At least once per year, I serve as a sales training coach for another CustomerCentric Selling®
practitioner. Last week, I helped Frank Visgatis, co-writer of the CustomerCentric Selling® methodology at a Workshop in Atlanta. This serves a few purposes:
1) to improve my delivery;
2) As Stephen Covey suggests – I need to constantly Sharpen my Saw;
3) as a re-inspiration mechanism for why I love what I do.
So, in no particular order, here is a peek at my notes. Consider these the "yeah, that's it" or "Hmm, interesting way to put it" moments for me.
- Query: Who pushes an enterprise forward? Is it Sales, Marketing, Product Development?
Answer: None of the Above. At a for-profit enterprise, it's the Customer! This is the foundational element of CustomerCentric Selling®.
- Our goal is to help everyone involved in revenue for a company think of themselves as being part of the enterprise becoming better at being "Buyer Facilitators."
- In order to defeat "No Decision, Inc.", sellers need to help buyers realize that the cost of the challenge (or pain in the old nomenclature) is greater than the cost of change.
- Too often, sellers think linearly, station to station instead of - again Covey – keeping the end in mind and working backwards.
- No one goes into a hardware store to buy a quarter-inch drill bit. They need to buy a quarter-inch hole!
- One of the biggest differentiators for CustomerCentric Selling® is our use of messaging tools in the sales process. Imagine your 20-something sales rep has finally, after months of trying, netted a first meeting with an executive at a target organization. Happiness, right? Well, when the door to the corner office opens, and your rep walks in and shakes the execs hand, do you know what the content of her conversation will be? Is it best-practices? Will it show off that this 20-something knows the goals, challenges, issues that exec likely is facing? Or, will they try to wing-it?
Good Selling,
Adam