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Month: January 2009
Well, as we are knee deep in the “ECONOCLYPSE”, I just may have the solution for you.
It stems from something I have been noticing for years. We can’t sell. Full stop.
I can list dozens of alleged sales contacts I have had over the last few months alone, with seemingly professional sales folks who, quite frankly, couldn’t sell eternal life to a dead person. I believe this is a pandemic. And, no that isn't a sick cuddly black and white bear.
We hide behind marketing (whatever the hell that is today) with all that PowerPoint drivel with its spinning globes, throbbing gristle and jumping bunnies. And the all-too-hip glossy, marketing-speak chest pounding end-to-end-solution brochures. The sales pipelines done in spread sheets longer than Rip van Winkle’s beard and all-to-common ever-so-soft useless, pointless, make-me-feel-good titles like Business Development, Account Executive, Business Drivers, Thought Leaders, Change Agents and on and on and so on and so forth. Makes me wanna scream. If I ever see a card handed to me that says "Joe Schmoe – Salesman" I will die of apoplexy!
What the world – the marketing world that is – needs and needs right now, to get us out of this mess, is a good kick in the ass.
Lemme talk about selling.
Selling is about building long-lasting relationships. You cannot have a relationship where fear is the starting point. You can’t have a relationship built on lies. And, most importantly, you can’t develop a relationship without a lot of work.
Selling is in grave danger. True selling that is. And in all businesses – sales are key. "Nothing happens till someone sells something."
I am not talking “order taking” – which is “clerking.” That's where the customers surprise you.
I am talking about selling. Where you go out and surprise them!
My view on selling is as follows: Selling is like hunting. There are two types of hunters (Metaphor alert: I am referring to sales people).
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