How To Think like a Sales Pro

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  dave.stein@...07/24/08 Report as spam
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  Think Like a Sales Pro

  I like your list, Goeffrey. I especially like your strategy of getting the reader to find out what the sales pro is thinking and how that drives behavior. In fact, that's one of the techniques we use during interviews with sales candidates. "What were you thinking when that happened." Very revealing.
  
  There is one very important point, Geoffrey, that you touched on in your first paragraph. I think it needs to be expounded upon, just a bit.
  
  The hardest transition for your reader will be to look at his products not from an technical, features point of view, but from a business point of view. The reader has to focus on what his/her product does to help the customer overcome challenges or leverage opportunities in their business.
  
  I came to sales through the same door: Programmer/Systems Engineer/etc. What did it for me was when my sales manager said, "Stein, as far as you're concerned from today forward, you're selling a black box. Don't even think about what's inside the black box unless the customer specifically asks you. Just spend your time coming up with ways that this black box will help your customers improve their businesses." Worked for me.

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  JacquesWerth07/25/08 Report as spam
  2

  Re: Think Like a Pro

  Excellent advice, Geoffrey.
  Let me add this: do not ask your sales mentor about how he/she sells. First, because most of the best salespeople cannot accurately describe what they do. Second, because it is likely to interfere with what he/she would have done if you had not asked.
  
  Get a clear understanding of your mentor's mindset and attitudes about everything. That is far more important than sales techniques.
  
  When I first started selling, over fifty years ago, I went on sales calls with nine of the best salespeople in nine different industries. I watched them work and took detailed notes. Just as Geoffery suggested, I imitated everything they did that was common to all of them. By the end of that year I was in the top 20 percent in a sales force of over 200 Reps, and I was the youngest Rep in the company.
  
  Since then, I have observed hundreds of the best salespeople, on three continents, while they were interacting with prospects and customers. The things that set them apart from most other salespeople are: mindset, attitude, integrity, accurate record keeping, and analysis of their sales metrics.
  
  Jacques Werth

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  adityaganti07/26/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: How To Think like a Sales Pro

  I think Dave captured the mind-set accurately - think benefits and not features when he spoke about the black-box. It is very difficult to think benefits when it is easy to compare features and this is a chasm many sales-people have trouble crossing.
  
  I think that is definetely a topic for another post by Geoffrey.
  
  Aditya