They are not buying a product or a service…they are buying what your product or service allows them to do.
Jim Logan mentioned this in a recent post.
It got me to thinking.
Our project checklists and internal plans are all for the final result. But, its easy for people to get stuck in the tasks. “Did task X get finished on time? Check. How about task Y?”
We all need to keep in mind the tasks while never losing site of the purpose for completing them.
Today, I attended a presentation online. The company’s first 20 (yes 20) slides were direct from their site - which I had already read.
Make sure you ask your prospect what he/she has already seen or knows prior to starting a presentation.
This is a follow-up to the recent sales presentations in Lexington.
You may be interested in these resources when considering the management of your sales teams:
- Jigsaw.com — a free or pay web database of executives at companies nationwide. I recommend this to all businesses with sales people.
- LinkedIn.com — a “six degrees of separation” free service. It’s like Jigsaw, but with over 11 million members. If you sign-up, add me (bdotson@gmail.com) and when I accept, you’ll see who my connections are. Make the most of it by uploading your contacts, too.
- Two thoughts on employee compensation: The first on general comp and the second on professional services sales team compensation. The second article has some thoughts you may wish to use when compensating your sales team.
- Jott.com — a free service that helps me make it through the day with all the crazy ideas I get and need sent to my inbox.
- Landslide.com — not CRM and not SFA — better. Its the web “sales workstyle management”. They have a demo on the site and its a great system. Plus, the monthly fee covers a sales assistant for each salesperson in your firm. If you use this system it will force you to develop a sales process. My contact there is Dave Hurlbrink, VP Business Development, daveh@landslide.com , 610-779-2301.
- My sample sales template and video walkthrough. This is a link to information about the proposal template (in MS Word) and a short 10 min. video walkthrough explaining it.
