Professional Selling Skills Training: Value of a Customer

I recently read an article in Fast Company magazine (a must-read for anyone looking to succeed). In the September, 2006, issue, there is a great article by David Lidsky. He quotes a study stating that more than 87% of all company executives do not know what the value of a customer is to their company. Wow, totally scary but so true! I was pleased to find in writing what I’ve been hearing from companies for a long time. Even worse is a number in the article stating that 91% of executives do not know the true cost of acquiring a new customer.

For sales people, these are powerful numbers because it helps to reinforce both the importance of sales and of having competent sales people. Many times, I’m asked to evaluate a company’s sales and marketing efforts and in the vast majority of cases, I find there are no benchmarks to measure these numbers against. No wonder so many sales managers feel they’re fighting an uphill battle with senior management! However, they can only blame themselves for not taking the time to put into place benchmarking procedures to measure the true cost of sales.

Thanks to Fast Company magazine and to David Lidsky for both his article and his research with The Strativity Group.

Sales Training Tip #145: 4-Legged Sales Calls

Taking another person with you on a sales call is often a great way to demonstrate how committed you and your company are to completing the sale. Prior to going, make sure the person with you is well briefed on what they should and should not talk about. Keep in mind that it’s still your role to close the sale. Don’t leave that task to the other person.

Professional Selling Skills Training: Bad Sales Copy

Marketing materials are often developed by very competent people who know the business well. In fact, they know the business too well and we see the results of this in the final marketing copy. Many times it turns out to be a great product copy, but it is terrible in terms of allowing the customer to understand how they will benefit from the product or service. Next time you develop marketing materials, take the time to get input from real customers before you print them.

Sales Training Tip #144: C-Suite Strategy

When you’re trying to break into the C-Suite (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.), don’t hesitate to develop relationships lower down in an organization as a way of uncovering information. However, it's important to remember that what you hear at a lower level is not always repeatable at the C-Suite level. The last thing you want to do is share something that may not be totally correct and, ultimately, winds up jeopardizing the status of the lower level personnel you’ve been talking to.

Sales Training Tip #143: 50 Words

Salespeople love to talk and they often talk too much. If you could only speak 50 words in a presentation, what would they be? If you were limited to 50 words, you’d use them to ask the most crucial questions. Keep your focus on asking better questions so you get the customer to talk.