Saturday, April 12, 2008

We are not alone

In sales, did you ever think that you were the only one that goes through some of the crap that we do. I was on the plane yesterday and met a man who has been selling for the past 25 years, and we had a great conversation.

As someone who works with sales people, I get different reactions on HOW to sell, and at the same time, learn from everyone. This guy starts the conversation with a opening line; I'll bet you sell, too! Taken back I asked why did he think that, because he said, I had the road warrior look.

I never thought of myself that way before. Travel to me is always something that I have always done. It is part of the deal when I signed up for this detail.

So how do we all look?

I thought about that and decided that maybe it is time for me to get back in the saddle and stop looking like sales hurts...the way he said it, made me feel that way.
We all have that feeling at times, and this is the moment that I tell you to get your act together and stop beating yourself up for being in sales. This, I guess, is a little self acknowledgement about where my head might have been! Let's get going, I said to myself, and I did!

Good selling,

Steve

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, look around you, you really are all alone!

Max Rosenthal said...

Stephan - recently ran across a cold calling article that discussed the idea of, prior to placing the call to the DM, making a few recon calls to end users and asking questions such as:

• what type of sales training the company provides
• their personal evaluation of the quality of the training
• whether training is provided by outside vendors on in-house trainers
• if they use outside trainers, what companies do they use
• what training needs do they see the company has that aren't being met

He says "Those introductions turn the call into a conversation about their needs and observations rather than a sales pitch."

What are your thoughts?

PS - there is a blog setting that allows you to prevent or screen gutless and shallow 'Anonymous' postings

Anonymous said...

Max, your an ass. Steveie, do you REALLY travel?. Or is this just another story with typos?

Stephan Schiffman said...

Max: i agrfee with the author of the article. Doing some "look up" can never hurt. The only problem I have is that people spend too much time doing the research, and never get to the call. But you make a good point, thanks.

ss

BTW: with refernce to some other comments, I guess pople have too much time on the their hands. It shows that there are people reading this blog. While they are too simple to learn, at least they know how to type.

regards, always, ss