Salespeople as Businesspeople #2 - By Brent Patmos

The next 21 blog posts will deal specifically with the behaviors, strategies and skill sets that lead to salespeople thinking as businesspeople and achieving advanced levels of sales performance.

Competency #2 - Problem Analysis: The salesperson as businessperson breaks down problems into individual parts and differentiates key sales elements from the irrelevant and trivial. They make accurate use of sales strategy and logic. They draw reference from information obtained by asking "why". This allows them to go beyond the obvious answers and get to the root cause of the problem.

Salespeople as Businesspeople #1 - By Brent Patmos

A salesperson with the competency of a businessperson reflects individual attributes and abilities that can establish a distinct competitive and sales advantage in the marketplace. This means more money to the salesperson and more sales and profit to their company. The next 22 blog posts will deal specifically with the behaviors, strategies and skill sets that lead to salespeople thinking as businesspeople and achieving advanced levels of sales performance.

Competency #1 - Strategic Thinking & Analysis: As a businessperson, the salesperson uses a wide range of information and sources to assimilate quantitative financial, economic, product, market and technical information. The salesperson as businessperson identifies issues and opportunities to improve customer profitability and competitiveness in their industry and in turn impacts results for themselves and their company.

Monitoring Sales Health - By Brent Patmos

When a message comes in threes I've learned to pay attention. That means that it's time for a comprehensive physical.

If you're like me, you may find it difficult to slow down long enough to get a physical or see the doctor on a regular basis. As a salesperson, properly monitoring and maintaining your health means you can continue to advance your sales results. A failure to do so means that you put income generation at risk.

It's also a good time to conduct a check-up on your sales territory and assess the health of your customer base. Properly monitoring and maintaining the health of your customer base means you can continue to advance sales results. A failure to do so means that you put income generation at risk. Review the following elements of customer health on a regular basis:

1. Volume of the account
2. Margin being made from the account
3. Depth of relationship
4. Strategic contribution
5. Purchase history

Bad Sales Seminars and " Bad Opportunities" - By Brent Patmos

The Wall Street Journal published an article earlier this week detailing what happens when good people, with great ideas and great reputations connect with people and companies that are looking to make a buck.

A very high profile idea creator, author and financial "guru" had worked (licensed) with a " sales training company" to certify individuals in the delivery and administration of his processes and methods. This is a common practice for individuals looking to franchise or distribute their intellectual property be it sales or other content.

Unfortunately for him, the "training company" is now under investigation for mis-representation, false statements of guarantees and numerous other offenses. The WSJ Article specifically said that the investigation centered on the company licensed to administer and not on the individual, but damage has certainly been done in both cases.

Selling product and other offerings is an accepted practice throughout the sales seminar industry. This is the way that participants can take the ideas and insights they learned away with them for future use and reference.

The best individuals and companies conducting/associated with seminars (sales or otherwise) make the purchase of product offerings an appropriate option at the participant's choosing. These highly credible and reputable providers don't make false, unsubstantiated or enlarged statements of expected return or results.

Beware of bad sales opportunities! There's something wrong when you're attending a seminar for free, or a nominal fee, and then the pitch comes to buy the entire "guarantee your success program" for some outrageous amount of money at the back of the room.

Some of the most significant and relevant seminars being offered charge the most money at registration. The reason; serious attendees will recognize the value and potential return of the content and are willing to pay for it. All of the support materials and product offerings are included because the creator knows that the real key to success comes in the application of the content for which the participant has paid.

Selling as a Team Sport - By Brent Patmos

If selling is a team sport then why are the indivdiual efforts of salespeople rewarded most often? Because the only person that believes selling is a team sport may be the sales manager or vice president of sales when they are rewarded for team performance and team results.

This is exactly as it should be. The belief that sales is a team sport is a delusion created by a company's overreaching desire to somehow make indivdiualism less offensive and arrogant. There are significant benefits in working with a sales team; idea sharing, resource pooling, networking and moral support to name a few. The best salespeople, those that have a clearly defined sales process, produce results, consistently develop great customer relationships and have a great attitude, possess an indivdiualism that should be relentlessly rewarded and should exist independently of any other salesperson on their "team."