Interesting discussion on LinkedIn between bid writers. They always try to work out if a tender is "wired". In other words - has one bidder managed to get the tender written in such a way as to favour them!
From a sales manager's point of view the perspective is different. A good sales person always tries to get to a prospect prior to the tender process in order to do just that. A very good sales person spends a lot of time doing this, and does fewer tenders. They achieve much better strike rates by doing this, and win much better deals.
Poor sales people, conversely, fall into "The Tender Trap", and are always so busy completing tenders that they never have time to get any wired!
As well as developing plans and creating material we can help maximise the result by providing coaching for key personnel in all aspects of the sales process. This includes emergent techniques to handle such challenges as reverse e-auctions.
We will design programmes based around your specific business needs, and aligned to the actual capabilities of delegates. Specific areas for training include:
- Major account development and Key account management
- Account strategy for major sales
Sales Byte : "Listen!"
In the "good old days" the high adrenalin, foot-in-the-door salesman was successful. He would greet his prospect warmly, shake him firmly by the hand, look him straight in the eye, and in a good strong voice tell him all about his product, and how it was just the thing that he, the prospect, needed. He would follow this up by closing hard, handle objections firmly, when encountered, and move back to the close. This approach would achieve a good strike rate, and by seeing enough prospects our salesman would beat all his targets, earn lots of commission and win that holiday in the sun!
Unfortunately (for our foot-in-the-door salesman) this no longer works. People have becoming hardened against this approach. They want to know that the salesman is addressing their needs, and they want to know what the product will do for them. So what is the right approach in the twenty first century? Well; it has nothing to do with pushy opening, hard closing and dismissive objection handling. It has much more to do with listening, hearing, responding and positioning accordingly.
Are the people responsible for sales in your business or organisation aggressive "old style" sales types, or are they responsive, empathetic, assertive and successful in today's sales environment?
More Sales Bytes(published by Rob Parker on the Momentum website)
