All Work & No Play
What's in It for Me?
Creating and fulfilling demand these days starts with changing
your sales strategy. It's not enough to be the cheapest, not
enough to be newest, not enough to be fanciest, not enough to be an
interesting idea. Customers are looking for solutions to problems,
and those solutions have to relate to cutting costs or increasing
profits. "If it can't make you money or save you money, I
wouldn't bother trying to sell it," says Blair Singer, a
Zephyr Cove, Nevada, sales consultant and author of Sales Dogs (Warner). "Because
that's where people are." If salespeople present products and services in that light, they
have to know how their customers generate sales and profits. And
that's the second major shift in sales: Now salespeople must
understand customers in a way that was optional a year or two ago.
"People don't have the time to hear what you have to
offer," says Cavanaugh. "People want to hear, 'Here
are your needs, here's the solution.'" Content Continues Below
To get insight into solutions, salespeople have to study
customers thoroughly before they even meet them. Cavanaugh directs
his people to scan company Web sites, read corporate annual
reports, and talk to competitors in the industry so they can get a
feel for prospects' issues. McClennan assigns employees to
interrogate nonsales contacts in organizations where he hopes to
get sales. "They ask questions about challenges they're
facing today and what initiatives they have underway," he
says. The need for knowledge is exacerbated as customers seek greater
oversight on spending, salespeople must sell to higher-level
managers now more than ever before. Senior executives have less
time to spend listening to salespeople, and it takes salespeople
longer to get a chance to be listened to. That means every
presentation is more valuable, and it's more important not to
fumble it. "The first meeting you're in," says
Cavanaugh, "you'd better have options for them." | Take a
Closer Look | When sales are hard to come by, experts
and entrepreneurs recommend hiring more salespeople. Luckily, there
are more available today than there were a few years
ago—although the market is a long way from being loose. But
you have to look beneath the surface of today's sales job
applicant. Internet companies and telecommunications firms, two
hot-growth industries of the late 1990s, are the source of many of
the unemployed salespeople available now. Try to keep that in mind
when you are scanning applicants, warns New York City sales
consultant Stephan Schiffman. "I see these resumes where they
increased the company's sales by 100 percent. But anybody could
in those days. The thing to ask now is, 'Could they do it
today?'" He and others recommend looking for sales
experience extending beyond the go-go years, as well as evidence of
solid sales training and business understanding, before taking on a
new salesperson. |
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Brewing Big (With a Micro Soul)After 18 years of growth and with annual revenue about to break $100 million, Kim Jordan still maintains New Belgium's freewheeling spirit.
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