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The Salesperson's One-Word Job Description
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Lee Salz
Lee B. Salz s a sales management guru who helps companies hire the right sales people, on-board them effectively, and focus their sales activity using his sales architecture® methodology. He is the President of Sales Architects , the C.E.O. of Business Expert Webinars and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager .
Lee can be reached at lsalz@SalesArchitecture.com or 763.416.4321.
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Lee Salz
The buyer side of the equation is more complex but critical for the matchmaker to be successful in formulating these relationships. The key is to recognize that there are a number of “buying players” who affect/influence the sale and a comprehensive understanding is needed of each one.
Once you have identified each of the buying players, ask yourself
1. What business challenges keep them up at night?
2. What information can you learn from them to help facilitate the sale?
3. What is their language? (It is most effective if you can use their vernacular when communicating with them.)
4. What is the SYNERGY between the supplier’s capabilities and the buyer’s challenges?
5. Why should the supplier’s offering be a PRIORITY for this buying player right now?
The last two questions are the most important aspects to formulating relationships (a.k.a. generating sales). Synergy is the process of comparing and contrasting what you know about the problems that the supplier’s offerings solve and the specific problems that each buying player faces. If a buying player is heavily influential in the decision-making process, but you cannot identify synergies between their challenges and the supplier’s solutions, it will be nearly impossible to engage them. No sale!
Priority answers the fundamental question of, “Why now?” One of the common sales excuses for not getting a response from a voicemail or email is that the decision-maker is busy. “You can imagine why they aren’t responding. They’re busy. They have a full plate.” Great news! The government just announced that they are issuing everyone a second plate. Problem solved! Humor aside, the real issue is that if you cannot align the solution with the buying player’s most problematic areas, you will find that opportunities languish in the pipeline. Just like the old Roach Motel, “they go in, but they don’t come out!”
The next time you want to use the “they’re busy” excuse, consider this. As you’re reading this article, you receive a call from your CEO who wants to meet with you tomorrow at 9:30am to discuss tripling your salary. Will you be at the meeting? I’ll bet you will. You never even checked your calendar before committing, did you? Why? The answer is that money is a priority for you. Everything else gets cast aside to have a meeting about tripling your income.
The exact same results are achieved if you can identify synergy and priority with your buying players. They will be responsive. They will have meetings and re-organize their day to meet with you if the supplier solution solves a problem that is keeping the decision-making, buying player up at night. While you may be looking for answers on how to sell in a miserable economy, the solution is right under your nose. Find the synergies and priority between the supplier and buyer; and become a true matchmaker sales person.
