Anyone involved in sales takes great pride in honing and fine-tuning their sales skills. However, in today’s globally competitive, flat-world economy, there are more folks out there selling than you think.
Not all of them have a job title that reads: “sales person.” In fact, not many of them do.
That kind of sticks in your sales craw doesn’t it?
These non-selling sales folks don’t consider themselves to be sales people. They are simply trying to earn a living and support their families.
In today’s global economy, everyone sells, intentionally or not. Selling is not exclusive: it’s pervasive.
You take great pride in your sales acumen. You read blogs like this one. You take it upon yourself to enroll in classes, buy great business books, and attend meetings to continue your sales education.
Yet there’s something you’ve noticed in the past four years that’s really eating away at you. You don’t quite know how to successfully address it although you are trying your hardest to.
It’s more difficult to sell. Not only is there a crowded marketplace. Buyers are more elusive. There are too many sales people – your competitors – who are selling when they really don’t know how to sell.
The trouble is, these competitors box you out of closing those accounts, don’t they? No one told these unintentional sellers that they weren’t invited to your exclusive sales party.
The selling space is crowded with non-traditional sellers: owners and presidents of small businesses and startups. They sell the best they can. Their conversations are not as well-rounded as yours. Yet these non-traditional sellers provide a compelling reason for doing business with them.
Their conversation is flawed, yet it’s a fresh message. Their selling efforts are unfettered compared to your own highly-trained methods and spiel.
Your customers are listening, too. These selling messages invite buyer-seller collaboration. Buyers are invited to become part of ventures which are local, sustainable and impactful on economic recovery.
These selling conversations are human discussions. They involve the right and left side of the brain.
There’s something visceral, emotional, and altruistic involved. And customers – those customers you felt were yours, exclusively – want “in.”
In today’s globally competitive economy, everyone designs and engineers. Everyone resolves issues and collects revenue. There is an all-hands-on-deck feel to conducting business in a flattened world marketplace.
Selling is not an exclusive, siloed function. Revenue creation is part of everyone’s job responsibility.
Take a look around. Re-assess your competition. Take a page out of their unintentional selling playbook.
Refine your own conversations. Strike a compelling chord with your Buyers that is a more human, sustainble conversation.
Babette N. Ten Haken, is President of Sales Aerobics for Engineers®, LLC and author of its award-winning blog. She catalyzes business transition, startup growth, and professional development for non-traditional sellers, engineers, manufacturers, and technical startups. Her book on collaboration strategies, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com.
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