Why is it that people selling things like to deal with the doorman? Ok so, that’s an outrageous exaggeration, but it grabs the attention and illustrates an interesting point – when we’re selling something we tend to feel subservient, as if not worthy of serious consideration. We don’t want to upset anybody by being too pushy. So, we try to sell the doorman, the receptionist, middle managers – anybody but the boss. Obviously this doesn’t apply to people selling to individuals or professionals. They can only talk to the boss, but they still adopt this subservience, and waste time and money.

People used to agree “the salesman’s only asset is his Rolodex”. It seems the company still makes this device, but for anybody who doesn’t know it, the Rolodex is a cylindrical device for storing index cards. This was where the salesman stored all his customer contact records. Of course, now we have great technology like Front Office to help us with this task, but in the old days all they had was index cards, and the Rolodex.

Our sales process can seem paranoid about qualification, because it is.

Making sure we understand what the customer is thinking is absolutely fundamental to our decision on whether to compete or not. We need to know will it really happen, is there anything we can do to make sure we win, and if we do win is the business going to worth having. It also dictates the way we structure our campaign. It tells us how to win the business. This is true regardless of whether that campaign lasts 18 minutes, or 18 months.

Sales Professionals regularly review their deals and take a hard look at the opportunity. They don’t want a prospect list full of people who aren’t going to buy. They want to spend their time on deals they can get, and they want to get the biggest bang from their cost of sale buck.

Businesses don’t buy things the way consumers do. This is particularly true for the larger organizations.

One of the biggest influences on purchase decisions by consumers is the message it conveys to others. This goes some way to explain both fashion and the success of premier brands. It applies to houses, cars, clothing, appliances and in some places can even apply to grocery store they shop in. What people buy is an indication of their wealth, their personal interests, their taste and what they want others to think of them. The only time price is the sole consideration in consumers’ choice of purchase is when they don’t care about whatever they’re buying.

When a customer asks for a proposal he’ll have a plan for making the decision (if he doesn’t we have a problem). However these plans rarely work out the way they’re supposed to, and the more people involved, the less likely they are to. We know because we come across it all the time. We also know the customer’s decision process isn’t likely to deliver the best outcome, either for him or us. Customers only ever take into account that which they understand, they ignore the influence our competitors can bring to the table, and they constrain our ability to make our strengths count.

The longer we’re engaged in a sales opportunity, and the more we think we’re going to win it, the more we have invested in it – cost of sale, aspiration, pride. Telling a customer we’re no longer interested in his business can be an awfully hard thing to do, especially when plans for spending the commission are already made. It’s quite natural the tenacity that got us to this point will keep us focused on winning, regardless of the cost. Well, that same tenacity digs a big whole for us costing time, money and self-respect.

The heading here seems to suggest the person doing the selling should declare how much his profit, or commission check will be. Actually that isn’t what it means. How the salesman gets compensated is no more relevant to the buyer than his pay check would be to the salesman.What is relevant is the salesman has another interest over, and above just signing the deal.

In other chapters we outlined the various emotional states the prospect goes through during the sales process – see Ask the hard questions early and Make sure the customer understands what’s in it for you.

During the early exchanges the prospect may be very open with information, helping us to understand how we can put forward our best offer. Questions regarding budget, decision process, his view of our strengths and weaknesses, relative to the competition will answered directly. In this phase the prospect is in charge and won’t feel threatened by our process and the way we deliver our proposition.

Some buyers seem to have a natural talent for taking advantage of poor sales technique. Professional buyers are trained in a tactic they call Salami – it means “one slice at a time”. It describes the way the buyer will keep asking for more discount, or more services after the price has been set. Each request is for something quite insignificant but by the end of the process the seller will have conceded much more than would have been the case in a single negotiation.