See this : Arnie as Darth Vader

Hi Friends,

I just want to post this now. Recd it about 5 minutes back from Arnie

@ Scharwzeneggar..I can't believe this pal. Thanks ad infinitum

On Persuasion and "Win-Win" Arrangements

< meta name= 'keywords" content = capital equipment, sales, selling, persuation, persuasive selling, capital equipment selling>

When I started off in sales after spending about three years at site, the one advice people would give me was “ you have to be persuasive”..with the wisdom of a Zen-master .Accordingly, I thought to myself 'gotta be persuasive dude' and "Aal-eez-Well", but there was a spanner in the works,as usual. 

"What’s 'being persuasive'? How do you be persuasive?" were some questions which baffled dumb 'ol me.When I asked, the Zen-masters just smiled a-sort-of-Zen-master smile and uterred wisdom like “ find it out for yourself” or similar words to that effect. The advice-givers are never generous with definitions, as you may be aware. 

However, then I found out when once a person has made up his mind, it is difficult to get him to change his mind. I  was mainly getting my results with my personality, my ability to make friends, my lack of ego at my job hours ( but man I had an ego a mile long after office -I had to do a lot of struggling to realize ..or correction make my CPU realize that the world does not revolve around me-but that's another story).Finally, I decided that persuasion is what precedes aggresion, but I was not happy.

By then there were young people under me and I told them the same thing, crossing one more generation, without any definitions-of course. I had made up my mind by then that persuading is gentle aggression. I was not completely sure but then, no other definitions came to mind. About 10 days back, I came upon this definition in a book in the British Library here, which in my opinion, is superb and exactly conveys what ‘being persuasive’ can mean in sales. I thought therefore I‘d share it, for a change, being in a good mood.

This definition  gives you four approaches all based on the ‘win-lose’ sales concept of situations, which are as under

     1.Unimpressive approach: lose-lose

    2.  Timid approach: You win-I lose.

     3 .     Aggressive approach: You lose –I win

     4.   Persuasive approach: You win-I win

 This impressed the hell out of me, cos it makes perfect sense.Hope you think it is helpful.

 Now, I thought like crazy but could not recall the author. So, if he or she is reading this, thank you for a concept so brilliantly explained.Superb clarity of words and thought. Now I know what to tell my subordinates next time anyone asks me how to be  persuasive.!!

Wishing you lots of profitable selling

Best Regards from

Bilbo.

On Selling Capital Equipment and the Spinach Syndrome

 

Many Sales Managers and or Directors, have this strange idea that the potential clients a sales-person visits, the better. In Industrial Marketing, which comprises of high or medium value systems selling, “cold-calling prospects” is definitely not a good idea. 

Now folks, let me tell you a story. You know how your Maa used to say ‘don’t do that-it invites the evil eye”. and… if you asked why? The answer was invariably “.. That-does-not-concern-you" or “because –I-said-so”? My mother said that my gran had said 'spinach should not be eaten at night'.Now, I had a nice think on this one and I think I deduced the reason. Indian spinach has some green bugs, which in the night, are difficult to see and separate.A 100 years back everything was done by kerosene-lamp-illumination. 
Probably, an important man found a few bugs in his spinach at night. So, what did he do? The man of the house contemplated the question and said " Bingo! I'll just put this rule “no-spinach-at-night" and I won't tell them the reason too”. So most probably, that's the way it happened, with all old sayings too.

                                                                                       

Now, maybe you can appreciate the reason for the anecdote. Cold Calling in sales is something like the spinach and insect at night case. Decision makers in Industrial Plants have no time to entertain sales-people on fishing expeditions. Cold calling was never very popular with customers but it had to be done. This was the situation earlier as without cold calls; there was no way to collect authentic market information. Now as you are aware, information is power. The person with the greater power wins. 

Hence, the earlier Gurus of sales boasted of their cold calling prowess. Sales book even had chapters on how to get past the ogre which was always the tough secretary of the decision maker, chewing nails. What these guru’s don’t realize that times have changed. (Irrespective of how many copies of Spencer Johnson’s Who took my cheese? they may own-they don’t understand change) So, they continue to send new sales people into the market …” a sales person and working in the office…” No! that will never do. These people have sever affliction of what I call “ the spinach syndrome”.

  In Industrial Sales & Marketing of Capital Equipment, the internet has unseated the cold-call from its “ throne of indispensability" . Cold calling now  can be retired off and allowed to stay on for a few years more as an adviser. Information is power. Having information gives you an immense advantage over your competitors. This is all the more true in industrial marketing, where competition is limited but of the best quality and the value of a small order is not less than $25,000

But then comes the million dollar question, how can information be collected then. From the internet of course...this is evolution, you can't stop it so you do the next big thing, you join it. There are many people who will disagree but aren't there always?

How can one collect information from the web? Company web sites hardly give out that kind of  information. It is here that a little bit of creative thinking helps. I have listed out a few types of web-sites below where all information, industrial marketing managers require are available.

(1)B2B trading portals and Business Directories: These give out all the information and all you have to do is to know where the information is. (An example is http://www.processregister.com which has a section on projects. You are given the location, the value and the promoter. The website even has the projects classified sector wise. What else do you need?'

(2)Job Portals: These give out information in the form of “Project Managers required for…” or “We require for our new project…”

(3)Stock Market sites: Watch out for the analysis given in these sites. All new projects from the plan level may be found here.

(4)Websites of Consultants: Consultants often give out details of new consulting jobs they are working on.If you think that you will get full details of a project from tapping into the above or similar resources, you will be disappointed. What you will get is “leads”. Taking these leads, do some research. With practice, you will soon become adept and fast in the research. Industrial selling initiated by researching the web, is called SBR (Selling by Research).

Teach your sales people to research encourage them to do so and I can guarantee you that you will never be short of leads. In many companies, employees are not allowed to browse the net. This is a prime example of the spinach Syndrome. Here, the onus lies on the marketing manager to convince the management that this should not be applicable to the Sales & Marketing Department.

The next time your salesperson visits a potential customer, insist that he or she he knows what the prospect requires. Ask the prospect for a presentation permission. Ask them to tell the prospect how your products can help them save money. During the presentation, practice relationship selling. Show and prove that you know your product. Now, compare this to the competitor’s sales rep that pesters the customer with questions. No prizes for guessing who is more likely to be favored by the prospect for the order! Monetize your sales pitch. Don't say my equipment has 90% efficiency- say "with my equipment your energy costs will come down 20%, which means a savng of $10,000 p.a. (just a figure I plucked from the air)

Hope you liked the post. if you did, please bolster my spirits by clicking on the icons below. Have an awesome day

Love

Bilbo