Selling By Research: (SBR) and the six serving men.

I KEEP six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

…from “The Elephant Child”; Rudyard Kipling

This is a verse that remains popular to everyone till date. Kipling’s six serving men even to this day aid us a great deal in our quest for misplaced idealism and unworthy perfection. But now, enough of chit-chat and we go back to the class and continue interaction with Sales By Research (SBR)

First, let us consider the first three. What, Why and When.. What we are about to discuss here is the new or rather ‘mixture of common sense and old thinking in a rubber stopper sealed bottle’ and giving it an almighty shake’ which has been termed by yours truly as ‘Selling by Research’.

This is not a magic potion aka ‘Geriatrix’...it is just application of the principles and habits of us homosapiens which the majority of us tend to do and therefore have been classified as normal.Let us imagine a person Mr.No’all who really knows everything about the planet. Due to his encyclopedic knowledge if you ask Mr. No’all anything about Earth, he can tell you everything about it. But when you ask about the moon. If you want to restore Mr. No’all, draw a link between the moon and earth...and on & on he goes again. Similarly, what I have done here is to make a link between already known and proved concepts and SBR

Here I want to remind all of you that the sales I am talking about here is capital engineering high value equipment, not other products/or services. I have no reason to believe that  SBR will not work except that I have not tried it out practically. Logical thinking appears to suggest it will work but the impotency of logic in different situations has been so well documented that I have the greatest qualms in saying ‘YES’. Indeed, it is better to say NO and be happily proven wrong,  then to say YES and embarrassingly proved to be wrong.

All having been satisfactorily defined, we now return to Kipling’s last serving man ..who is …HOW

“How” was a person of infinite patience, which

Was a perfect avatar as suited his immense size;

And had there been a contest of "one track minds"

"How" would have undoubtedly won the prize.

SBR can be defined as the act of breaking up of a sales process-which appears impossible or not feasible into small pieces thereby altering one’s view and perspective and then going on subdividing till each is solvable. Research is required  to do this subdividing. The individual sub divisions are then solved and the results combined in the same order. This continues till you arrive at the original ‘apparently impossible’ question , this time with the answer at your other hand. The research is done and information collected and compiled. When you get this information, you get power because “information is power” and with this power-you use it to get over the apparently impossible sales task.

In my next post , we will talk about How in a more detailed manner. If anyone is interested in the entire poem of Kipling, the following link will lead you to it http://bit.ly/xcJ80O

That’s all for now, friends!!!

Until the next post, it’s now
Hasta Manana

From Bilbo

SELLING BY RESEARCH or S.B.R.

[Note:The SBR concept is the intellectual property of this blog. Not to be reproduced either in whole or part thereof. All rights reserved]




Howdy folks!

Today we talk about Selling By Research or SBR. However,we have to carry out two tasks before we start our discussions.
Before I start talking about SBR we have to again draw another fine line of demarcation. As I had told you before this method is applicable for high value capital equipment selling or bidding for a high value tender. So , me and those of you who are still interested cross over this hypothetical line with me, we have to leave you others behind. Actually -you are welcome to come with me everyone but all that “time’s precious..mustn't waste it crap makes me write this line. ( The bottom line is that its your time, right? and no one can spend it for you or give you extra time . If they can do nothing, why listen to them in the first place? Moreover, I ‘ve been getting pretty lousy reports from so the more of you come, the more is my interest. Did that feel bad? I can’t help it friends.. I just can’t be a hypocrite.Yes, seeing and reading my theory on the net does give a boost to me …but uh, if you people click at an ad or two, I’ll appreciate it. Everyone needs resources to survive and yours truly is no exception). By the way 2-3 million USD should be the minimum value of your offer. The item quantity being huge thereby big order value,also will not suffice. What you are selling should require expertise.

The second thing I will want to tell you is please keep an open mind..If I write that two and two makes five, don’t jump to the conclusion that I passed my examinations bribing my math teacher. Hear me out and then form an opinion. In selling, what is important your oratory skills or your listening skills?

The correct answer is listening skills.So you think that you already knew that. The next time you visit a customer who is known to you, just stop whenever you feel your mouth opening to speak, count 1, 2 ..upto10 and if you still feel like speaking, go ahead. The truth is that human beings are all in love with their own voices. And so ensnared are you by your voice’s …what-sex appeal? ..that you don’t even notice that you are interrupting a customer. It’s rude to interrupt someone speaking to you..he is giving you a few minutes of his valuable time and instead of being appreciative, you are being rude to the customer. Don’t believe me ? Fine take your colleague with you and ask him to keep notice. Do not take your direct subordinate. Take someone who will give you a neutral and unbiased report. Do it and the result will surprise you !!!

This post has become very long but the above were essential to state before we have detailed discussions on SBR, which we will definitely do in my next post.

Till then friends, stay safe and keep on clicking

BILBO