Ghanging minds

fnans MUSr BE defended. Someone (us. Ifor example) must stand up for an idea and speak on its behalf. The idea that someone should buy from us, even if we are the beyond-obvious best choice, is an idea that must be defended with our words.

Quotrons vs. ldea Defenders

There are three categories of sales people that languish away in the land of underachievement and mediocrity:

Quotrons - They quote product all day long, but never sell it.

Product Presenters - Highly versed on the market and product, but never sell ir.

The Nice Guys - "How ya doin', buddy?" They insult themselves (you think that's all it takes?), their competition (you think you are the only charming person in the world?), and their potential client (do you think all I need is likeability to buy from someone?). And never sell it.

Master sellers stand for something. They have "a way they do business." Do they accommodate their customers? Yes. Do they calibrate their personality to their customer's personality? Yes. Do they know their markets and products? Yes, yes and yes.

But what sets master sellers apart is their ability (and desire!) to change people's minds. Master sellers do not shy away from this crucial task-they embrace it. They believe they are the best choice and relish the opportunity to show/explain/sell their customers it is true. They defend the obvious best choice-themselves-with their words.

I'm Happy with My Gurrent Supplier

How we orchestrate our first call to customers has more to do with our ultimate success than any other call. If we fumble this crucial interaction, it is difficult to build our business fast enough to overcome the inevitable leaks in our account base. Master sellers build relationships more quickly. When they lose a big account it doesn't take them long to replace the business. Master sellers have:

A better bench. They cultivate the quality and quantity of their secondary relationships.

Their initial calls are impactful. They create "heat" earlier and "get cooking" with new customers sooner.

. Our number one objection on every new call will be: "I'm happy with my current supplier."

Some salespeople have no plan. Some are too aggressive, believing the fallacy that we are magically converting the entire customer's business to us on the first call. Business-to-business sales is a relationship built over time. Our goal is to become our customer's number one supplier, but it won't happen on the first call.

What will happen is we can earn the customer's respect and permission (or right) to continue to call. One of our primary goals of the initial call is to have agreement from our customer that they will continue to take our call. If we can talk to them, we can sell them.

The point is to respect the buyer's current decision, while selling/explaining/defending his need to have us as a supplier also.

"Mr. Johnson, I don't want to get in the way of the relationships you already have. What I would like is to be a secondary or back-up supplier. We will get to know each other. You will see the quality of my products and service."

"l respect the relationships you already have. A great company like yours will have good suppliers. We are a great supplier and would like to prove it to you one step at a time. Let me offer you product for three months. If at the end of that time we haven't done any business, no hard feelings and we both move on. What's your email?"

"You know, everyone needs a back-up plan. I am your back-up plan. I'm sure you currently have great suppliers. I won't get in the way of that. What I will do is show you a piece of the market you haven't been seeing. Let me call you next Monday with some great deals on..."

Write lt Out

Make your answer in your style. Make several versions for the different types of customer you will encounter. To make them our own \ we must write them orl. We must brand our answers in our minds.

We must be prepared, able and, most importantly, willing to change minds and defend the idea that we are the beyondobvious best choice.

James Olsen Reality Sales Training

5M-3s72