Sales Articles

Win with an unfair selling advantage by getting in early with the buyer

“Getting in early with the customer means being proactive, not reactive; generous, not selfish; relational, not transactional. It also propels your career and usefulness – even if you are not in selling – and gives you an unfair selling advantage.” I’m told that by 4.30 a.m. you will find owners of business on the road

Read More

Putting buyers’ interest first puts you in a scoring position

Put buyers first. Fighting to be in a scoring position to do this, may mean letting go of sales sometimes. Which is fine if that was the only way to assist the buyer get what he needs. “Always fight to be in a scoring position.” So, a Director of Business Development reader friend of mine

Read More

Simplicity is king when selling

“When I first heard about the cloud, I thought the information was held somewhere in the skies.” I was told this by the CEO of a thriving IT solutions firm. If you know what ‘the ‘cloud’, in computer terminology, means, you must be laughing. Don’t! That’s how you lose sales. By assuming buyers know, and

Read More

Forget closing the sale! Just get the appointment

“You can’t sell to everyone, and because you must sell to someone, you don’t want to pick anyone. Prospecting — and following through to getting the appointent—remains the most important step in the sales cycle. All others cannot manifest if there’s no one to work them on.” So, forget closing the sale; just get the

Read More

Research and explore to find out your buyer’s hidden need

“Research and explore to get close to the need with the focus of a rifle than hope for the best with the pellets from a shotgun” The umbrellas are on sale in the streets. With the chronic blackouts lately, lanterns and emergency lights are too. Hawkers seem to always have just what you need. And

Read More

How to sell to different segments in the organization

It is the consummate seller who is able to resist the urge to volunteer (unnecessary) details of what the product can do, and stick to selling to different segments in an organization. A business to business sale many times requires the presentation to be done across different cadre before it is consummated. Few sellers do

Read More

How sellers in charitable organizations can quickly embrace a commercial outlook

Trapped between charity and commerce, charitable organizations strive to embrace a quasi-commercial outlook. Therefore, it is imperative for their salespeople to morph at a faster rate. Now, it’s the USAID funding freeze, then it was the credit crunch. Maybe this time charitable organizations will pay attention. When the dire credit crunch happened in the West

Read More

Debt collection is in itself a formidable salesman

To thrive, sellers must take debt collection in stride. Or would they rather Finance does? If the ultimate objective of sales is to generate income, then debt collection is in itself a salesman. A reader friend of mine told me of an interesting experience he had a few years back. When he joined this firm

Read More

Asking ‘So?’ lets you look outwards to the buyer, not inwards to you

How do you get to speak in the language that connects with the buyer? By asking, “So?”. The core problem: inward-looking sales training Most in-house sales training busy themselves with product knowledge. So, if I’m selling waste-water treatment equipment, my in-house training will focus on the types of plants we have, their specifications, what they

Read More

How to successfully close a sale: lessons from daily experiences

Today, we address the ways how to successfully close a sale borrowing from everyday experiences. Closing a sale in business, is getting commitment to to buy. The importance of closing the sale cannot be gainsaid. It’s the whole purpose of selling. Not closing the sale is like playing football and not scoring. Here’s how you close

Read More
Stay ahead in a rapidly changing world with Lend Me Your Ears. It’s Free! Most sales newsletters offer tips on “What” to do. But, rarely do they provide insight on exactly “How” to do it. Without the “How” newsletters are a waste of time.