After my earlier July blog, I reminisced about one of the entrepreneurs I worked for who told me he was not a creative person, he was more of a rock polisher. Mike said he was not creative, he could never mine a good product idea, but he could reshape an idea and make it shine. I would not have called Mike a rock polisher because of his passion and drive. He was right though, it takes more than passion and drive to create something from nothing. I call that mining process, business development. What does it look like?
The cool thing about Mike is that he understood it took risk to do these things so he fostered an environment that trying something new was not a punishable crime. He also understood that this business development “thing” was a company strength, we needed it to grow. What are the particular set of skills that a business development type person will bring?
What they are not is good politicians. They don’t care about the credit because it is shared with everyone involved. http://www.jimthomasintl.com/blog/archives/04-2017 I have read many articles about fostering innovation and creativity. They are all good and have an element of truth. I hope this blog can be added to that stack of innovation articles sitting somewhere in your inbox. Do you want to have a free fifteen minute discussion so we can discuss business development? Sign up on my web site http://www.jimthomasintl.com/ or contact me directly by phone. Good Selling!
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We spent June in Europe, hence no blog for that month. I combined work and play. The work was in Western Europe; the play in Eastern Europe. There are "sea" changes occurring on both sides of that continent, and I hope to keep traveling there for both pleasure and business. My June time helped me reflect on past selling techniques. I get a little bit tired of hearing about the “solutions” based sale. It is just one tactic. The big differentiator between sales and management is that the sales approach requires overtly asking for the order--i.e., called closing. The solution close is an authentically sincere recap of the discussion, with outcomes that effectively rationalize why your recommendation is the right one for this client.
There are other ways of closing the sale. A good salesperson knows which closing technique to use at the right time quickly and efficiently to remove awkwardness at this point of the selling process. There are seven other closing techniques I review when delivering a sales training program. Five are soft sales approaches. Two are harder nosed approaches, and should be used sparingly. It is best to role play them in training. Not everyone uses all techniques but you should be aware of them and practice them. The softer five are the:
Do you want to have a free fifteen minute discussion on closing techniques you can use? Sign up on my web site http://www.jimthomasintl.com/ or contact me directly by phone. Good Selling! |
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