Stop Losing Sales: A TSEA e-Learning Center Featured Presentation

Issue: 
Vol 2, No 3
Author: 
Keith Reznick

Prospects for both our industry and the economy are improving and most of the exhibit/event managers and industry suppliers with whom I have spoken over the past several weeks are confident that 2011 will be a better year than either of the past two years. There will be more opportunities to pursue, more revenue generated, more new relationships will begin, and many existing relationships will be enhanced. Will you and your associates be able to grow your business by capitalizing on our strengthening economy or will your efforts be hindered by three of the primary reasons sales are lost: (1) price/value; (2) customers order from other suppliers because they didn’t know your company could provide the products/services needed; and (3) inability to identify and gain access to all members of the buying team (including procurement)?

Prospects for both our industry and the economy are improving and most of the exhibit/event managers and industry suppliers with whom I have spoken over the past several weeks are confident that 2011 will be a better year than either of the past two years. There will be more opportunities to pursue, more revenue generated, more new relationships will begin, and many existing relationships will be enhanced. Will you and your associates be able to grow your business by capitalizing on our strengthening economy or will your efforts be hindered by three of the primary reasons sales are lost: (1) price/value; (2) customers order from other suppliers because they didn’t know your company could provide the products/services needed; and (3) inability to identify and gain access to all members of the buying team (including procurement)?

Price/Value

Differentiation is difficult to achieve in our industry because many buyers have a commodity mindset and make decisions based upon price. If differentiating your products and services is difficult if not impossible to do, other than by cutting your price, try differentiating yourself and your company by evolving the way that you sell.

  • Ask more questions about long-term goals and marketplace opportunities.
  • Ask more questions to develop insight into how each member of the customers’ buying team defines value.
  • Ask more questions to quantify the potential value (or lack thereof) of the various products, services, and solutions that you plan to propose.

Identifying how your customers define value and quantifying that value throughout the buying and selling process will help you differentiate your company and solution, enhance your competitive posture, and reduce the pressure on price.
 
Updated and Accurate Perceptions

Revenue is lost when customers place orders with new suppliers because they did not know that their current suppliers could provide them with the products or services they needed.

Few things are as frustrating and demoralizing as learning that your customers have sourced products/services you sell from other suppliers simply because they did not know that they could buy them from your company.

More often than not, the older the supplier/customer relationship, the greater the probability is that:

  • The supplier has not continuously provided the customer with current information about new products and services; and
  • The customer has ‘pigeonholed’ the supplier and does not consider the supplier for products and services outside the pigeonhole.

Whether you are looking to grow your business by selling more to existing customers, developing new customers, or both, it is important that you continuously update your prospects and customers with information about what your current products, services, and capabilities are and how you can help them succeed.
 
The Buying Team

Buying team members reside at all levels of the customer organization and play different roles in recommending suppliers and making decisions. Each person on the buying team has his own goals and needs. Each has their own definition of value, and each has their own criteria for comparing and contrasting competitive proposals and suppliers.

Salespeople (and their companies) are best positioned in an account when they are able to identify and interact will all buying team members. Easy to say, but sometimes very difficult to do, especially when access to key decision-makers is restricted or blocked. One of the best ways to gain access to high-level decision-makers is with your company’s high-level decision-makers. Executives in the selling organization can often gain access to executives in the buying organization (without jeopardizing the salesperson’s relationship with lower level members of the buying team). An emerging and growing trend over the past two years has been the prearranging of executive-to-executive meetings at shows and events to gain more access to higher-level prospects and existing customers. 

What was, what is, and what will be are not one and the same. "What Will Be" salespeople and companies are continuously evolving and upgrading their capabilities, how they go to market, and how they sell to address these and all of the other challenges that they face. As a result, they are increasing sales, improving revenues, margins, and profits, and building better relationships with buying team members at all levels of the customer organization or chain of command.

“If you rest, you rust.”
Helen Hayes - The "First Lady of the American Theatre" and one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award.

Keith Reznick

 

 

 

Keith's webinar, Stop Losing Sales – Grow Your Business by Guiding Customers to Better ROI (EL170) is available for your viewing in the TSEA e-Learning Center 24/7. In this top-rated  interactive webinar, Keith and his guests discuss

  • gain access to decision makers early in the selling process,
  •  develop insight into prospects’ and customers’ business improvement initiatives, and
  • quantify your value proposition and align it with your customers’ specific requirements


View the TSEA e-Learning Center today. Here is information on how to register for TSEA e-Learning Center recorded webinars.

Keith Reznick’s company, Creative Training Solutions, is a leader in the design and delivery of training programs for sales, sales support, and marketing professionals. Keith may be reached at 1-856-784-3466 or via e-mail at keith@creativetraining.com.