Problem: Many companies are frustrated because they have to participate in a competitive bidding process to obtain business.  Winning is often based on having the lowest bid.  More than in any other type of sale, the buyer is in total control of the process.  All information is disseminated to the bidders at a common bid conference and individual meetings are rare.  The seller has no advantage over his competitors and frequently is reduced to guessing what his company will need to win the bid.  If there are six qualified companies bidding, your chances are less than 20% of winning the bid.  And if you’re the “lucky” one that is awarded the bid, chances are your margins won’t be as healthy as you’d like.&l ...

Problem: It was a gloomy day and had just started to rain when Rick left his second lousy appointment of the day.  “Man,” he thought to himself, “it’s pouring down rain, my car is at the other end of the parking lot, and this appointment that I drove 40 miles to see was a total waste of time.  My grandmother is a better prospect than this guy.”  He put his head down and dejectedly trudged through the rain towards his car.  On his way back to the office he reflected on the appointments he had been on recently.  The majority of them had been similar to these two, a waste of time for the most part…nobody seemed interested in buying.  He was starting to feel like they were all bad prospects.  The glo ...

Problem:  While in my office the other day, I got a call from a financial advisor.  As soon as I answered the phone he began a pitch that lasted for what seemed a very long time, listing all the reasons why I should do business with him.  I told him that my wife controls the investing in our family and that she has had a successful relationship with a competing broker for over 20 years.  Although the guy pressed harder, I sensed that I took the wind out of his “sale” when I said, “Look, I’m just not interested.”  My eardrum rattled as he slammed the phone down hard.  This was likely followed by some derogatory reference, most likely directed at me for rejecting him.

Problem: Have you ever heard the term “sales profession”?  How about “medical profession”?  Which one do you think has the most credibility?   Of course, we’re biased.  We are those “professional” salespeople we spoke of a moment ago.  But which would the general public, the people who are our prospective buyers, give the most credibility to as a real profession?  Our guess is medicine.

Diagnosis:  M ...

Problem: Recently I was speaking with Fred, a salesperson who told a story that I could well relate to.  He was lamenting that on his last trip to New York to meet with some prospects for the first time, the airline lost his luggage.  Now we all know what a pain that can be, but Fred was mostly concerned that his big black bag containing all his collateral sales material had been lost.  Quite frankly, he was uncomfortable on a sales call without it.  After all, he was accustomed to doing the “bag dive” when the prospect baited him with this innocent, yet misleading question, “tell me about your company.”  Of course, the “bag dive” was the move he made toward his briefcase to haul out the company and product brochu ...

Problem: Most salespeople certainly don’t get enough referrals and often the referrals they do receive go nowhere.  How many times have you called a referral, failed to get through the gatekeeper, and left a message that never gets returned?  Perhaps you’ve even gotten through to the referral, only to be met with a cool response?  We all know that referrals are the best source of new business, by far, so why does this happen?

Diagnosis

Problem:  Recently a relationship manager with a large regional commercial bank called  for some coaching.  He had been having a dialogue with his prospect for several months and had offered several proposals for the business, all of which had been rejected as “just not compelling enough” for them to change banks.  He was very proud of the fact that the prospect had said to him on many occasions that they “liked him the best.”  When I heard that I knew he was in trouble.  

When I asked him what the prospect’s pain was he replied, “They felt their ban ...

Problem:  Objections are probably the most misunderstood area of selling and typically salespeople are not very good at dealing with them.

Diagnosis:  Experience tells us that objections are really not “buying signals” like the sales gurus of old have told us.  In fact, objections could be deal breakers if we don’t handle them properly so most salespeople would rather not deal with them at all.  Traditional methods of handling ...

Problem:  We often hear from our clients that when they finally get past the secretary, the prospect requests literature prior to committing to see them and after the literature has been sent, they can’t get the prospect back on the phone.

Everyone who is selling anything has been there over and over.  Salespeople have tons of literature from the marketing department to mail to prospects that request information.  The problem is that 99% of the literature that is sent out just becomes “litter.”  A bigger problem is that the salesperson is under the illusion that the prospect is ...

Problem: How many times have you run into a salesperson who pushes too hard, who epitomizes the pushy, aggressive stereotype that we’ve come to loathe?  These folks can’t accept a “no” from a prospect and think their solution is the right thing for everybody.  They generally appear desperate to make a sale and usually are.  This aggressive approach works okay in a very simple transactional type of sale since we’ll sometimes buy just to avoid an argument or to get rid of the pest (oops, I mean salesperson).  But in a more complex sale, this approach is fatal.

Diagn ...