Tag Archives: “Kevin Sasser”

Make It Relevant

17 Feb

Make it relevant

I’m a big fan of Kevin Sasser’s The Sales Wars blog.  He  must be really busy in his day job because he’s not posted in almost 2 months.  Well, my wait is over and as usual, I learned something and laughed at the same time.

Definitely read the full blog post.  After the funny analogy, Kevin writes about a colleague who is putting together an agenda for marketing to update the sales team.  The standard agenda is suggested:

  • Our company overview
  • What we see happening in the industry
  • Our “vision”
  • Our unique approach

To which Kevin figuratively sticks his fingers in his mouth at the thought of listening to all that.  What struck me is that the sales team is probably doing the same thing to the prospect!  You are polite while marketing pitches you but you’re secretly daydreaming or reading your BlackBerry under the table.  Wanna bet your prospect is doing the same as  you pitch?  Kevin suggested the following agenda for marketing.  I suggest you follow the same agenda when selling to prospects:

  • Why you are in my office taking up my time
  • My problem that you can solve for me
  • How you will solve the problem in clear, concise, concrete terms
  • The benefit that you will deliver to me that your competitor can’t

As I get reminded at home, it’s not about me, it’s about what’s important to them!

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Please…something new

22 Mar

Enough already

An insides sales expert who I’ve known for almost 10 years and started blogging around the same time as me called me up recently. She said, “Don’t be offended by this but your blog is getting boring.”

I’m thinking, “Boring?!? It may not be as funny as Ken Sasser over at The Sales Wars but boring?” Alright, wait a second, let me give her a chance to explain what she means. So instead of saying what I was first thinking, I asked her why.

“Your blog is always about referrals. I get it, referrals are important. But does it always have to be about referrals? I know you have more things to say that readers will find interesting. How about writing something new?”

So I did a quick mental review of the blog and realized, “Hey, she’s right!” I’ve been so focused in building Inquisix and explaining how referrals from fellow salespeople are just as important as customer referrals that I got caught in a loop. Time to get out of that! So I’m working on some new posts that will discuss my thoughts on other parts of the sales cycle. And maybe Trish will start reading my blog again instead of just skimming titles!

As a closing, let me point you to one my favorite posts from Rick Roberge about not getting emotionally involved. I think I passed that test!