In this issue, we talk about how prospects should show respect during the sales cycle. I look forward to your comments.

 
 Rick Erling
(972) 727-6880
 

Which Method Do You Use During New Sales Cycles -- Customer Centric Selling or Customer Service Centric Selling?

 by Paul DiModica

Understanding how to handle new prospect opportunities is often incorrectly assessed. Often marketing departments, salespeople and management teams believe they must treat prospects the way they treat existing customers by implementing all prospect pre-sale requests, demands, and expectations made during the sales cycle.

This is wrong. Are you a slave to your prospects?

Do not confuse Customer Service Centric Selling responses with Prospect Centric Selling.

• How often have you been asked to do just one more demo?
• How often have you been asked to do one more webinar?
• Do you do whatever your key or targeted account asks you to do over and over again?
• How often have you submitted a Request for Proposal (RFP) and did not hear back from the prospect?
• How often have you been asked to drop your IT or service pricing one more time to make sure you were "competitive" and then the prospect didn't buy from you?

Doesn't your offering having value? As an salesperson, don't you have value? Does your company have enough business value to prevent you from being treated like a commodity? Are prospects (or existing customers) as loyal as they should be?

Do you think you have to do whatever the prospect asks to do to get the sale? Don't treat prospects like customers. They are not the same. Yes, you need to get them to "see" your value, but prospects have a professional responsibility to you as a salesperson. It is not fair that you should expect your prospect to respect your time and your company's commitment of resources to help them see your offering's three dimensional value?

5 Reasons Why Experienced Salespeople Don't Use
Prospect Centric Selling Actions

1. When your sales pipeline is small, you do whatever your prospect asks you to do because you have no other choice.
2. Sometimes salespeople are affected by the "The Rainbow" effect. This happens when salespeople project their needs onto the buyer (need to sell a key account, need to hit their sales quota, etc.).
3. The salesperson has too little control on the prospect account, usually preempted by starting with a prospect that is too low in the organizational chart.
4. The salesperson does not believe in their company's value. If you don't believe in it, why would your prospect respect you?
5. Salespeople actually believe (or have been incorrectly trained) that they must do whatever the prospect asks them to do to get the sale. This shows a lack personal sales confidence.

So what is prospect centric selling approach?

Prospect centric selling is a transactional selling process where you force prospects to take action steps with you during the sales cycle so they prove to you they are qualified buyers and that you should keep working with them (see sales training). Remember, existing customers and prospects are not always loyal so you need to strike a balance between respecting the prospect's discovery needs and respecting yourself and the amount of time you have to share with the prospect.

To sell more, stop acting like a commodity.
Be respectful of prospects but also expect respect.

I welcome your comments.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their companies' success and revenue, within a constricted economy by investing in business growth acceleration strategies. For more on increasing your revenue capture effectiveness, subscribe to my Email Newsletter, follow me on Twitter, connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on Facebook. If I can help you or your firms revenue growth acceleration strategies, check out my coaching and consulting firm, Business Growth U.S., The CxO Group company, email me, or call me at (972) 727-6880.