business - marketing mcgraw hill - linda richardson - the sales success handbook 2003

Too many salespeople tell their product stories too soon, without necessarily meaning to do so, and invariably talk from a generic product vs. customer point of view. When they ask about needs, they don’t go far enough. When they identify a need, they jump to product, rather than create a rich dialogue to understand why, how, or when.

Selling today is more demanding. As business becomes more challenging, salespeople need a higher level of skill. My experience, in more than two decades of working with tens of thousands of salespeople in some of the finest organizations in the world, shows that at best only 30% of salespeople truly practice need-based consultative selling and no more than one third of those achieve trusted-advisor level with their customers.

The bottom line is that too many salespeople are still too quick to tell a product story. While most think solution, they present product. Because they tend to talk more than they listen, they create an imbalanced give/get ratio instead of a 50/50 dialogue. Overall, the level of preparation and questioning does not measure up. Most sales organizations have good salespeople, but they lack enough superb salespeople to drive the growth they need to succeed.

As much as everything else is changing, the old formulas of selling features and benefits are still around, blocking dialogues and holding good salespeople back from becoming superb.

The lessons in The Sales Success Handbook will let you tap into your natural talents by helping you take advantage of your personal strengths, build on them, and create Sales talk that sells.