RE:”Customer Experience #1? Are you helping your client or Devouring them!”

Wow, I posted my article “Customer Experience #1? Are you helping your client or Devouring them!” last week in response to the many postings I have seen recently about selling and how differentiate yourself by being truly committed to helping your client succeed and not just committed to selling your product.  This is a fundamental shift in the way a lot of sales people sell, and it is again refreshing to see additional posts related to this subject.

Jill Konrath’s latest post, “If You Hate Sales, You’re Doing Something Wrong“, explores this topic in response to another article she read that was based on author’s statement “I hate selling”.   In Jill’s response she makes the point:

“Top B2B (business-to-business) sellers are truly focused on making a difference. They view their products or services as simply a tool that their customers can use to achieve specific business objectives. Prior to making any sales calls, they do extensive research on their prospect to ensure they know what’s happening in their firm, market conditions, competitive activity, industry trends and more. They’re searching for a couple things: 1) problems or issues that can be resolved by their products/services or 2) gaps between a customer’s stated goal and their current status. Their entire focus is on business process improvement.” ….

 

To ensure the meeting is worthwhile for their prospect, they spend hours in preparation. They can’t come in and do a pitch. If they start talking about their wonderful offering, unique capabilities, state-of-the-art processes or robust system – it’s over. They’re out.

Instead they have to focus on engaging the decision makers in a business-oriented conversation relevant to their offering. At the end of the meeting, they suggest the logical next step … which may be another meeting, a demonstration, analysis – or whatever.

You said that sometimes you just have to “pitch.” I fundamentally disagree with you. You never pitch. NEVER. Or you’ll blow it. Instead you have to engage people in a dialogue, explore the situation in more depth, uncover un-thought of business implications and ramifications for continuing with the status quo and then determine the pay-off from making a change. “

This is right on, Jill.  So read the rest of her article and ask yourself again if you are committed to selling your product or helping your client succeed.  Don’t be shortsighted into thinking you have to convince every prospect to buy, this will not get you very far in this world.  Instead, be a consultant and sell when it makes sense to both parties…