Everyday, we’re deep in the trenches, on the front line, inch-by-inch, we plow towards greatness conquering any prospect’s fear or doubt.
The month ends, we make our numbers, we celebrate.
Another month begins and we’re back in the trenches, hustling, moving, closing — it’s what we do best dammit!
In the midst of our daily quest for greatness, at times, the bigger picture becomes clouded by our intensity and focus.
Know your value
Not your product’s value. Not your deft skill to persuade. Not even your history of never missing quota.
The greatest sales reps know their personal value.
3 question to find your value
- How well do you understand your prospect’s business initiatives? Your friends in the marketing department have hopefully done their job and the person on the end of the line is ready to buy. However, there are some times when your prospect’s business or timing isn’t right for your business. Discover this.
- How well do you know your industry? Every industry has products catering to unique niches in your market. There are likely many tools in your industry — know them and understand them. With this knowledge, credibility grows between you and your buyer. Build this.
- How well do you know your product’s value? You’re hopefully representing a powerful product. You’ve memorized the feature list and have all the marketing collateral necessary for pushing the needle forward. But, understanding your product’s value is more than memorizing features or slick marketing collateral. Realizing the benefits of your product and how those benefits progress your prospect’s business goals is vital. Understand this.
Find Your Value
Every sales rep should know the value they personally bring to the customer. We’re more than just script readers, our talents of persuasion are useless unless real value is derived, and our ability to evoke confidence in the buyer is empty if it doesn’t help their business.
Understand your value first and then bring it to your customer.
There is something to be said about the value of a sales person. Because too often, they shouldn’t be called sales people. I would say that a good sales person is just a mini-CEO. They understand business in general, strategy, basic financials, their industry, the competitors, team dynamics and many other things. In essence, they understand what it takes to build a business and can help their prospects reach their goals and avoid pitfalls. They help people win.
And if that is what you’re doing it is immensely valuable. Be more than a drive-through order taker. Be a mini-CEO.
Noel,
Great comment.
From my experiences, I’ve concluded that there are better types of sales reps for particular businesses and industries. I agree, the mini-CEO rep is the best overall. However, they’re better suited for early-stage companies in fast growing markets that are disrupting industries. They have to educate consumers, interpret feedback, and analyze market opportunities everyday.
Sales reps in a more “baked” and commoditized industry still should be a mini-CEO, because they’re the best, but it’s less of a necessity to an established industry. An industry that has a sound product-market requires less of mini-CEO sales reps and pure closers, however, as we all know, the best CEO’s are pure closers too :)
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Jon