The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to sit on the listening-side of a role-play, or act as an observer or manager while an eager account executive makes their pitch, you have likely witnessed that pivotal moment when a flawless presentation slides into pointless monologue.  It is like the rise and fall of a well-orchestrated opera, when the prospect is sending all kinds of positive signals… but the sales person presses on with their argument.  (They have a lot invested in the preparation of this presentation… and they’re going to darn well deliver it.)

We run a division of our company called the Appointment Lab, where our team takes ideal prospects that our clients identify and we do the hard work to set appointments with those accounts. Anyone in sales knows this is one of the toughest parts of the sales process—if not the toughest.  

Have you seen the new Ford ad campaign?  It is what they call the "AND not OR" campaign. They are using this campaign to build the perception that when you buy a Ford you don't have to compromise. One ad asks if you want a "Bed or Breakfast?"  No one wants that. We want both.

I recently had the chance to observe a seller in the process of a needs analysis meeting with a client.  She had clearly prepared exhaustively for the event… with page after page of well thought-out questions.   

Recently, I was talking with a salesperson about his initial approach to prospective customers. He couldn’t seem to get folks interested in having a conversation with him. He was hearing the immediate brush off of “no thanks, not interested” soon into every cold call. While this is common, there are specific tactics that can warm up cold calls enough to get prospects to take your call, and even set aside time by scheduling an initial call.  My call with this particular rep was to share some of those tactics and best practices to help him experience more success during his initial approach.

You should be jealous of me this week. I received an amazing thank you card from a client for whom I had created a custom sales meeting to help launch an important project. 

We all know it's important to talk early and often about what your clients expectations are. After you identify a true client need is the time to start talking about expectations.

A client recently asked me to provide some feedback on his LinkedIn page. With more and more attention being given to social media, and the way it can enhance an individual’s personal marketing efforts, he wanted to make sure he was “looking good.”

I’ll thank Steve Lahr, a Director of Sales in St. Cloud, Minnesota for this analogy to new business development. Steve is relatively new to The Center for Sales Strategy family of clients; Townsquare Media only recently joined our ranks.

We are all in search of the ultimate sales strategy weapon we can employ to deal with the challenges of price and product competition. And, at last, we may have actually uncovered it.