Highly successful salespeople don't "sell", they help customers "buy." In the 2012 issues of Sales Bytes, we will introduce the Core Concepts of CustomerCentric Selling® to demonstrate how sellers can become facilitators of the buying cycle...and sell lots of stuff along the way!  

It's not about where you show up, it's what you say when you get there. You get delegated to the people you sound like. 

Gaining access to decision-making executives is critical. So, what comes out of the mouths of salespeople will determine their fate with an executive.  

If salespeople spew out product information or open their laptops for a demo with an executive, they will probably get delegated to others lower in the organization (read more...). At a minimum, this will extend the length of the sales cycle. Worse case, the executive will never sign off on the deal because the salesperson doesn't appear to understand the prospect's business or how their product/service will lead to improved business results.  

So, what are you doing to help your salespeople conduct business discussions with executives? Let's first think about how many salespeople are trained. Traditional training is all about the product. Salespeople learn about what their product is instead of what their product does to improve their customers' business results. So, it should come as no surprise that the average salesperson will converse about what they know, i.e. the product. While product knowledge is certainly important, it's not what a salesperson should lead with.

Next, let's think about the sales tools that you provide to your team. There is a huge tendency for salespeople to "wing it" if they aren't equipped with relevant questions to ask and effective positioning statements about their offerings. Remember, if a salesperson speaks like a product expert or techno-geek, they'll get delegated to the geeks. If they speak like a business person, they'll have access to that all important C-Suite.

If you'd like to learn more about how we help salespeople communicate effectively at all levels within a prospect's organization, let us know when you have time for a 15 minute call.  

Debra Swann, Pat Dougherty, Chris Kavanagh
Principals, SDK Sales Alliance