commitments. Even though I don’t like losing control of my billing, I appreciate that my satellite radio service automatically bills my credit card at time of renewal. They assume that you want to renew and I don’t think twice. Can you imagine how many sales they would lose if they asked for the commitment again at renewal time? On the other hand, every time I receive a renewal notice for products and services, I re-sell myself on whether or not I actually want or need the service. In some cases, I could be swayed either way. The same is true with your customers.

I recently received a call from a company selling network solutions. It just so happens that I am in the market for those services so I scheduled an appointment for a technician to diagnose my problem. However, instead of sending a technician, they sent a salesperson to tell me about their company and “gain a commitment before work would start.” They added an unnecessary step to the process causing me to question them. If they had sent a technician to take care of my immediate issue, they could have clarified bill rate and possibly secured a long-term customer. Instead of engaging me as a customer, it was just another sales call.

If you are nervous about starting work on a project, ask yourself if you really have a commitment? If you are unsure, review your letter of agreement with the customer and check the pulse by asking, “Does this meet your expectations?”

Convenience is often a major factor in gaining commitments in business. Our partner company, Synergyworks, recently asked a group of salespeople to share examples of how they “pull out the stops” by making it easy for the customer to do business. Here’s some of them:

After having difficulty getting customers to come in for spring service, a lawn & garden equipment dealership decided to set a schedule each spring where they pick up customers’ lawnmowers for service. They bring the mower back to the dealership, conduct the required maintenance and deliver the lawnmower to the customer in ship shape and ready to go. The feedback they receive has been so positive that most customers don’t think twice about buying a second piece of equipment from the dealership.

An online clothing retailer offers real time on-line customer service help with a guarantee that if they don’t like the product when they receive it, they can return it with the pre-paid return label. It’s absolutely no risk. Because of the immediate personalized service, the company has very few returns.

A local farmer of organic produce, meats and eggs was experiencing less customer traffic. While customer feedback was always good, he was at the mercy of whatever foot traffic happened to stop by or read his road sign. He decided to offer online pre-orders. Now, customers can go online and order what they need for the upcoming week with the option of home delivery or pick up at the farmer’s market. The program has been so successful that the farm has nearly doubled its sales volume.

Realizing the mayhem that back to school shopping can cause for parents and the need to capture market share, a savvy retailer created pre-packaged school supply kits hand packed according to individual teacher specifications and delivered to children on the first day of school.

What can you do to “pull out the stops” in your business? A little brainstorming may make a huge difference in customer commitment.

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com

Sell the “Product of Your Product” to Differentiate Yourself From a Commodity

by Marcia Gauger

Question:

I hear talk about stressing value to differentiate products and services, but how does that apply to commodities? From the customer’s perspective, the products we sell are absolutely no different than anyone else who distributes this product. All we have to compete on is price.

Answer:

Don’t get hung up on the product itself. You need to think about what you do for the customer. For instance, when we purchased a new copy machine for the office, we could have purchased the exact same brand and model for less than what we paid from a number of distribution sources. However, the company that we chose added value by offering advice that we needed regarding networking the machine to our computers and other online materail distribution issues that we were facing. Even though we paid thousands of dollars for the machine, the company we employed is in the business of selling service, not machines.

Make a list of everything you do that adds value for your customers – This is the first step in differentiating yourself. If you can’t list anything, you might want to consider another line of work! Consider the value that you bring to your accounts from a customer’s perspective. For instance:

• Do you offer better delivery schedules than the competition?
• Can you reduce the amount of product waste the customer is experiencing by offering suggestions on usage?
• Do you offer training that would increase plant safety as it relates to your product or service?
• Can you offer special packaging that would reduce handling of the product?
• By utilizing a method that you suggest, will the customer increase production or some other quantifiable benefit?
• Can you eliminate their need for other suppliers by serving more of the customer’s needs?

Sell the product of your product – For instance, if you were seeking the assistance of a lawyer to compose a will and trust for you, you would be buying the product of a product. A will is a fairly standard document – a commodity. However, you are not buying the product itself, or you would do it yourself on the Internet. You are buying the service and advice that you receive from an expert. Stress what the product does for the customer, not what the product is. The better advice you give, the more value you will add in the customer’s eyes.

Next, quantify the value for your customer – For example, if you can indeed show better response times than the customer is accustomed to, quantify what this means to the customer. Use the customer’s figures. If you are able to provide just in time delivery, how much does that mean for that particular customer in terms of saved inventory costs?

Define value for each individual customer – The problem with the word “value” is that it means different things to each customer. Stressing what you think may be important to one may not be to another. Some customers are strictly price shoppers and won’t give you the time of day. Others value expertise and welcome your advice. Somewhere between these two groups are customers that don’t know what else to ask about except price. And, given the opportunity, will share their aches and pains. Find out what’s important to each and stress value accordingly. For instance, the last time we bought computers for the office, one of my business partners tried to convince me to invest in the largest monitors available. While this particular feature just seemed like added cost to me, it was a significant value for my partner who was having trouble seeing the screen. Value is almost always measured in terms of increased time, decreased time, increased profits or some other personal pain or goal.

Don’t dwell on the competition – It is valuable to know how the customer feels about the competition. But, your focus should be on what you can do for the customer, not how you can outdo the competition.

Reduced price is not value – Anyone can cut his or her price. If you are relying on price cuts to gain business, be prepared for high turnover in your accounts. A request for quote is the customer’s way of saying, “I see no difference in what you offer from anyone else”. This is the starting point for you to discover opportunities to help the customer and provide value. You may simply say, “I would be delighted to provide a quote. Let’s get together so I can provide an accurate quote by better understanding your needs.”

Marcia Gauger is Partner at DVR Learning, LLC, specializes in the design and delivery of performance-based learning programs and materials for sales professionals. Her blog is: http://www.dvrlearning.com/blog You can contact Marcia at email or call 262-642-9610. www.dvrlearning.com