Archive: Solution Selling
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Jan 03, 2011
No CommentsDoing the little things
I was working on a deal recently, and we got to a point where we were losing. There was no doubt about it – you have heard the customer say these things…. “Well, we did prefer the other product when we saw it, but we still are considering you.” “Price will be very important in...
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May 25, 2010
No CommentsFollow the plan!
One thing every team needs is a written sales plan or sales process. You might say you do not need it or that you use Salesforce for that. I bet writing the plan will add a lot of value. Oh, you’ve got one? Cool! Do you follow it? I bet you don’t. I get told...
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May 17, 2010
No CommentsWhen is a Problem an Opportunity?
In the course of selling and doing business you will come across many challenges and issues. Some problems you need to solve in order to move forward Some problems you need to be aware of ahead of time to avoid falling into them Some problems present you with viable business opportunties When addressing any problems,...
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Apr 11, 2010
No CommentsYou are the product manager!
I talked through a recent deal with a buddy where he faced a tough competitor – actually a stronger company and product. The details do not matter too much – he basically found out during the sales process that the other guy had a distinct advantage. The trick here was that there was not one...
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Feb 16, 2010
No CommentsCustomer lifecycle
We spend a lot of time working out how we are going to sell a certain product. I’ve seen companies spend weeks working out the proper sales process, training the entire team, and then uploading this all into Salesforce. All this is good – you do need to get those wins. Once you have these...
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Jan 28, 2010
No CommentsSell provocatively
I read this post about selling provocatively in the Selling Power blog. The comments on tightening in budgets are absolutely true – I have seen it in action. Business is just being done in a different way now than 2 years ago. 2 years ago, we focused on all the classic solution-selling, Sandler-based techniques we...
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Jan 12, 2010
No CommentsThat’s just the way it is
Working in a collaborative environment is a great thing – you want lots of people to have input on your deals. When you are a salesperson, you discover a whole world of people who enjoy telling you all the things you should do. Once they are free of that quota, the opinions just flow out...
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Jan 08, 2010
No CommentsCommodity vs. value
How to add value to a customer over time and focus less on closing...
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Jan 02, 2010
No CommentsThe court of selling (not the law one)
In a technical sale, there is always the tension between the “tech guys” and the “sales guys.” I’ve worked in a few industries where we sold as a team and needed a highly-trained tech person to help us sell. In all these cases, we struggled with how involved the tech person should be. Most sales...
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Dec 12, 2009
1 CommentZen selling?
I was talking to some salespeople about techniques to figure out what is up at a prospect. You’re working with them for a while – they show some interest – you do some selling – and then everything gets quiet. What can we say or do to get things going? We also had some cases...
