In a recent meeting one of the sales managers asked, “Is it still really valid for salespeople to take a customer-focused selling approach anymore?” At first I was taken aback, wondering what he believed the alternative was, but I soon came to realize that he wasn’t implying that salespeople shouldn’t have the best interest of their clients in mind. What he questioned was the process where you ask for the prospect's time to learn about his or her business so you can sell the right solutions.
Prospects are no longer willing to give salespeople time to teach them about their business. And with what is now online, they shoudn’t have to.
Good sales people and sales managers like to talk about their sales performance, and it’s this time of year that many sales organizations stop to honor those who had the best year as the calendar starts a fresh countdown. I support that idea and have a suggestion to add. What if every salesperson in your organization picked one client who had a good 2011 and asked that client to share two things:
If you add up the value of everyone who sits in on a sales meeting—including yourself—you’ll realize how expensive sales meetings are. You should also remember the best training takes place in the field, with real accounts, not in a conference room with theoretical examples. But, there are still some legitimate reasons for having a sales meeting: education, training, team building, problem solving, positive psych and recognition. 
