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Thinking about Sales:   One of the Emerging New Rules 
for Sales - The Value-Added Sales Call
by Dave Kahle

  "My customers seem to have less time available for me than before.  They are harder 
to see, and when I do get in front of them, they often seem rushed or preoccupied.  
What can I do about this?"

Sound familiar?  It's a question that I am hearing more and more often.  I'm sure you 
have run it through your mind a few times.

It may be that the problem is you.  You may be irritating and abrasive, and over time 
your customers may have decided that they don't want you around.

But it's probably not you.  It's your customer.  No matter what you sell, it is likely that 
your customer has more to do and less time in which to do it than ever before.  Your customer's lack of time is a relatively recent phenomenon.  It wasn't much of an issue 
a few years ago, but it has become universal and growing in intensity day by day. Your customer is overworked and pressed for time.  As a result, there is just not enough time 
in the day to get everything done.  Some things have to go. A long, leisurely conversation 
with a salesperson is often one of those things that is going.

  I believe we are the beginning of a new trend - a trend with awesome implications for salespeople.  It used to be that being viewed as a "value-added" vendor was a desirable position to occupy in the customer's mind.  That meant that the product or service you represented brought your customer more value for the money than the offerings of your competitors.  It was why they did business with you.

Notice the focus was on the product or service you represented.  The process 
involved - the sales calls you made on the customer, and the discussions you had 
with him or her - were viewed as a means to an end.  It was what both of you did
in order to come to the exchange of money for your value-added offerings.

Those were the rules, and customers and salespeople understood them.  These rules 
of sales interactions are deeply ingrained - so deeply, in fact, that many of us cannot  
conceive of the profession of sales being done any other way.  It is what we know, 
and how we have made our living.

But the rules are changing. We are at the beginning of a new paradigm for the field salesperson.  

The new paradigm is this: 

Today, not only must the product or service bring value to the customer, but the time 
you spend with the customer must also be of value to him or her.  In other words, 
the sales process itself must bring value to your customer.  Your customer must 
gain something from every sales call.  He/she must see a reason for spending time 
with you - a payback for his investment of time.

  Now, of course you have your agenda, and you have your objectives for the sales call. 
You know what value you want to gain from the meeting with your customer.  But 
what about your customer?  What is he going to gain from investing that precious 
30-45 minutes with you?

  In today's time-compressed and overwhelming world, your sales call must bring the 
customer some value.  Here's a way to visualize this emerging new rule.  Suppose you 
were to make a routine sales call on a regular customer.  At the end of the call you 
said, "OK, John, that will be $150.00." In other words, you charge him for value he received 
by talking with you.  Would he pay your bill?  Would he have derived enough value from the time he spent with you so that he would gladly pay you for it?

OK, the illustration may seem a bit over the edge.  Most industries are not at the point, 
yet, where they will charge for sales calls.  But in the information rich, too-many- things-to-do world in which you and your customers live, time is more precious than money.

  When you ask for your customer's time, you are asking for something very limited and very precious.  If you take 30 minutes of his day, he has invested 6.25% of his workday
in you.  He has a thousand other things he could have done in that time.  What did he 
get for that investment with you?

  The point is this: If you are going to be successful in the Information Age economy, 
you must focus on bringing something of value to your customers every time you ask
them to invest their time in you.  You must view every sales call through the perspective 
of the value you can bring to your customers. A sales call is no longer just about the objectives that you want to achieve, it is also about the objectives your customers wants 
to achieve.  It's as if you present that $150.00 bill at the end of every sales call and
expect to be paid.

  So, how can you adjust to new situation?   Here are some proven practices that will 
help you make the transition:

• Understand your customer's situation as thoroughly as possible 
  before you take his time.   Your customer expects you to know 
  something about his business, his customers, his processes and his 
  problems before you visit.  That means that you must spend more 
  time before a sales call gathering information about that customer.  
  Check to see if the customer has a website, and gather useful  
  information from it.  Call and ask the receptionist to send you a 
  company brochure.  Ask around your company to see what other 
  colleagues might know about the account.

•   Think through the sales call from the customer's perspective.
  Put yourself in the shoes of that customer.  What else does he/she 
  have to do other than talk to you?  What problems is he facing, 
  what opportunities?  How can you bring him or her something that 
  will simplify his job, help him overcome his problems, or reduce the 
  amount of time he spends on your project?

• Prepare something of potential value for every call.   This is a 
  long-range strategy.  As you consistently hold to this strategy, 
  over time you'll build up a certain expectation in the customer's mind.  
  Don't expect an immediate payback from this strategy, but, none the 
  less, stick to it for the long haul.   Try to bring something to every sales 
  call that your customer would think is valuable.  This can, of course, 
  be your latest and greatest product or service, providing that it really 
  would help them.  Or, it may be an idea that you have found for a 
  change in their processes, or it may be a new way to implement 
  something they have purchased from you in the past.  Maybe it's a 
  copy of an article that you thought might help them.  It can even be a 
  good question you share with them that gets them thinking about their 
  business in a different way  After a few such calls, your customer will 
  come to respect you and look forward to your calls, knowing that you're 
  not there just to work some agenda of yours, but rather he'll come to 
  expect to gain something from your sales calls.   You'll find it easier to 
  make appointments and get time with your customers when you've built 
  in them the expectation that the time spent with you will be well worth 
  the cost of it.   If you are guided by this principle of always bringing
  something of value, you'll recognize that there is another side to this coin.  
  If you have nothing to leave the customer that will be of value to that 
  customer, you probably shouldn't make the sales call.  Don't take his time.

• Be a resource.   One of my clients suggested that sales people need to
  be the "customer's search engine. "  I couldn't agree more.   Strive to be 
  the customer's most trusted and most knowledgeable resource, the 
  customer's source of information, not just about your product, but about 
  the whole category of things that you sell, their applications, and their 
  advantages and problems.   Share information that is bigger than just the 
  product or service that you sell. If you do, then your customer will
  look forward to your visits and view them as valuable.   
  
  I realize that this  is a change in thinking for a lot of sales reps. But it's a change that is coming, whether you want to make it or not.  Your choice is to be a leader and thus gain a significant edge over your competition, or to wait until the market 
  forces you to change.  The choice is yours.

  About Dave Kahle, The Growth Coach:   Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity.   Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He's the author of over 200 articles, a monthly e-zine, and three books.  The Six-Hat Salesperson, was recently released by AMACOM. You can join Dave's "Thinking About Sales Electronic Newsletter" at www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm                                              

                                              ExpertMagazine.com 2001

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