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May 15, 2014
13 May 2014
Tough sales issues, and not so tough (but not so easy) answers. Written by By Jeffrey Gitomer
Tough sales issues, and not so tough (but not so easy) answers.
By Jeffrey Gitomer
Thee 3.5 biggest issues facing salespeople today are:
1. Price integrity.
2. Customer loyalty.
3. Fighting hungry competition.
3.5 Quality, attitude, and belief of the salesperson.
These issues manifest themselves in BOTH lost sales that you could have won and lost profits that you could have earned.
Tough questions:
• What are you doing to fight price pressures?
• What is your sales team doing this year to dominate the market and the competition?
• What is the perceived difference between you and the competition?
• What are you doing to create real value for customers and prospects in your sales presentation?
• What are you doing to build more value-driven, loyal relationships?
And the age-old question:
• Where’s the beef? (AKA: Where’s the proof YOU are the best buy?)
The key success answers lie in:
- Value offered by the salesperson vs. value perceived by the customer. Ask yourself: What am I doing to TRANSFER my value message so the customer receives it AND believes it to be valuable?
- Reputation of the product, the company, AND the salesperson. Ask yourself: What is my TOTAL reputation and how do I continue to build it?
- Proof of product, service, value, quality, and outcome – social and video testimonials. Ask yourself: How am I using “voice of customer” as both social proof and video proof to win customer confidence and sales?
- Depth of customer relationships, both with the salesperson and the company. Do they just “like me” and still ask me to bid or quote, or do they just call and order? Ask yourself: Am I still bidding on business, and waiting to be told I won?
- On-going, on-demand weekly training and reinforcement to both help and support salespeople in the field or on the phone. Real-world, web-based training available on all mobile platforms. Go to www.gitomerVT for an amazing example. Ask yourself: What type of training am I offering that actually HELPS my team improve and make more sales?
- Sales tool support. Easy answer: www.aceofsales.com – this program is a differentiator and a difference maker. Besides amazing emails and email magazines, Ace of Sales offers hundreds of graphics and optional scripted emails and subject lines for every salesperson. Ask yourself: Do my emails look exactly the same as my competition? Why have I not tried Ace of Sales?
- Leadership support. Encourage and GO WITH your salespeople on sales calls. Coach them; don’t manage them. Don’t just lead by example; set the standard. Ask yourself: What would it take to become known as the BEST place to work in the city – and become known as the BEST boss to work for? Create real attraction!
7.5 Google in and Google out. You (and everyone on your team) should Google the customer and their company to do research before the meeting. HINT: The customer is Googling you as well. Ask yourself: How is my online presence and reputation affecting sales?
MAJOR CLUE: It’s not just one or a few of these answers, it’s ALL of them.
MAJOR CLUE: These answers don’t just happen. You make a plan to make them happen, and then execute the plan.
MAJOR CLUE: The quality of salespeople and willingness of management to help and support are more than half of the answers.
To gain a better understanding of what CAN be done, here are the sales psychologies behind the strategies and answers:
• The first sale that’s made is the salesperson. If you don’t sell yourself, your product or service has NO chance.
• The attitude and belief of the salesperson directly affect the customer’s decision to buy.
• People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy. Stop selling. Start finding motives to buy.
• All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not quite so equal, people still want to do business with their friends.
• People buy for their reasons, not yours. Find out their reasons first, and get them to buy based on that.
• The old way of selling doesn’t work any more.
Got issues? Or got answers?
The difference is your sales success and your profit.
Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of twelve best-selling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. His best-selling 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling is now available as a book and an online course at www.gitomerVT.com. For public event dates and information about training and seminars visit www.gitomer.com or email Jeffrey personally at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
© 2014 All Rights Reserved. Don’t even think about reproducing this documentwithout written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer. 704/333-1112
Read more:13 May 2014
How to Develop a Powerful B2B Value Proposition By Ian Dainty Written by Ian Dainty / Toronto, Canada
How to Develop a Powerful B2B Value Proposition By Ian Dainty
Developing a powerful B2B Value Proposition will differentiate your company from your competition.
If you are having trouble differentiating your business from your competitors, then please read this story. It will show you how I differentiated a basic commodity business from my competitors, to become a sole provider to a major Canadian Bank.
From 1980 until 1994 (Yes I am that old!) I started, owned and grew an IT (Information Technology) staffing business. I started the business from scratch. Although I had about 2½ years of experience with another agency, before I started my own business.
It is interesting to note that I call staffing a commodity business, because it obviously dealt with placing the right “people” into an account to do a special job. And especially IT, where IT is a very specialized skill, such as programming, project management, etc.
And of course, we should never think of people as simply a commodity, but unfortunately, that is how most clients saw this business.
There are many reasons for this. One big reason is that different staffing agencies would submit the same person for a contract, and of course all at different rates. So, the person, in essence, became a commodity.
I won’t get into why this happened, but that was the case back then.
It just shows how lazy some people can be about the basics of any business, such as qualification. And the way people qualify hasn’t changed much since then. Many sales people don’t even qualify at all.
Anyway, I had been trying for about three years to have this Bank (of which there are only 5 big ones) use my company as their agency. In fact, they were not using any agency, but using a lot of individual independents, all on separate contracts.
The value proposition I presented to them was this.
I showed them what kind of money they could save by using an agency to do this type of work for them.
Now every company wants to save money, you would think. But Canada’s big banks are huge monoliths that make billions of dollars a year in profits – not just billions of dollars in revenue, but billions of dollars in after tax profits.
So saving them a few thousand dollars, or even a few million dollars, here or there, didn’t seem at first like a real Value Proposition.
But it was!
Besides, it wasn’t just saving them money, I was also going to save them valuable time, and give them more productivity from their contractors.
I found out that it took three months to get any new employee or contractor to get up to speed on how the IT department of that Bank worked. So, in essence, any new employee’s, or contractor’s first three months, were wasted productivity time for the Bank.
As you can imagine, any large company, especially a large Bank, has a huge IT department. In the 80’s most Canadian Bank’s IT departments had anywhere from 500 to 1,500 people working in IT. And about 10% of these people were contractors.
And, as with any large company, and especially Canadian banks, many times the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. This meant that after a project was finished, it usually meant that any contractors, on that just finished project, were let go.
So, all of the knowledge gained from that project, but more importantly, all knowledge of how the Bank worked, was lost, only to have needless training again, for another new contractor for another project.
Another three months of non-productive time.
So, instead of losing these people, I suggested this option. If they turned those independents over to my company, I would do a number of things for them.
1. They would only have to pay one invoice on all of their contractors. It eventually went to 75 people for my company. This of course saved each IT manager a lot of headaches, and time.
2. Plus it took all responsibility off them, in case our Federal Government wanted to find out if these people were really contractors or employees. This was an audit the Banks did not want.
3. I would put in a senior Account Manager to manage all of those contractors that worked through my company. His job was to work with all of the VP’s of each division within IT. He would find out what projects they had ongoing, and what projects were coming up, and what skill sets they needed for each of those projects.
4. The Account Manager needed to know the skill sets of each contractor, so he could move the contractors, with the right skill sets, into the next project.
5. His only account was that Bank.
6. We also gave them a write-up on all of the work done by each contractor, and the rating they were given by their respective project managers on each job.
7. We also charged pretty close to same rate they were already paying each contractor.
So what else was my company’s Value Proposition to this Bank?
It turns out that the turnover of their contractors was about 50% a year. So they lost all existing contractors every two years.
They were paying, at that time, about $50 per hour per contractor. And with 75 contractors they were losing over $7.5 million on contracting costs alone.
That cost didn’t include the costs of training new contractors, or replacing the knowledge of the people that had left. They estimated that cost doubled the replacement cost.
So, they were losing over $15 million every two years by not managing their contractors properly. And since the senior executives of IT were paid on managing costs, this took a little chunk out of their paycheques.
We showed them a better way to manage their contractors, without it costing much more money. And we helped them earn more money personally, by managing these people for them.
And of course that $15 million dollars was now revenue for my firm.
How’s that for a Value Proposition!
Of course that is just one way to show value. Each market, and each business, is different. But if you put your mind to it, you too can come up with a Value Proposition that will interest your clients. Even in a commodity market.
How are you doing with your Value Proposition?
Your Value Proposition involves a number of factors.
1. You must know your own products and services and what benefits and value – these are different – they bring your clients.
2. You must know your marketplace and how your products and services fit.
3. You must understand the issues your clients and prospects face, and how your products and services help alleviate or eliminate them.
4. You must know your ideal clients and why they would want your products and services.
5. You must know what differentiates you from your competition. And in today’s times, it is often very difficult to know who your competitors are.
Do you have a Powerful Value Proposition that shows your clients the real value you are bringing to them?
Contact me, through my email below, and let me show you, FOR FREE, how you can deliver the right Value Proposition for your business. And how your Value Proposition can then deliver a lot more revenue, and profits, to your business.
Ian Dainty
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
13 May 2014
Question and Answer By Dave Kahle Written by Dave Kahle
Question and Answer
Clearly, spreading the business around between several vendors is the customer's philosophical approach to purchasing. He/she probably has arrived at this approach through some combination of personal experience and/or executive direction.
Here's a pretty effective rule for sales strategy: When your customer voices a firmly held position, do not attack that position. You'll just harden their positions and make life difficult for yourself. Instead, go around that position.
In other words, retreat a bit, change the subject and look for an opportunity on the specific, rather than the general, level. Leave the philosophical approach unaddressed. Instead, show him why, in one specific opportunity after another, you are the best choice. Do that over and over again, and, hopefully, he'll discover himself buying more from you than your competitors. He'll never have to publicly change his position; he'll just find himself acting differently.
That's the most effective approach. But, that isn't the only strategy. You may, for example, take a bit of a round-about approach to the issue. Realize that you have to influence the customer to change his opinion, to change his beliefs, and instead to believe that doing more of his purchasing from one vendor (you) is a better idea. Put yourself in the customer's shoes. If you were him, what would convince you to change your beliefs?
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The decision as to which accounts to invest your time in is a critical part of every salesperson's success. Learn a systematic way to make that decision in Chapter Six of Eleven Secrets of Time Management for Sales People. Learn more. |
Start by digging into the customer's head. What is more important to him when it comes to making a decision: price, quality, service, ease of doing business, etc.?
Once you uncover your customer's priorities, then you can work to fulfill his expectations in that regard. Over time, show him by your company's performance and your attention, that your company gives him everything that he wants.
At some point, a number of years down the road, when you have been successful on the item by item basis, it may be helpful to have a discussion about doing more business with you.
This is one of the most difficult sales situations for the sales person, because the customer's deeply held values prevent you, at least in the short term, from increasing the business. Before you decide to spend the time and effort to try to change the situation, make a cold-hearted, rational decision about the likelihood of you being successful in this account. It may be that your time is better spent in other accounts.
One of the greatest aspects of the sales profession is that there is always another challenge out there. You don't sell them all. If you did, it would get boring, and the job would be done by someone with half of your ability. This is one of those challenges that may frustrate you for years. Take the long term approach, and determine to eventually succeed.
This article is available in an expanded and more detailed version. Click here.
Dave Kahle is one of the world's leading sales authorities. He's written ten books, presented in 47 states and ten countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations. Sign up for his free weekly Ezine. Check out our Sales Resource Center for 455 sales training programs for every sales person at every level.
You may contact Dave at The DaCo Corporation, PO Box 523, Comstock Park, MI 49321, or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Page Title: What to do when the customer wants to spread the business among several vendors? A question and answer by Dave Kahle for sales people.
Key Words: Dave Kahle, Kail, Kahil, Kale, selling, sales training,B2B sales, wholesale distributor sales people, sales reps, how to sell, spreading the business among vendors, key account sales, penetrating key accounts, sales management, managing sales people.
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Agreement to publish an article: "Question and Answer"
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1. Mail one copy of the publication in which the article appears to The DaCo Corporation at the address listed below. If electronic, e-mail a copy of the newsletter in which the article appears to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
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A Poltergeist in the Office? Oct 06, 2014
Title: A Poltergeist in the Office? Subtitle: How negative energy can destroy an office environment and threaten a company’s culture. Written by Matthew J. Herman (Published Oct. 5, 2014) In spirit of the Halloween... Read More...
How do you define success? Sep 24, 2013
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The John Elway Sweepstakes: Having the right C-Level relationship puts you ahead of the competition Sep 16, 2013
The John Elway Sweepstakes Having the right C-Level relationship puts you ahead of the competition By Matthew Herman You may be asking yourself, what does John Elway have to do with sales, entrepreneurship or business?... Read More...
Unseen Power: 12 intangible sales skills that will bring your organization to the next level Jun 2013
The world of sales can be brutally competitive. Companies simply can not survive unless they close a significant number of profitable sales – that’s a given. As a direct result, the demand for great sales professionals has grown to unprecedented... Sign Up to Read More ...
Twitter thoughts and Twitter thinking. Tweet and Re-Tweet. Jun 2013
Most people reading this have never tweeted. (You included?) On the off chance that you have tweeted, my guess is you have less than 5,000 Twitter followers – maybe less than 500.Whatever your situation is there’s no denying that Twitter is a... Sign Up to Read More ...
Terrance Gilmore, Fitness Advice from a Former Fat Guy Jun 2013
My Story: As I sat there, head in hands, tears running between my fingers, a single question repeated in my mind, like the light atop a lighthouse, it spun around and around in my mind. How did I let myself get here? At 27 years old, I should be... Sign Up to Read More ...
A misguided post about features and benefit selling Jun 2013
Last week I was sitting down at the kitchen table responding to several inquiries regarding my book. After roughly 45 minutes, my focus started to drift off course. I began to read random posts from professionals that comprise my LinkedIn network.... Sign Up to Read More ...
When you walk in empty headed, you walk out empty handed. Jun 2013
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How to Develop a Powerful B2B Value Proposition By Ian Dainty May 2014
How to Develop a Powerful B2B Value Proposition By Ian Dainty Developing a powerful B2B Value Proposition will differentiate your company from your competition. If you are having trouble differentiating your business from... Sign Up to Read More ...
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Question and Answer Clearly, spreading the business around between several vendors is the customer's philosophical approach to purchasing. He/she probably has arrived at this... Sign Up to Read More ...
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