NZ’s e-mag for sales leaders

NZSALESmarch 2011 / Issue 48

The rise and rise of procurement • Where to spend your time • Don’t bag the competition!

mArch 2Nd / Issue 48

ThIs WeeK's musT reAd

NeVer TrusT A

sILeNT cusTOmer

make complaining clients one

of your biggest assets.

The rIse & rIse OF

PrOcuremeNT

and its implications for salespeople.

NZsm cALeNdAr

sALes TrAINING dIrecTOrY

TWO mINuTe TOP-uP

Where TO sPeNd YOur TIme

Prioritising your accounts.

resOurce cOrNer

smArT cALLING

QuIcK FIx

It’s not what you sell, it’s how

you sell.

The cLOse

8

6

8

12

13

14

16

17

18

6

15

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

MID STRENGTHFULL FLAVOURFULL LIFE

NZsm / march 2011 / 44 / aPr 7th 2010 / NZsm

aBOut /

short and sharp, New Zealand

sales manager is a free e-magazine

delivering thought provoking and

enlightening articles, and industry

news and information to forward-

thinking sales managers, business

owners and sales professionals.

eDItOr / Paul Newsom

art DIrectOr / Jodi Olsson

GrOuP eDItOr / trudi caffell

cONteNt eNQuIrIes /

Phone Paul on 04 586 4733 or email

pauln@nzsalesmanager.co.nz

aDVertIsING eNQuIrIes /

Phone richard on 09 522 7257 or

email richardl@espiremedia.com

aDDress / NZ sales manager,

c/- espire media, PO Box 137162,

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WeBsIte / www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

Our thoughts go to our readers, family and friends in

christchurch who are going through a most terrible time and

supreme test of their resilience. as sales people we need to be

resilient in our work, and I am sure we will draw on all our resources and

do our best to help each other through these times. the support of the

nation will be felt for a very long time to help with the recovery.

In this issue, sean D’souza takes a lively look at all the good things that

come with customer complaints. It is only when customers complain that

we get a real barometer on how we are performing and it often comes

with a smack in the face reminder of what we need to do to improve.

so, go and wake up your silent customers this week and give them the

opportunity to give feedback!

the first rsN rev-up is on in a couple of weeks time, with guest

speaker Bill James. If you are in auckland, be sure to reserve your ticket

as this event is filling up fast.

Happy Selling

Paul

“We make the call…

you make the sale”

www.ibexmarketing.co.nz

Call Murray Beer on 021 279 2783 or email murray@ibexmarketing.co.nz today!

Generating consistent and qualified appointments can be a mundane and time consuming process...

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From the Editor

“We make the call…

you make the sale”

www.ibexmarketing.co.nz

Call Murray Beer on 021 279 2783 or email murray@ibexmarketing.co.nz today!

Generating consistent and qualified appointments can be a mundane and time consuming process...

Let the experienced professionals at Ibex Marketing set them for you so you can spend more time meeting with

prospects and helping them solve their problems!

The Rev Sales Network invites you to join us for

Auckland Rev-Up #1 Wednesday 16 March 2011 Guest Speaker Bill James

The Topic

"COLD CALLING" – and even the most hardened sales professionals head for the door! If making more calls is something you know you should be doing this year, then you need to hear from Bill James! It has the potential to be a great source of business but so often leads to hard and fearful work with little result. Is it our own fears that stop us? An inbuilt feeling that we are intruding that makes us sabotage our own efforts? Or possibly a lack or mismatch of training in the past? Yes – to all of them. Our guest speaker Bill James will show us how to ‘cold call from your comfort zone – almost!’ Whether by phone or in person, you will leave with fresh insights on how to make your team, or yourself, a cold calling success with the courage and techniques to make a scary marketing tool into a valued asset in your sales arsenal. This session will be of value to new recruits and seasoned profes-sionals alike, as well as those that don’t really feel comfortable about selling but have to do it anyway.

The Presenter

RSN Rev-Up Series 2011 Auckland Rev-Up #1 With Bill James 12pm—1.30pm, Wednesday 16 March 2011 OfficeMax Training Centre 30 Sir Woolf Fisher Drive, Highbrook, East Tamaki Auckland Rev Sales Network Members: Free Non-members: $49.95 incl gst pp Includes light lunch

Bill James is interna-tionally recognized for his ability to show new and experi-enced sales profes-sionals (and those that find sales a challenge) how to find and land new business. His unique approach enhances the individual’s natural style and produces great results time and again. His strategies have helped many well known NZ businesses and hundreds of sales professionals increase sales revenue so don't miss this opportunity! You can find out more about Bill and hear what others have to say about him at www.billjamesspeaker.com

Visit us at www.rsn.co.nz

The Details

To register your attendance for this event, or for more details click here or visit our website www.rsn.co.nz and register before Friday 11 March 2011.

Hurry! Our first event for 2011 will fill fast! Spaces allocated on first reserved, first served basis. Limit 80 attendees only.

With thanks to

RSN Rev-Up Series AUCKLAND 2011

How To Register

NZsm / march 2011 / 6

t h I s W e e K ’ s m u s t r e a D

sean d’souza is an Auckland based marketing strategist, speaker and author, and the principal of Psychotactics. To find out more visit www.psychotactics.com

Never Trust a Silent Customer

Do you have customers that leave suddenly?

You were doing an outstanding job for them,

lavishing them with truckloads of service and

yet they disappeared without a word.

the key operating factor here is 'without a word.'

that's the scary part! the silent ones are always the

most dangerous. If you would like to learn how to

keep your customers, you've first got to keep them

noisy. read this marketing article to find out just

how you can make complaining clients one of your

biggest assets.

Imagine you run a pizza parlour

You have all these neighbourhood families that pop in

at least once a week for some pizza, garlic bread and

coke. On an average, one customer spends about

$30 per week. But let's assume they spend just $20.

Imagine you did something that bugged this customer,

but he or she never told you about it. What would you

stand to lose if they left?

Its simple math: You lose $20 x 50 weeks. that's

equivalent to $1000 a year. If you lost just 10 such

customers per month, you'd lose about 100 clients

a year. that's $100,000 that could be in your back

pocket if you were a little complaint-conscious.

That doesn't happen in our business:

The denial syndrome

Overtly it won't. In a Bain & company survey of

major corporations, they found that on average, u.s.

corporations lose half their customers in five years.

Notice, it wasn't 'one year' or 'suddenly'.

make complaining clients one of

your biggest assets By sean D’souza

7 / march 2011 / NZsm

clients have a tipping point. they get unhappy bit by

bit and then its camel-back-breaking time. so, if you

think that all your customers are happy with you-they

aren't. It's a basic fact of life.

What's really weird is that you can't measure how much

business you're really losing. a study was done on a

bank, they found they had as many accounts as they

had a year ago. What they failed to measure was how

most of the people had 'silently' transferred the money

out into other banks and the closure of the account

was a last measure, somewhere down the line.

The same thing applies to your customer.

Like a patient Buddha, they will seemingly appear to

put up with everything, till suddenly you find they don't

use you anymore. this is a classic flight of business. You

hear nothing of it, till it's almost gone and it takes a

mammoth effort just to hold on to the business.

If you look at it from another perspective, you might

even be getting equal to or slightly less business

from your customer. Naturally this doesn't ring

any alarm bells. however, if you've been watching

carefully, your customer has probably grown bigger

and richer in the past few months or years. If your

business with them has not grown exponentially, you

are actually LOsING Out.

No matter how successful your business, you will

always have scope for improvement. Best of all, you

will always have complaining customers. Don't deny

the fact. accept it and then do something about it.

The real reason why you lose customers

Last month we went to KFc to pick up some

chicken and chips for dinner. On the way home we

discovered that the chicken and the chips were

soggy and tasted terrible.

how would most customers react? It would depend

on their history with the product, but most people

would grumble and simply not go back. We

complained. We picked up the phone and called the

toll free line at KFc. they asked us to place our order.

We said we didn't want to place an order, we just

wanted to complain. they said, "We don't take

complaints on this line. You'll have to call the

manager at the branch where you bought it and talk

to him."

Now why would I bother to go through all that trouble?

It's easier to never go back. all that money that KFc

spends trying to get new customers is going down

the drain and out the back door because they don't

have a complaint line.

most companies act precisely in the same manner.

For one, they have no real complaint department. If

clients are unhappy, they feel embarrassed to complain

and because no route has been cleared to vent their

feelings, they avoid it completely.

Then they leave.

Obviously, you can't wait for something to go wrong.

Your job is to find ways to get the client to complain.

If they complain, you are getting feedback that is

extremely valuable and is probably relevant for all your

other clients as well.

Best of all, empowered with a complaint channel,

a well-trained client will complain at every juncture

giving you the opportunity to fix the problem and

regain their trust.

No matter how successful your business, you will always have scope for improvement. Best of all, you will always have complaining customers. Don't deny the fact. Accept it and then do something about it.

NZsm / march 2011 / 8

The problem with zero defect

Lots of companies ran themselves into the ground

trying to achieve zero defect. In an unpredictable world

like ours, that goal is unreal.

even the best of intentions aren't much use if you run

into a flash flood. clients recognise that. however, it's

up to you to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

When I say that, I don't mean a grandiose 'in case of a

nuclear attack' plan.

at Nordstrom stores across the u.s., salespeople are

empowered to do 'whatever it takes' to fix a problem,

even if it means going to the store across the street

and buying the product at a higher price.

It's called the art of immediate recovery, and it

assumes that something will go wrong and you will

have a Plan B to fix it. the more you prepare yourself

for this inevitable event, the less chance the client has

to complain.

more often than not, a complaining client is complaining

about everything but the product. ever see people

complaining about the food at a restaurant?

the principal purpose of the restaurant is

food, yet people leave because of loud

music, bad service and everything else. Your

job is to assume you're a restaurant and

find out what your 'everything else' is.

how companies react to complaints

Virgin airlines ceO, richard Branson, sometimes

makes an appearance at the gates when a flight is

late, apologising profusely to all passengers as they

check out. how mad would you continue to be if you

ran into a situation like this?

Yet most companies detest complaints. Living in their

ivory towers, they refuse to believe that any of their

clients would leave. so they never ask for feedback.

On the rare occasion that clients get mad enough to

put it in words, it's too late. even then, a complaint

is treated with nuisance value.

the first step a company takes when dealing with

complaints is that they fix it.

Yeah, right!

Because of their crummy service, the plane took off

without you, you missed your meeting and lost more

than just your temper. Do you think, just replacing

something is going to erase all that trouble? It's

going to take much, much more.

a simple replacement is never the answer. It has to

be a heck lot more than just a numb 'sorry' . You've

got to woo the customer back like you would with

the girl that you had your eye on.

Going down on your knees and begging for

forgiveness is a start. then you've got to lay it on thick

and the thicker the better.

What you need to do to ensure a regular stream of complaints. Dump the feedback

form and go out and ask your customer's face to face. Do it regularly and have

them know whom they can complain to, if anything goes wrong. There is no such

thing as a silent customer.

9 / march 2011 / NZsm

543

21 What you need to do to ensure a regular stream of

complaints. Dump the feedback form and go out

and ask your customer's face to face. Do it regularly

and have them know whom they can complain to,

if anything goes wrong. there is no such thing as a

silent customer.

complaining customers are always very precise. they

eliminate the vagueness of feedback forms. Listen to

them, act on their complaints. It's not that they want to

leave. they want to be wooed back. Fix the problem

and then let them know how you fixed it.

they're giving you free feedback that would cost

a fortune at a research company, so reward them.

they've been inconvenienced on top of getting a bad

product or service. that inconvenience factor deserves

payment in the form of a reward over and above just

fixing the problem. customers who are bought back

from the brink are extremely loyal and extremely

'noisy.' treat them like the asset they are.

remember, it costs eight times as much to get a new

customer, than it takes to keep an existing one. Keep

them at all costs. atone for your sins.

rule #1:the complaining customer is always right. rule

#2:When in doubt, refer to rule #1 ■

GeTTING cOmPLAINTs Is LIKe WINNING LOTTO!

Sales STAR presents Jack Daly In association with:

Boost sales 20x4 2/17/11 12:01 PM Page 1

REGISTER NOW to see Jack Daly present his one day seminar ‘Boosting Sales and Driving Profits’ on Thursday 10th March, 8am-5pm at Eden Park.

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NZsm / march 2011 / 10

Paul rogers is a freelance procurement consultant. To find out more visit www.paulrogers.pro

And the implications for sales PeopleBy Paul rogers

The Rise & Rise of Procurement

11 / march 2011 / NZsm

diagnose the prospect's needs and propose a solution

based around your company's value proposition. If the

purchasing department was involved at all, it would

have been involved in registering you as a supplier,

managing any bid process, and probably trying a last-

gasp chiseling of your price to try and get a discount.

contemporary procurement

however, the largely administrative contribution

of purchasing staff is not the same as the more

fundamental role of procurement. Whether labelled

“procurement” or “strategic procurement” the new

breed of purchaser is not content to be sidelined as a

“tender jockey”.

Procurement is promoted as a profession, and the peak

body claims that it is the fastest-growing profession in

business in New Zealand and australia. Procurement

practitioners perceive that their role begins with the

definition of need; the 'questioning funnel' beloved of

solution sales still happens, it's just that the definition of

what is needed is undertaken as part of the procurement

process, rather than as part of the sales process.

Implications

this has significant implications for those of us

working in a sales role and pitching to prospects

where procurement takes a central role. the

opportunity to influence the process, and indeed

to eyeball the key decision-makers and build a

relationship with them may be diminished. anyone

who has received an rFP which states that "aLL

communications shall be channelled through the

procurement representative" can relate to how

frustrating it can be if we are pitching to someone

who does not have the budget, does not have the

need, but does have the authority to say "no!"

Here are some key concepts which you will encounter when dealing with procurement

Whether labelled “procurement” or “strategic procurement” the new breed of purchaser is not content to be sidelined as a “tender jockey”.

I recall an experienced sales manager sitting me

down and patiently explaining to me how I should

try and sell to the ‘maN’; that is the person or the

team in the prospect organisation who had the money,

the authority, and the Need.

“there's no point trying to sell to someone if they

can't say 'yes!'", he explained. "Find out who's got the

budget, who has the authority, and who to pitch to.

No point in wasting your breath selling to the wrong

person!" Now that advice is still valid, it’s just that

business to business selling has become a little more

complicated with the introduction of a new participant

in the sales process - procurement.

Traditional purchasing

most of those who have been involved in selling to

corporates are familiar with the traditional purchasing

department. historically, purchasing staff have

processed the purchase orders, and in many businesses,

if you can't quote a purchase order number, the invoice

won't get paid. this has led to most purchasing staff

being regarded as administrative gatekeepers; they

issued purchase orders, and may have issued quotations

or requests for proposal [rFP], but the real decision-

makers were elsewhere in the business.

traditional sales approaches, and indeed contemporary

models of “strategic selling”, promote a model of the

sales process in which a proactive sales person–you–

practitioners, together with analysis of what they mean for salespeople.

“Value for money”

Value for money can mean anything to anybody! If

your prospect works in the public sector, the term

has a particular meaning. Procurement governance

in the public sector emphasises the importance of

focusing bid evaluation criteria around “value for

money” rather than lowest price.

In theory, this should focus buyers on the elusive

“total cost of ownership”, but for many procurement

practitioners the challenge that they face is

that price is the most easily measured of all the

dimensions of value.

If you are in dialogue with a procurement

practitioner, and you ask 'what are your key

evaluation criteria?', the response you will get will be

“we consider a variety of criteria of which cost is one

factor, but not the only criterion. We also take into

account quality, service and lifetime costs, in order

to identify the best value solution.”

unless the person that you are talking to is a

category manager, dealing exclusively with that

category, this may be an opportunity for you to

leverage your subject matter expertise.

Your response might be: “based on our experience

of many buyers in this market, we have found that

the key decision-making factors are typically quality,

service, reliability and cost" or whatever combination

fits in with your offer. the opportunity is to influence

the bid evaluation criteria so that your solution has

the best chance.

category and sourcing managers

so what is different about a category manager? a

category manager is typically someone who manages

the end to end process, while a sourcing manager

will typically only be involved up to and including the

award of the contract. the significance of this is that

a procurement or sourcing manager is likely to be a

generalist, dealing with your market today, and another

market tomorrow. however the category manager

will deal with their market day in and day out, and

probably knows at least as much about their category

and the suppliers in the market as you do.

this highlights a fundamental problem of an emerging

profession; the lack of standards. the business

card may say “strategic sourcing manager” or

"Procurement manager", but as there is no consensus

about the role and scope of these job titles, you will

have to explore with each individual jobholder what

they actually do.

to complicate matters more, the rapid emergence of

procurement opportunities has not always kept pace

with the supply of qualified personnel. In practice this

means that sometimes the business card may read

“strategic procurement manager” but the behaviours

(and indeed the occupant of the role) may have more

in common with traditional old-fashioned purchasing.

Tactical or strategic?

so how do you tell the difference? all procurement

staff are measured by hard dollar savings, but we can

distinguish between “tactical” procurement people

who will focus disproportionately upon price, and more

strategic procurement people, who will tend to focus

more on cost–and maybe even value.

so one question to ask is 'what are your key evaluation

criteria?' If the response you get is “we consider a

variety of criteria, and cost is one factor, but not the

only criterion", then this is the standard reply! You

need to probe deeper; "how important is quality?"

13 / march 2011 / NZsm

a tactical buyer will acknowledge the importance of

quality, but will quickly focus upon the commercial

aspects of the deal, specifically price. a more

strategic operator will link fitness for purpose, or

the performance of the product or service in use, to

the total cost. a follow-up question should explore

"who sets the specification?" tactical procurement

staff tend to be passive in the needs definition

process, facilitating stakeholders in a “needs and

wants” meeting. more strategic operators tend to

create a cross functional team, which collectively

determine the specification in the light of technical

and commercial issues.

the significance of this is that if you propose an

adjustment to the specification in order to reduce cost,

a tactical procurement person will have no authority to

do this, and will decline to discuss the standards: "it is

what it is." a more strategic player may accept a trade-

off, if it does not compromise their "must haves."

Tell tale statements

the three strongest indicators that you are dealing with a

tactical operator are

"have another look at your prices"•

"sharpen your pencil"•

"come to the party"•

No self-respecting procurement person would make these

statements; they are all euphemisms for "I want 10%

discount so I look good!" so if you hear any of the above,

hold on tight, you are dealing with a tactical buyer!

What it means to you

the implications for salespeople of the rise and rise of

procurement are;

the traditional sales process is no longer possible •

if all communication must be routed through

procurement. Build a relationship with procurement

people as early as you can, and try to diagnose if

they are strategic operators or more tactical.

If they are tactical operators the procurement •

process will have multiple rounds, and so you may

need to anticipate a "10% discount" request at the

end of the process. You may be able to access the

end-users, though tread carefully.

If they are genuinely strategic procurement •

professionals, accept that the same process will

be applied to all suppliers not just to you! try

to reverse engineer the bid evaluation criteria,

and adjust your offer so that it aligns with the

prospect’s agenda. they may not be the maN, but

procurement people are here to stay! ■

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NZSM CALENDARMARCH-APRIL 2011

9 marchFoundations for sales success45 d mt Wellington highway aucklandZealmark Groupwww.zealmarkgroup.co.nz/profile_Foundations_of_sales_success.php

10 marchOvercoming Objectionsaucklandtop achievers sales training www.topachieverssalestraining.co.nz

10-11 marchcomplete Presentation skillsWellingtoneffective speakingwww.effectivespeaking.co.nz/complete-presentation-skills-course.php

10-11 marchessential sales FundamentalsaucklandNZIm Northernwww.nzimnorthern.co.nz/wa.asp?idWebPage=16885&iddetails=118

16 marchrsN rev-up auckland www.revsalesnetwork.co.nz

16 marchIntroduction to PresentingWellingtoneffective speakingwww.effectivespeaking.co.nz/introduction-to-presenting.php

16 marchBusiness to Business sales skills45 d mt Wellington highway aucklandZealmark Groupwww.zealmarkgroup.co.nz/profile_Business_to_Business.php

17 marchsales Processaucklandtop achievers sales training www.topachieverssalestraining.co.nz

17 marchsales Dynamics auckland sales star www.salesstar.trainingplatform.co.nz/courses/9-sales-dynamics

24-25 marchProfessional sales coachingaucklandachieveGlobalwww.achieveglobal.co.nz/calendar

28-29 marchWinning Proposal strategiesaucklandshipley NZwww.shipleywins.co.nz/training

7 Aprilcold calling/hot Knockingaucklandtop achievers sales training www.topachieverssalestraining.co.nz

7-8 AprilKey account managementaucklandNZIm Northernwww.nzimnorthern.co.nz/wa.asp?idWebPage=16885&iddetails=110

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NZsm / march 2011 / 16

Where to spend your time

Prioritising your accountsBy Brett Burgess

Brett Burgess is a sales trainer and Programme Facilitator for sales Impact Group Limited based in hawkes Bay. to find out more visit www.salesimpactgroup.co.nz

a challenge I hear from many salespeople and

business owners alike is that there is never

enough time to keep in touch with all their

clients. the results can be many lost opportunities and

indeed lost clients.

Our existing clients offer the best opportunity for

future growth for a couple of very good reasons.

Firstly we have already earned their trust as an advisor/

supplier and are therefore most likely to be offered the

first opportunity of further work. Indeed in many cases

we are only getting a percentage of the business.

some studies have shown that most of our better

clients are in fact only giving us slightly more than 50

per cent of their potential business.

secondly, a key reason for the missed opportunity is

a lack of account strategies and planning, particularly

in smaller businesses. this may come as a surprise to

many salespeople who seem to believe if we look after

the clients we will automatically get all their business.

so to maximize sales to our existing clients we need to

develop an account strategy.

the first step in this process is to identify the services

and products they are already buying from us then

work out what other needs we can fulfill for them and

t W O m I N u t e t O P u P

17 / march 2011 / NZsm

build these into our call objectives.

another step is to work out a call cycle. this will

depend largely on what type of client you are dealing

with. a common trap is to categorise only by turnover.

It is very important to look at a number criteria when

categorising accounts, such as gross profit, margin,

lifetime value, wallet share, or potential growth.

all accounts, including those of prospects and

customers, should be categorised to keep their call

frequency as productive as possible. You must decide

which accounts are most important to your company.

categorising helps determine this. For every prospect

or customer, there is a call frequency that will give you

maximum return per call.

It is based on the belief that a greater portion of time

should be spent on prospects or customers who offer

larger volume potential. Less time should be spent on

lower volume prospects or customers.

You will categorize your prospects or customers as a, B,

and c accounts. ‘a’ accounts are major; statistically they

number about 15 percent of your accounts and give you

65 percent of your volume. the following 20 percent

of your accounts are ‘B’, or minor accounts. they give

you 20 percent of your total sales. Of the remaining

prospects or customers, 65 percent are ‘c’, or marginal

accounts. they give you 15 percent of your total sales.

these percentages apply in most industries and are

an excellent rule of thumb for determining account

classification and setting sales-call frequency.

In most businesses, this simple analysis is rather startling.

You will probably find that a small number of accounts

produce the majority of your sales dollars, whereas

a majority of your prospects or customers provide

you with a small percentage of your sales. the classic

statement that “80 percent of your business comes from

20 percent of your customers” is refined somewhat in

the three account classification – a,B and c.

a good exercise would be to go through your

database of clients and categorise them as a, B or

c. By understanding this you can then manage your

time more effectively and look after the 20 per cent of

your clients who are indeed giving you 80 per cent of

your income and more importantly retain these very

valuable clients through regular call cycles. ■

A key reason for the missed opportunity is a lack of account strategies and planning, particularly in smaller businesses. This may come as a surprise to many salespeople who seem to believe if we look after the clients we will automatically get all their business.

NZsm / march 2011 / 18

r e s O u r c e c O r N e r

this book shows you how to avoid rejection and get a win

on every sales call. cold calling is not only the potentially

fastest and most profitable way to initiate a new sales

contact and insert oneself into a buying process - it's also one of

the most dreaded tasks a salesperson could perform.

the solution is art sobczak's unique, never-experience-rejection-

again system, smart calling. "smart calling" is a guide to

placing sales calls while minimizing the pain, fear, and rejection

associated with cold calling, and being successful in achieving

one's objective. While other books on cold calling dispense long-

perpetuated myths, this book empowers readers to take action,

call prospects, and hear 'Yes' more often.

Full of hundreds of real-world examples with word-for-word

conversational language, sobczak's proven process will appeal

to even the most calling-averse person. It outlines specific

techniques for avoiding the pain of rejection and turning a cold call

into a successful sales opportunity.

No salesperson should pick up the phone without reading this

book and absorbing its clear, field-tested methods for turning

the cold call from a nasty and often fruitless rite-of-passage to

profitable tool. ■

smart callingAuthor: Art sobczak

Publisher: John Wiley & sons

$29.95 from Fishpond.co.nz

Q u I c K F I X

smart callingAuthor: Art sobczak

Publisher: John Wiley & sons

$29.95 from Fishpond.co.nz

dON’T BAG The cOmPeTITION

When in pursuit of a sale, don’t bag the competition.

remember that you have competitors, your prospect

has alternatives. By putting down the competition

you run the risk of being seen as unprofessional

and perhaps a desperate salesperson making a vain

attempt to make yourself look good. Politicians do it all

the time – does it endear you to trusting them?

You will soon break trust if your prospect has previous good

experience with your competitor too. all this could result in

you being taken off the prospects list of alternatives.

You should however be asking what alternatives the

prospect is considering so that you can position the

value of your offer or solution. Differentiate from your

competition by focusing on the value you can provide

to meet the prospects decision criteria and there will

be no need to sling mud at your competition. ■

If you have a favorite ‘quick fix’ that you would like to

share with our readers (without giving your winning

secrets away!) then email the editor at pauln@

nzsalesmanager.co.nz. You will be in to win a high-

powered laser pointer pen, courtesy of the great guys

at Brand storming Promotions.

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-Mark Twain

“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it

crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny

spirit takes their place.

“