Transaction or Investment

Bob Schultek Author of The Gauntlet When a customer requests a proposal, how do you respond? If you propose a solution that merely resolves the stated problem, then you may relieve the customer’s immediate pain without ever discovering how your solution could help the customer succeed in the longer term. Your solution is a transaction, a one-time resolution that wastes an opportunity to reveal your organization’s broad experience and competency in a way that differentiates you in the …

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4-Part Sales Discovery Motivates Action

The most critical part of any sales process is Discovery – seeking to uncover a prospect’s needs and goals.  Prospects become customers once they confirm that you have heard their story, can meet their goals as well as their needs, and could actually exceed their expectations. Productive sales Discovery does much more than uncovering a prospect’s needs and goals.  It: Encourages prospects to do the talking; Provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate empathy; Enables …

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Are You A Partner Or Peddler?

Successful sales people see themselves as problem-solving business partners rather than peddlers. Building enduring customer relationships is their objective, not selling without knowing how customers will benefit. Sales people who seek to be problem-solving business partners first learn what makes their company distinctive in the marketplace and how their unique offering makes money for their company. Then, they leverage this knowledge to produce quantifiable value for their customers. A customer’s current process is their competition. …

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