It’s easy to look at other sales organizations and believe that they have advantages that you don’t have. This is especially true when the sales organizations you compete against are larger than yours. When you look at them as someone outside their organization, you believe that selling would be easier if you had some of what they had, namely more resources.
You don’t need what they have. You can make do and win.
More Money Equals
Some of your competitors have more money. More money translates to more resources. More resources equals an easier time selling—or so you believe. But what does this money really do for your competitor?
Money allows them to invest in marketing and sales collateral. They have a slicker presentation. They have four-color, glossy brochures that were designed by a major marketing firm. They provide their salespeople with a greater travel and entertainment budget. They may have more internal resources with which to serve their clients, and they have offerings that you don’t have.
While all of these things may be helpful, you can create and win opportunities without any of these things, and many salespeople and sales organizations do just that.
You can make do with what you have, because you already have what you really need to succeed.
Making Do
Opportunities are created and won by salespeople that create value for their dream clients. The ability to create value for your clients does not depend on your having a slicker presentation or a glossy, four-color brochure. These rarely shift the balance in favor of the sales organizations that use these tools.
Make do by creating value for your dream clients and clients.
None of the money and resources that your competitors have converts to the real currency we in sales trade in, and that currency is trust. While it’s true that larger companies with greater resources can look like a safer choice, the trust that the salesperson creates to open and win an opportunity isn’t dependent on their company’s size and resources. In fact, many people distrust larger sales organizations because they feel that they won’t get the attention that they need.
Make do by being someone that your client can trust to help them achieve results.
Money and resources can help to open relationships, but it is easier now to open relationships when you have the ideas and the ability to help your dream clients produce results. There will always be prospects that require you wine and dine them in order to get their attention or gain business. But it’s more likely now that your clients need you to create value for them by helping them improve their business results. Your ideas are a resource and a currency that can tilt the playing field deeply in your favor.
Make do by opening relationships by nurturing the relationships that you need with value creating ideas. Be a deep well of resourcefulness and ideas.
Your clients need you to own the outcomes that you sold. A salesperson from a larger sales organization with greater resources has no advantage when it comes to owning the outcome, to leading change, and to orchestrating the efforts of their team. Money and resources does nothing to prove that your competitors will own the outcomes that sold. In fact, there are clients who will choose you because they believe you will be there and own it.
Make do by being proving that you have the skill sets necessary to lead your team and your client’s team to the outcome that they need.
You can make do, and you can win without all of the perceived advantages your larger competitors have.
Questions
Do money and resources alone make selling easier?
Would rather have more resources or a seriously value-creating idea that could help your client produce real results? Which would your client prefer you to have?
What are the skills and attributes that level the playing field for salespeople?
How do you make your smaller size and lack of resources a competitive advantage?
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