tomer will need to respond to outside influences and what your products and services (and your expertise) can do to help them meet these new demands.


3. Know thyself. If you consider yourself a consultative salesperson, you should be constantly upgrading your skills and information for your customers. So what’s new and differ- ent in your own company? Are there innovative products or services that can help this customer meet organiza- tional and personal goals? Have you discovered any new information or learned any new skills through classes, industry associations, or seminars that can help you better serve this cus- tomer? And, if not, why not? 4. Know the customer. All the


rest of this information is just de- tails if you don’t have a good read on your customer, says MacKnight. And understanding your customers means knowing what makes them tick. “Salespeople have a selling style that’s personal,” he says. “We tend to impose our style on everyone we come in contact with.” But that’s not the most effective way to sell. Instead, when you know your customer’s buy- ing style, you can adjust your style to match.


Whether your customer is a “com- mander” type who needs control, a “performer” who longs for attention, an “analyzer” yearning for informa- tion, or an “empathizer” seeking acceptance, knowing which behavior you’re dealing with will let you more effectively position the interaction to meet the customer’s needs and grow the relationship, MacKnight explains. Knowing your customers’ desires – and consistently meeting those desires – means your contacts will always be open to meeting with you, because you are always providing value to them on their terms, at their most basic levels, MacKnight says. 5. Know your hook. A visit – no matter how much you prepare – is an imposition if you aren’t provid- ing value your customer feels and appreciates. Crane makes sure


ENGAGIO – THE END OF SALES SPAM


to provide maximum value to her clients who are national buyers for large hardware chains – by making certain she has a compelling reason to occupy their time. When you’re dealing with buy- ers of literally tens of thousands of items, a new product release usually isn’t a big deal on its own, says Crane. That’s why she makes sure she has that “something more” that will make a meeting worth her cli- ents’ time. She presents “programs” of new products that will add up to attention-worthy news. If a new product is innovative enough to warrant a special an- nouncement, Crane will set the meet- ing, but only after she’s done due diligence. “I don’t just go in there and present the product and say, ‘Here’s the product; I hope you buy it; thanks, bye,’” she says. Instead, she’ll educate herself on the prod- uct background and specs, test it personally, assemble a team includ- ing her manager, the marketing team, technical people, and herself – and then approach the customer. “I want to make sure my customers know what’s going on, if I think it’s a good fit with their organization,” she says. “You’ve got to go in there with a reason to be there.” 


THE SALES TRAINING BOOK


SELLING TIP Stick to It


After a long day of hunting, George de Mestral found that his wool pants were covered with burrs that did not easily come off. After inspecting them through a microscope, he dis- covered each burr had hundreds of tiny hooks that clung to the wool loops of his trousers. The industrious Frenchman designed a machine to duplicate the hooks and loops using nylon. Velcro® was born. What does Velcro have to do with sales? “Veni, Vidi, Vici” is Latin for, “I came, I saw, I con- quered” – a saying attributed to Julius Caesar. “Veni, Vidi, Velcro” can be loosely – very loosely – interpreted to mean, “I came, I saw, and I stuck around.” Stick- ing around and not giving up are mainstays of top-producing salespeople. Just because pros- pects say no today doesn’t mean they won’t say yes tomorrow. So stick to it and you’ll be around for the long haul.


– WILLIAM F. KENDY SELLING POWER DECEMBER 2016 | 7 © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.


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