Implementing a sales program to bring in more business takes planning that the average company normally does not provide to the activity. Too many companies are just sending people into the market with a basic understanding of the products or services to be sold, a few techniques on how to find and approach the prospect and hope that this energy will snag a new customer. It is a waste of time!

The approach to selling has gone through a number of iterations in the past ten to fifteen years. First it was product sales through introduction. Gosh, every one needs soap, so why not buy some. We then saw competition come into the market so we started to brand our bar of soap and define some benefits you can have by using our soap. When everyone started to show the same benefits we decided to have soap as part of a consulting initiative where there was a technique for using our soap that made it that much more effective as soap and the results to you were clearly visible. At this point we have evolved to consultative sales techniques. As competition started to also be consultative we put more sophistication into our selling and called it “strategic selling”. Our soap became part of a broader strategy that if used in combination with other products such as perfumes, and special water treatments, our soap now made a longer term fit in the customer’s requirements. So strategically our soap has developed a sophistication value and became part of the whole portfolio theme. This is where the twentieth century ended for our soap guys. Not all products have the characteristic simplicity of soap, however.

With most products and services, selling at the business to business level, selling into the global marketplace requires different definitions for where the market really is and different standards for measuring our success in getting into this market. We have to realize that no company can afford to be all things to all people. This means that our marketer must focus. To focus we must define who and where the top tier customer is and how do we get there as our first step. The top tier customer is that person who is willing to pay for the value added we can produce (i.e. give us the margins we want) and will normally repeat that sale if this is important to us. Once we know who we want, we need to fine tune the message we provide and set standards for ourselves around how many steps it will take to secure each sale. This message confirms the “customer promise” (what the customer expects) and defines the value proposition that our business must deliver (we set up centers of excellence behind the value proposition). The standards define the resources we need to get the results we must have. The next article in this series will describe how to hook that customer.