Chris is concerned about his sales team. They are active, they are selling, and sales are up but margins are way down. The business model allows reps to be flexible in the field and sell at the prices they feel appropriate. But something is missing, and Chris is unsure how to help his field reps get more margin. He doesn't want to kill the ability of his reps to set pricing in the field, but doesn't know what information they need in order to be better at the task.
Charlie had been working with a long-time client and just can’t believe why some meetings could really get under his skin. Charlie left angry with this client’s attitude towards him, the ability to waste time like it was nothing and at times complete disrespect for Charlie and his process. Yet, this client was important to Charlie’s success each year and he was unable to fire them. He opened his stamp book and added a nice bright red anger stamp on this client’s page after the last meeting he had.
Recently Charlie and I were talking about work I was doing with interviews for a client. As I was reviewing profiles and setting up my standard interview questions, he suggested a list of questions that I must ask all candidates. I had a few on my list already but this one is one I never would have thought to ask, but it surely is something everyone can relate to.
Elizabeth had just gotten the call every sales person hopes for each day. A target account in her territory reached out and asked that she come right away to help them with a big problem. Knowing her technical expertise could be very valuable in this situation, Elizabeth felt sure that winning the project was just a matter of not making a fatal mistake. Her competitive fires were stoked and her confidence at an all-time high as she made the appointment to be there three days later. Despite the repeated requests for her to drop everything else she had going, Elizabeth held firm and kept the date she asked for at the outset of the conversation. She had seen this movie before so this time she was determined to keep her emotions under control and the prospect on a leash instead of rushing head long into another disappointment.
Mary was on one of her first sales calls as a new rep and the prospect, with his first question, invited her straight onto the Buyers Bus: "Tell me about your company and what you do". As is typical, she proceeded to talk about the long and successful history of her company, then described the numerous accounts they had helped, and then went for a strong finish by stating how confident she was that her extensive line of products would find a good fit somewhere within the prospects business needs.
Cody knew that the firm he represented was considered best in class by the other major players in the market. As far as technical competency, customer service and the ability to deliver more than clients expected, Cody's firm always scored extremely high. With that ace to play whenever he needed to, he was sure that his new position as a Business Development Specialist would soon prove to be the road to riches. After his first 90 days Cody and his manager met to review his progress, and the picture was not pretty. Feeling the pressure to turn his fortune around quickly, he only felt more confused since so many of the people he had met with had openly said they were "interested" in his offerings. Why wasn't it working when all the stars seemed aligned?
After a long sales process finally appeared to be coming to a successful conclusion, Paul was breathing a sigh of relief until his client decided he wanted to extract some sweat from Paul for the win. Just when he thought it was over and done, the regional vice president chimed in with one last contract change that he claimed was a deal breaker if it wasn't accommodated. Once the shock and anger had subsided, Paul collected his thoughts and recalled his training that brought this exact situation up in a role play scenario. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me" was the sound echoing through his brain as Paul was sure not to be the fool another time.
