Every month I receive a variety of questions from salespeople and their managers. These come from a variety of sources - my live seminars, the monthly phone seminars, questions that are sent into my newsletter, and issues that arise in the course of my consulting work. Out of all of these, I select those that I think have the most universal application, and respond to them here.
How do we handle an unethical customer? One who says he would do anything to make money on a job, or to get a job?
Fortunately you are not responsible for the ethics, or lack thereof, of your customers. The short term answer is that as long as your customer doesn't encourage you to participate in his greed-at-all-cost philosophy, it's a non-issue. Just make sure that you don't get tempted to sink in the mud with him.
Having said that, it has been my experience that people, and companies, are judged by the company they keep. Over time, your customer's unsavory reputation may come to include all those suppliers who do business with him. If you are going to play with the pigs, you may end up becoming muddy. So, consider extricating yourself from this account and moving on. You don't have to sell everyone.
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If you have any comments or questions, email them to me. I do, of course, reserve the right to edit.
Here are a few articles by Dave
that you might be interested in reading:
- Strategic Planning for Salespeople... "Ready, shoot, aim." Unfortunately, that's the all too common description of the field salesperson's modus operandi. In a misguided attempt to stay busy and see as many people as possible, too many salespeople subscribe to the theory that any activity is good activity. There was a time when this was true. Customers had more time, sales was a simpler job, and any conversation with a prospect or customer was a good thing. But times have changed, and the job of the salesperson has become much more complex. The pressure on the salesperson to make good decisions about the effective use of his time has never been greater. Salespeople now must confront an overwhelming number of potential "things to do," and that requires them to make decisions about which customers in which to invest their time, to prioritize their activities every day, and to continually choose from a menu of possible activities. In other words, salespeople must now engage in strategic planning.....{Read More}
- Developing Account Strategies...
Our objective is to equip you with an understanding of the principles and processes you'll need in order to develop effective account strategies. First, let's define our terms. Strategy means a series of steps designed to bring your prospect or customer from where they are now to where you want them to be. It's the long-term view. Realistically, it's a planned series of sales calls in which each sales call has a distinctive set of purposes, a distinctive piece of education, a person or set of people to speak with, and a distinctive agreement that you'd like to attain. The purpose, the timing, the organization, and the sequence of that series of sales calls is the strategy. It's the long-term perspective, the big picture, of what you want to do and how you want to do it.....[ {Read More}
There are also many other action-packed articles for sales professionals that offer how-to solutions to every day sales problems that you can read online at www.davekahle.com/article.htm.
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by Lawrence Steinmetz.
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Anyone can give products or services away by cutting the competition's price. Selling occurs when your prices are higher, but you are still able to close the deal. If you want to give stuff away, get a job at the Welfare Department. If you want to learn how to sell at a high price, read this book. It is about making money by selling.
In this powerful book Larry Steinmetz reveals cunning insight on the following issues:
- How to face a competitor's price cuts
- Things buyers would like besides a low price
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Learn more online at www.davekahle.com/higherprices.htm.
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