Sales People Need Love!

Before my fellow sales friends blast this declaration, selling is the most difficult job in the company!   Customers’ financial and procurement process stifles creativity and discount value and innovation.  That effectively and purposefully boxes vendors into commodity pricing comparatives.

Sales people must ignite business ideation discussions.  Sales management too often inflates value of CRM and product demo activity with hard work gaining qualified business level access and creative dialogue.    Work to discover ways for your clients’ to achieve growth and increase value.  Dare to imagine with your clients.  Bridge your products and services capability to clients’ business execution and strategy to achieve uncommon results.  Qualify decision-making.  If not part of a business discussion, prepare to be the lowest price to win, or disqualify and get out.

I disagree with John Warrillow’s too easy conclusion in his Inc. article imploring sales to do “the hard work of figuring out how to make your product solve the problem at hand.”   He reverts to misplaced and old caricatures of consultative selling.

Instead, Joanne Black of Women Sales Pros makes the point that clients need sales professionals’  “expertise and insights about what does and doesn’t work.”   Business impact for growth and sparking imagination is the elixir that clients seek from their sales professionals to innovate and execute results.