Archives for February 2012

There are lots of things that happen to help sales people be successful when they’re not in front of the customer. Sales reps can do research about their customers, target who to speak to, segment their markets, etc. But when you’re in front of the customer, there are really only three things that matter: your relationship, your knowledge, and how you message. We refer to this as KMR: Knowledge, Messaging, and Relationships.

All conversations are voluntary. We sometimes forget that fact. When we make an appointment to talk to a customer, we tend to rely on that fact and assume that the person will be interested in talking to us. But your customer likely did not intend to sit through a monologue. You want to have a sales conversation—which means that both of you talk and both of you listen. As the sales person, you want to foster an environment in which great conversations can occur between you and your customer/prospect.

As David Ogilvy said, “Nobody ever sold anything to anybody by boring them to death.” In selling, reps get only a minute or two to try to connect with their customers. In Pharma, this is known as the stand-up call—for the rep is grabbing the doctor while standing at the samples closet or in the hallway. You get the picture—the sales rep gets to see the physician only long enough to have that doctor scratch his name on the comput...

Paraphrasing from Dale Carnegie, dealing with people is likely the biggest and most common problem you face in business. This is especially true for sales people for to be able to sell, to influence people, you need to be able connect with them. And what better way to connect with them than to develop a meaningful business relationship?