The Selling Newsletter
The Selling Newsletter
from [email protected]
A free monthly newsletter of ideas to help make your selling easier.
Selling is the easiest job in the world…Just ask anyone who is NOT in sales! Best wishes for YOUR successful selling—Maura
This issue contains:
-The Selling Quote for the Month
-The Selling Ideas for the Month
-Action Items
-To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
-Need an article for your newsletter?
-About Maura Schreier-Fleming
-Contact Information
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The Selling Quote for the Month
“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”
Joe Paterno
Salespeople are very similar to athletes. Every great athlete spends hours and hours preparing by training to be in the best shape possible for the big games.Great salespeople consider their sales preparation as important as their sales calls.It pains me when I watch some salespeople think that selling can be treated like a casual activity without suitable preparation.These people show up for sales calls and start planning the sales call as they’re sitting down in their chair.Their questioning strategy is haphazard and unplanned. Their results are often dismal. Selling is just like a sport. It requires preparation.So plan, set objectives for each call, do your research, get your rest and then go sell.After all, it’s the best game in town.
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Sales Programs
Does your trade association or company have a meeting planned? Have Maura speak on selling and business skills and strategies at your conference so you can sell more this year.
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Inside Your Customer’s Head
The next time you ask your management to give you a lower price so you can sell one of your products, think again. You just might not be ready to ask for one.Why? You need a lower price only after you’ve driven the sales process to a specific point.Here’s what needs to happen before you ask for a lower price.
Cost vs. price. There are some salespeople who truly believe most customers will switch for a lower price.They may be right.Those customers who switch only for price may have been shown that the product and service that is being offered is exactly the same.But is it? Shame on the salesperson who is unable to identify sources of value that are key to distinguishing one product from another.Are the delivery terms exactly the same? Does one company offer better payment terms that effectively reduce the price paid for a product? Do the products perform differently over the life of the product so total costs of one product are lowered over time? Most customers would never select a cheap product that costs a company more money in downtime, lost production, rework or other areas despite the lower price.If you can demonstrate that the total cost of ownership is exactly the same for both products, then you’ve earned the right to ask for a lower price.
Don’t kid yourself. Some salespeople believe that price is the only buying criterion their customers have.In the quick lube market there is the perception that you have to sell a particular brand to get business.The other strong perception is that price is the only way to sell in this marketplace.Both are false assumptions. I interviewed several quick lube managers recently.When asked why they switched suppliers, they said they switched suppliers because of customer service.They talked about their salesperson and the difference he made in the choice of suppliers.They made comments like, “He helped me grow my business” and “He knew my business.” Price may have been mentioned as a consideration, but it was not the main reason they changed suppliers.
They changed because the salesperson earned the decision to buy.One salesperson with a higher price used a creative business strategy to bring customers to his prospect’s quick lube. The salesman printed discount oil change coupons. He then looked for the best place to distribute the coupons.He wanted locations where large amounts of people gathered. He picked a local hospital cafeteria and got permission to distribute the coupons.His company also had a large office in the city where the quick lube operated. He distributed the coupons there.The coupons drove customers to the quick lube and increased the quick lube’s business. Was the price of product the only buying criterion for this customer?Not after the salesman offered to help him grow his business and certainly not after he accomplished the task.Before you think you need to lower your price, first determine ways to increase your customer’s business.With your creative ideas, your customer may prefer to do business with you and you won’t have to offer a lower price.
What problems do you solve?Growing your customer’s business is one way to get customers interested in paying more for your products.Solving their problems is another. Have you identified three needs or problems your customer experiences?Have you found out if addressing these areas are important to your customer? It’s your job as a talented sales professional to determine your customers’ needs and problems. Until you find the issues that your customers care about, you have not earned the right to ask for a lower price from your management. Customers find value in buying products that solve problems-and they pay more to buy products that do.
You may think you have to lower your price to sell.Maybe you will. Just make sure that lowering your price is your last selling strategy, not your first.
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Action Items
1. What sources of value are you providing your customers? Are you helping them reduce a cost, avoid a cost or add to their revenues?
2. Are you documenting and quantifying the value you bring your customers? Next sales call, have a discussion about how your work has impacted your customer’s bottom line.
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Selling Tip
Get more selling tips from Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
https://www.bestatselling.com/selling_tools.htm#5
From Maura’s ebook: 97 Ways to Sell More Now E-Book
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Looking for new strategies to improve your persuasion skills? This easy to apply Audio CD will give you many new ideas to easily improve your persuasion skills so you can sell more and close business faster.
https://www.bestatselling.com/Audio_CD.htm
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I’m always looking for success stories and other tips from sales professionals. Please feel free to email me at info@bestatselling.com with ideas that have worked for you.
If you want to build customer relationships for long-term business, you can easily do it using Exacttarget (www.exacttarget.com) and their CANSPAM compliant broadcast services.
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To Subscribe to the Selling Newsletter
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Need an Article for Your Newsletter?
Articles from this newsletter may be used in your free publications or posted on your web when given the following credit:
Written by Maura Schreier-Fleming, [email protected] (www.BestatSelling.com). Maura works with business and sales professionals who want to sell more and be more productive at work. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results.
For free articles, selling ideas and morale boosters
visit https://www.BestatSelling.com
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About Maura Schreier-Fleming
Invite Maura to speak at your next conference or sales meeting! Contact: info@bestatselling.com
Maura Schreier-Fleming works with business and sales professionals to make it easier to sell more and be more productive at work. Her [email protected] clients want to create long-term client relationships. They include Fujitsu, Fannie Mae and Dr Pepper/7UP. She has an M.S. in Textile Engineering from Georgia Tech and was Mobil Oil’s first female lubrication engineer in the U.S. With over 20 years of sales experience, she teaches the art and science of selling with a unique hands-on perspective and a great deal of real-life insight. She is the author of Real-World Selling for Out-of-this-World Results (a book filled with ideas to make selling easier and more productive. Her business column ‘Selling Strategies’ appears in the Insurance Record magazine and her column ‘Street Talk’ appears in Jobbers World. You can contact her for seminars at company or trade association meetings at 972 380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com
Privacy: At [email protected] we take privacy issues very seriously. Your information remains with us and will never be sold, shared, or distributed in any manner, for any reason.
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Contact Information
1. Our Web site: https://www.BestatSelling.com
2. E-mail: info@bestatselling.com
3. Call: In Dallas 972 380 0200
4. Write us:
6757 Arapaho Rd., Suite 711-183
Dallas, TX 752448
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(c) Copyright 2006 Maura Schreier-Fleming. All rights reserved
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