Sales Person is a customer too!

Many a time, customer objections seem to make salespeople think of them as idiots/unreasonable/irrational....

Every salesperson is a customer too for a number of products/services all the time.

Every salesperson selects/deselects/buys/ a large number of products/services from a number of sellers(vendors). Can you use that knowledge to address customer objections BETTER?

Whenever a customer objection araises, apply the following train of thought:

- If I were the customer , what would have made me raise a similar objection? what issues/impact factors/drivers would have made me behave that way?

- What would have convinced me against that objection? What exactly was I looking for when I raise such an objection?


This process in my view, will certainly improve the way customer objections are handled. Try and let me know.

Central Idea and the balance 50%

Steve Krug says in his book 'Dont make me Think' that every web page content can get reduced by 50% without losing its meaning. The thought can easily extend to the books we read, presentations we attend,speeches we listen to.

In the age of 140 character communication ( pioneered by Twitter), stripping the communication to its bones saves a lot for everybody ( removes irrelevent audience,saves time/money for audience and the communicator,makes the transaction cheaper and is the need of the hour ( when everything mentioned here is in short supply today!).

Do you need 400 pages to say 'Focus on core competency'?

Do you need 50/60 slides to present one great idea?

Do you need 60 minutes of my time when 5 will do?

Do you need to print a book, when a blog will do?


If you are still not convinced, understand the japanese motto "Anything complex is costly. Anything simpler is cheaper". I rest the case.

will web2.0,web 3.0 work for you?

while a section of the world is finding web 3.0 glamorous, a larger slice of the business world is still figuring out whether web2.0 is of any 'real' use to them.

Don't get carried away by the news on Dell's $3mn revenue from Twitter! Not everyone is a Dell.

Look at these before you leap:


1. How net savvy are YOUR CUSTOMERS?

2. Do they ever buy anything on net/mobile? ( you will be surprised at the number of businesses whose online procurement is a practical disappointment )

3. Does their buying process allow them to make a decision from just a few web pages/conversations?

4.Is your product/service customised for online purchase?

5.How does it compare with your competitors' online offerings?



Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Making Customers BUY before the sale

Its debatable whether men are good listeners compared to women, but one thing i have often heard is that sales people are NOT good listeners. All the training programs teach them to be good listeners but they want to hear themselves talk all the time!

A common perception is - If they dont talk, they are not selling!

Ofcourse the above observation does not apply to all sales people, definitely not the successful ones.

This post is not about making sales people, good listeners. But listening helps you get the customers to BUY all the time, even if you have not made the sale yet!

Every now and then in the sales process, make the customer BUY something!

BUY your time ( Invest more of their time and get ENGAGED in disussions)
BUY your opinion ( Agree on your ideas)
BUY into your sales process ( Agree on next meeting/next step)

If you dont stop ,listen and get them to BUY something from the above, you are not getting their commitment further into the sales process. You may wait till the end and ask if what you offer is what they want, they say NO, and both of you have wasted a lot of time,money,resources.

If they are not BUYING before the sale, may be they are not going to BUY at all!

Losses from a more 'Perfect' decision

Is there a PERFECT DECISION? Is it worth it?

Like Colin Powell said, 60% information is good enough in most cases for a decision.

You wait for 10% more information,it may make the decision 10% more perfect, BUT it may be too late and the cost of delay may be much more .


Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

Creation and Maintenance

With 'twittered' work/life, everyone is too busy chasing today's goals , texting,tweeting,short mails,short telecons....

As we do this, the tectonic plates are shifting right under our feet. Web is taking over traditional marketing, Competition is not just global, but growing exponentially, deals are happening/breaking for reasons never comprehended earlier.

While managing all this is not easy, my suggestion to you is not to forget the importance of creation while running on 'maintenance'.

Let me explain.

What we do for today is maintenance.

What we do for tomorrow is creation.

In life/work, both have their importance. More so in the current context, when you take lessons on communicating in 140 characters or less.

If you dont spend atleast SOME of your time/energy/resources on creation, what you are doing for maintenance today may not exist tomorrow.

Maintain AND Create.

Selling in Recession Times

There is no shortage of depressants during recession times (and CNBC does not help either!)

How are companies growing inspite of recession? How are they selling?

1. Relationships: Perhaps the most important during recession. They help in two ways:

- Right relationships tell you where the spend is, irrespective of economic scenario

- Your existing relationships are best bets to growth during tough times. ( I know of companies who have not added clients for one year but have shown tremendous revenue growth, by sheer account mining)

2. Relevance: Is your offering ( not product) relevent in the current scenario? When businesses take a 'Keeping Lights ON' approach to all spends, does your offering have relevance to this approach?

Can you modify/package your offering to keep it relevent in the 'Keeping Lights ON' scenario?

( e.g. Instead of selling servers ( capital budget), offer them on usage basis ( revenue budget)

3.Review: What inefficiencies in your current sales & marketing processes can you take out? ( you lived with them during boom times, because you could.)

This could mean process changes,training,resource optimisation...

4.Rally : More than ever, these are times when the entire organisation needs to sell ( and not just S&M folks!).

How can other functions help in revenue generation?