A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to speak to the Greenville Chamber of Commerce to the NEXT Group, a subset of the Chamber specializing in emerging technology companies. One of the challenges that entrepreneurs face in building their business is that they need to respect, revere and understand what “selling” is and how it can be done most effectively.
In the technology field, the problem is complicated by the fact that these are custom solutions many times and not off-the-shelf, in-the-box products. Consequently, it changes how you sell to someone.
There were three major lessons that came from this program, and I hope you can learn something from them.
1. All Sales Success Starts in The Mind: The title of this program was “Rewire the Sales Mind.” And the assumption I have is that how you think determines how you act and how you achieve. Look at the top two percent of sales achievers and you will find they think differently about the role of the sales professional. The main difference, I suggested, was great sales people don’t look like clowns (average sales people), instead they look like competent problem finders and problem solvers for their customers. So if you’ve been reading the old books about how to convince, persuade and defend, throw those books out because they don’t work anymore – or at least they don’t work to the level you need them to work.
2. Your Market is Abundant by Its Very Nature: I believe that virtually every market is abundant; however, we don’t always see them so. Two reasons the technology market is abundant is because a) the pain that the technology solves is abundant, and b) most technology companies are absolutely pathetic at communicating the value of their solution. Consequently, many problems remain unsolved because the right vendor has not come along with the right expression of the solution. So when you’re out in the market, I suggested that you not take just any deal (which is customary for start up companies) but instead take only the deals that are right for you, since we know there is an abundant, never ending supply of them on the back end.
3. When You Have What They Want, You Control The Process: You see the reason most sales organizations fail to optimize the sales asset and perform at 30-50% of what’s possible, is they lack the perspective to be in control of the sales process. Your customer has a problem; you have a solution—you have what he needs. That puts you in control of the process (not of the people in the process, but the process itself).
Most sales training doesn’t teach this. Most old, worn-out, antiquated sales training teaches that you’ve got to “do what it takes to get the order.” That perspective is offensive to me and to the clients that we teach. Spend your time working on how you bring value and the problems you solve with that value and then go find people that have those problems. Don’t make it more complicated than it is.
A final note – thanks to Jim Henderson who set up the program and Brenda Laakso at the Greenville Chamber for organizing the details. And hats off to the Greenville Chamber for thinking outside the box in creating a learning experience for their members.
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