Most Sales Proposals Are Blunt Instruments

Report This Post

Read this article:
Most Sales Proposals Are Blunt Instruments

9 things unforgiving buyers don't like

Buyers have heard it all before, which makes them a little more demanding. In short they are less forgiving when salespeople make any of the following mistakes:

1. Not knowing enough about your own products, or the customer’s industry. The number one complaint of buyers is a lack of product knowledge on the part of sales people.


2. Suggesting we need your solution without taking the time to find out about our needs, or requirements. It is risky to assume the customer has a problem and needs your solution, so don’t forget to ask first.


3. Claiming that your solution meets every company’s needs and failing to appreciate that my business is different, or that my challenges are special.


4. Talking as if yours is the only alternative, or option, making us suspect that you want to sell to us regardless.


5. Hinting that the customer does not know what they are doing, or that what he/she is doing is wrong. Surprisingly this is quite common, with many sales pitches beginning with a statement such as ‘80% of software projects are over budget’, ‘most IT inventories are out by as much as 20%’, etc. These could be seen as thinly veiled insults to the customer.


6. Oversimplifying the customer requirements, for example suggesting easy integration with 3^rd party systems, when buyers know that integration is never easy.


7. Making exaggerated claims that detract from the credibility of their message. For example ‘reduces time to market from months to just hours’, ‘cuts integration costs by up to 90%’, or ‘can be implemented for just 10% of the cost of traditional solutions’. Your claims must be believable and backed up by valid customer references.


8. Talks in terms of marketing fluff, as opposed to objectively verifiable and quantifiable information.


9. Getting defensive if the customer asks questions about your solution, or not attaching enough importance to objections and questions raised.

How Misreading the Buying Decision Could Cost You the Sale

Key lessons from Neil Rackham’s ‘Major Account Sales Strategy’ ‘Major Account Sales Strategy’ by Neil Rackham’s is a bible for the savvy sales professional.

How Misreading the Buying Decision Could Cost You the Sale

Key lessons from Neil Rackham’s ‘Major Account Sales Strategy’ ‘Major Account Sales Strategy’ by Neil Rackham’s is a bible for the savvy sales professional.

Let’s Get Real, or Let’s Not Play – transforming the buyer-seller relationship

Relationships between buyers and sellers are often dysfunctional, often being motivated by fear .

Let’s Get Real, or Let’s Not Play – transforming the buyer-seller relationship

Relationships between buyers and sellers are often dysfunctional, often being motivated by fear .

How to Maximise the Success of Your Sales Calls

In the present environment, salespeople are delighted with the opportunity to meet with anybody who expresses an interest.

How to Maximise the Success of Your Sales Calls

In the present environment, salespeople are delighted with the opportunity to meet with anybody who expresses an interest.

SELLING IS DEAD: Moving Beyond Traditional Roles and Practices to Revitalise Growth

The good news is that the market for your solution is much bigger than you think it is. The bad news is that you need a completely new way of selling in order to capitalize on it.

SELLING IS DEAD: Moving Beyond Traditional Roles and Practices to Revitalise Growth

The good news is that the market for your solution is much bigger than you think it is. The bad news is that you need a completely new way of selling in order to capitalize on it.

The Best Way to Track & Manage Your Teleprospecting Calls

There are 3 ways to track and manage your telemarketing calls each with a different impact on the effectiveness and success.

The Best Way to Track & Manage Your Teleprospecting Calls

There are 3 ways to track and manage your telemarketing calls each with a different impact on the effectiveness and success.

10 reasons to ditch your spreadsheets and employ a SFA/CRM system

Increasingly managers complain about the difficulty of accurately predicting what deals will close and when. However in spite of a more complex sales environment, most organizations still rely on spreadsheets to manage opportunities and forecast sales. This short article outlines some of the key reasons why a more sophisticated approach is required.

Read the rest here:
10 reasons to ditch your spreadsheets and employ a SFA/CRM system

10 reasons to ditch your spreadsheets and employ a SFA/CRM system

Increasingly managers complain about the difficulty of accurately predicting what deals will close and when. However in spite of a more complex sales environment, most organizations still rely on spreadsheets to manage opportunities and forecast sales.

Read this article:
10 reasons to ditch your spreadsheets and employ a SFA/CRM system

All Marketing Is SPAM!

Have you checked your spam folder recently?  No doubt it is full to the brim of Viagra ads, weight loss methods, casinos and such utterly worthless messages.  However, today's definition of SPAM goes far beyond that of traditional junk mail to encompass most of today's marketing.  That is to say most marketing is viewed by buyers as at best unhelpful, and at worse a nuisance.

Buyer Are Allergic To Marketing SPAM

We talk to buyers all the time and increasingly we find that their immunity to traditional vendor marketing is growing.  So, to is there ability to evade it.  The result is that our cold calls, email newsletters, direct mail and glossy marketing brochures are being rejected and repelled.  Just check the SPAM folders and waste bins of managers.

Now one could argue that the cost of sending a million emails may have fallen so low that a 1% response rate is sufficient and factors such as damage to the marketers brand, or unwarranted interruption to thousands of potential customers are rarely factored into the equation.  However, unsolicited junk mail is no longer a feature of any serious B2B marketer's arsenal.  Targeted opt-in lists are carefully targeted direct marketing are the order of the day.

Just like the fertilisation of an egg, one one in a million sperm will get through.  Now the odds of your email newsletter being read may be higher than 1 in a million, but one thing for sure is they are diminshing daily.  So, how to get your message in front of your customers, while your competitor's marketing goes straight into the bin.  How to make sure that your marketing is not mistaken for spam?

De-SPAM Your Marketing

Here are some tips on how to de-SPAM your marketing:

1. Make your marketing permission based, ask for opt-in, or at least use prominent opt-outs


2. Reduce the volume of contact and stick to your rules (it is very tempted to send off another emailshot)


3. Send only useful information, for example case studies and whitepapers, not brochures


4. Personalise and tailor the message to the audience, at least by segment, if not one by one


5. Prune your lists and databases


6. Improve your targeting profile, or criterion


7. Treat the names on your list as contacts, not as leads (it is a small change in working, but a significant change in approach)


8. Track response rates, click-throughs and all other relevant metrics to get more scientific at sending what people want to receive

Re-thinking SPAM

SPAM is insincere, un-selective, poorly targeted, adjective laden half effort at marketing.  It is where the marketer's lack of sophistication in terms of targeting and the message, are counterbalanced by the customers increasingly sophisticated efforts are screening.  It is a failure of marketing to align and otherwise optimise the message, the medium and the audience.

Oh, and here is what the initials in SPAM really stand for:

S = self-serving, it also stands for un-Solicited

P = poorly targeted as opposed to clear profile, permission based and  personalised

A = adjective laden, as opposed to adds value

M = mass media, or wide of the mark

The most common problems with sales systems

1. Don’t give managers and their staff the information required / provide visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales and marketing 2. Out of date – functionality – usability 3

Read the original here:
The most common problems with sales systems

The most common problems with sales systems

1. Don’t give managers and their staff the information required / provide visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales and marketing 2. Out of date – functionality – usability 3

Read the original:
The most common problems with sales systems

A Common Sales Language

What is the difference between a prospect and a lead?

See the original post here:
A Common Sales Language

A Common Sales Language

What is the difference between a prospect and a lead? Is an opportunity with an 80% likelihood, twice as likely as one with a 40% rating? When one person talks miles and another talks of kilometers it can get confusing

Read this article:
A Common Sales Language

The most common problems with sales process

Sales process is all the rage, but it is not a panacea and there can be problems.  Here are some of the most common problems 1. Everybody has their own way – different approach and results across the team/over time 2.

Originally posted here:
The most common problems with sales process

The most common problems with sales process

Sales process is all the rage, but it is not a panacea and there can be problems.  Here are some of the most common problems 1. Everybody has their own way – different approach and results across the team/over time 2

Read more from the original source:
The most common problems with sales process

The new business development equation

There is a new equation to calculate the rate of success you can expect to from your business development activities.  Well, it is actually not new at all, although for many people it is newly discovered. It states the obvious – new business generated is a function of the number of sales; calls, emails, letters and meetings.

Read this article:
The new business development equation

The new business development equation

There is a new equation to calculate the rate of success you can expect to from your business development activities.  Well, it is actually not new at all, although for many people it is newly discovered. It states the obvious – new business generated is a function of the number of sales; calls, emails, letters and meetings.

Read more:
The new business development equation

Don't let anything distract you from your sales tasks

Did you ever notice how 101 things will arise during the week to distract you from the sales activities you had planned – calling that prospect, arranging that meeting, following up on that proposal, asking for that referral, etc. Managers continually tell us that although sales is priority number 1 , more urgent but less important activities continuously strive to put it in second, third or fourth place.

Follow this link:
Don't let anything distract you from your sales tasks

Don't let anything distract you from your sales tasks

Did you ever notice how 101 things will arise during the week to distract you from the sales activities you had planned – calling that prospect, arranging that meeting, following up on that proposal, asking for that referral, etc. Managers continually tell us that although sales is priority number 1 , more urgent but less important activities continuously strive to put it in second, third or fourth place

Read more here:
Don't let anything distract you from your sales tasks

Buyers Dont Care About Your Sales Process!

Buyers don’t care about your sales process!  That’s fine because chances are your sales process doesn’t care much about them either! self serving 7 steps no reference to the buyer’s buying process 83 slides no reference to the buyer’s business case 5 meetings and no clear picture of the buying team that is a pretty snap shot of what can go wrong with sales process. don’t know enough about buying underestimate just how sophisticated it has become The People Who Matter Most Care Least About Your Sales Process

Read the original post:
Buyers Dont Care About Your Sales Process!

Buyers Dont Care About Your Sales Process!

Buyers don’t care about your sales process!  That’s fine because chances are your sales process doesn’t care much about them either! self serving 7 steps no reference to the buyer’s buying process 83 slides no reference to the buyer’s business case 5 meetings and no clear picture of the buying team that is a pretty snap shot of what can go wrong with sales process. don’t know enough about buying underestimate just how sophisticated it has become The People Who Matter Most Care Least About Your Sales Process

Original post:
Buyers Dont Care About Your Sales Process!

Applying Business Improvement Principles To Sales

The latest buzz word is sales process and for good reason to.   Sales teams and budgets have been cut during the slowdown and to accelerate into growth Managers are compelled to do more for less, often a lot less. In the boom years a certain amount of waste and inefficiency could be tolerated, after all customers were  as plentiful and marketing budgets were deep

Read the original here:
Applying Business Improvement Principles To Sales

Applying Business Improvement Principles To Sales

The latest buzz word is sales process and for good reason to.   Sales teams and budgets have been cut during the slowdown and to accelerate into growth Managers are compelled to do more for less, often a lot less. In the boom years a certain amount of waste and inefficiency could be tolerated, after all customers were  as plentiful and marketing budgets were deep

Original post:
Applying Business Improvement Principles To Sales

Welcome

Welcome to Sales Management the home of 100's of tips, tools and techniques for sales managers on their teams.  Here you will find insights on the following key priorities for managers:

1. Sales Effectiveness
2. Sales Productivity
3. Sales Process
4. Sales Skills
5. Sales Techniques

Confused by any of these terms?  Well, don't worry.  The underlying motivations are familiar to all managers - finding new customers, closing more deals and protecting margins.

This site is provided by The ASG Group - a specialised team of sales consultants, helping managers and their teams to boost sales.

Everybody Is Talking About Sales Process

This years hot topic among sales managers is the issue of sales process.  Now, process is not a term that one associates with manufacturing, or other areas of business, much more than with sales.  However that is changing fast. Sales once focused on the sales person, that is the individual that could ‘sell sand to the arabs’, or ‘ice to the eskimos’.  It was a art, rather than a science, indeed a black art.  However, art, even great art, is unpredictable, even unreliable – something that is very much inconsistent with meeting next quarters numbers. Terms such as ad hoc and unstructured, once traditionally associated with selling, are clearly gone out of fashion.   Managers are putting how they sell under a microscope and applying a consistent and repeatable process to optimise all aspects of winning the sale

Read the original:
Everybody Is Talking About Sales Process

Your Sales Process Won’t Save You!

Longer and more complex buying decisions mean it is more difficult to predict what deals will close and when. To tackle this uncertainty, sales managers have stepped up the search for a more consistent and repeatable process for converting leads to orders

View original post here:
Your Sales Process Won’t Save You!

Sales Process – Avoiding The Pitfalls

Question:  Do you want a fully documented sales process for your sales team to follow?

Link:
Sales Process – Avoiding The Pitfalls

Sales Techniques: The Quest Gains Momentum

Searching for The Holy Grail of Sales Techniques? Last year’s sales techniques are struggling in the present market conditions and the search for the most effective sales technique has gathered pace and the search for the most effective sales technique has gathered pace.  With fewer opportunities on the ground, the pressure is on to improve win rates.

Continued here:
Sales Techniques: The Quest Gains Momentum

Maybe Sales Is A Numbers Game After All

OK, sales is not a numbers game , but simply increasing conversion rates may not be enough to delivery the results that you need.  We see sales activity and sales effectiveness as two sides of the same coin – you must have one with the other.

More:
Maybe Sales Is A Numbers Game After All

Sales Is Not A Numbers Game!

In a difficult marketplace the quest for more effective sales techniques and campaigns has gained momentum.  As marketing budgets have been cut and sales teams trimmed, managers must do more with less. Sales Is Not A Numbers Game Clearly sales is not a numbers game – after all too many sales leads, meetings and even proposals go nowhere

Go here to see the original:
Sales Is Not A Numbers Game!

Moving Your Selling Up A Gear

Increasingly success requires a more systematic, planned and structured approach to selling . That means your sales organization reaching a new level of organization and the application of greater science and sophistication to selling. It entails the transition from the old ad-hoc approach to the new more structured approach

Read more:
Moving Your Selling Up A Gear

Sales Effectiveness & Repeat Sales

Accelerating sales growth in the longer term is very difficult without generating a base of repeat business.  Yet, in the drive to win new customers, growing existing customers can get over-looked.

Read the original:
Sales Effectiveness & Repeat Sales

Sales Effectiveness And Sales Orders

Pressure on win rates is mounting, but competitors are not the only threat.

Sales Effectiveness & Sales Meetings

For the majority of sales organisations sales cycles are longer, more complex and increasingly difficult to predict.  That means they require more careful management than ever before.

See the original post:
Sales Effectiveness & Sales Meetings