Consultative doesn’t mean what many salespeople believe. They believe that it means a soft approach, one that isn’t high pressure or a hard sell. They also believe that it means they ask a lot of questions, and even though questions can be…
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There is a type of displacement outside of removing your competitor that is equally—and in some cases—even more difficult to execute. It’s trickier, and sometimes even more political. The displacement I am referring to here is the…
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Most people believe that producing a better result in some area of their life requires that they start doing something, that they add something to what they are already doing. Better results, as far as they are concerned, requires they do…
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The pattern that occurs in sales conversations is one which tends to start with a discussion of challenges or better future outcomes, the exploration of potential ways those future outcomes might be obtained, the collaboration with concerned…
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There is a man on his hands and knees underneath a street light. He is searching for something he’s lost. A police officer walks by and asks the man what it is he is searching for, and the man answers, “My keys. I’ve lost my keys.” The…
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In Afghanistan, the locals have a saying about their strategy with soldiers from other countries. The saying is: “You have the watches, but we have the time.” The idea here is that at some point the foreign soldiers are going to leave and go…
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As I was writing Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition, I realized something about salespeople and their view on competition.
First, some make far too much about their competition, spending too much time worrying about…
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The first time I wrote about competition on my blog, I received a number of negative comments and a few emails. The people reached out to me were unhappy with my describing sales as a “blood sport.” It was hyperbolic, for sure, but I was…
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It used to be customary that the salesperson to try to connect and develop rapport with a prospective client before tackling the business agenda they suggested when they scheduled the meeting. The salesperson would sit down in the prospective…
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