Conrey is for Closers

Salesmen often get caught up in processes, CRMs, lead services, or other noise which distracts them from where they should really start and finish each day.  You start with the customer and work backwards from there.

Without a customer there is nothing else to do.  You don’t have any data to fill into your CRM, you don’t have a lead to work, you don’t have a process to follow.

Without a customer you are shooting blindly into the dark and hoping someone hears your marketing pleas.

With a customer you can start to build a relationship, you can talk to them about their needs and how you can meet them.  You can start to find solutions for them, and offer things that make their job easier.  You can find a way for you two to work together.

After all that is over, then and only then should you worry about processes or putting them into your CRM or talking to them about prices or warranties or contracts.

Start with the customer and work from there.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/basegreen

In negotiation the power is with the side that can walk away. If your client needs your solution, can’t live without it, and you know it – then you know that you have that deal won. If the roles are reversed and they know that you need the sale then it is a lot more work for you. As with many things in sales this often is as much a perception issue as it is a reality.

Your job is to make them feel like you can walk away without their business and be ok, but if they walk away from you then they’re potentially in serious danger. You have to convince yourself that you can walk away from this deal if you had to – and then actually do it when the deal is unfavorable. Buyers can smell a desperate salesman – and they’ll use that to their advantage as soon as they can. This is why a good number of people wait until the end of the month or the end of the year to buy a car – they know that there are plenty of salesman who need to hit a quota or a bonus level.

Don’t show desperation, show that you can walk away if you have to and that they shouldn’t even think about walking away.  You’ll win more negotiations and at a higher number than before.

Last wednesday I presented at Developer Ignite 2 courtesy of the Intel software folks. Yes I’m still not a developer, but I do address why I’m presenting during the video. If you didn’t see this live, watch the video first – my comments will be below.

So the first thing, I didn’t practice this hardly at all. That’s a huge fail on my part and something I became more and more embarrassed about as the presentation went on. I trusted too much in my ability to wing it on next to no notice. It showed and for that I apologize to all who witnessed it live.

Secondly, there were some great presentations that night, you should all check out Clayton’s, Drew’s, Leo’s, Remi’s, and the rest of them if you can.

Thirdly, every person whose job touches anything to do with sales should take the opportunity to speak in front of people as much as possible. Sales is the ultimate presentation format, if you can talk in front of 500 people you can talk in front of one, no matter how hostile.

Lastly, having Leo bust my chops in his presentation before mine helped loosen me up and really have fun. Remember this is as much about sharing a passion and having fun with it as it is about presentation.