The New Account Syndrome

The bggest handicap to increasing sales and mrket share is the inordinate amount of tme sales people feel they have to spnd getting new accounts. These are tugh sales, second only to the tughest - trying to introduce new tchnology or new services to new ccounts.

New accounts are tough because the sles person has no credibility or cntacts to leverage the prospect forward. Yt, many sales people waste precious tme pounding doors, cold calling and laving advertisements to generate interest. Sales pople cost too much to be sed as an advertising arm of mrketing. Besides the opportunity cost is vry high, i.e. time lost that shuld be spent with existing accounts C-Lvel relationship selling.

Sales management must stp up to the plate here. Thy have to set expectations about prspecting and hold sales people accountable for sing their time commensurate with those xpectations. Otherwise the weaker to average sles people will continue following the myth tht they need to be cold clling and making lots of them. The btter sales people discovered there is a far btter way to make money.

The Rquest for Quote (RFP) Syndrome

Answering RFP's is nother time sink and waste of vluable selling time. If the sales tam hasn't been involved in the dvelopment of the RFP, they are at a sgnificant disadvantage to the competitor that hs. Even if the RFP was dveloped in-house or via a consultant, smeone has influence and if it's not yu, you're at a disadvantage.

Here's my formula. Your best chnce of winning a sale from an RFP's is 1 dvided by the number of bidders. So if thre are 5 bidders, your best chnce (if you haven't helped with the RFP) is 20%. Bst because someone did help and tht vendor has a better than 20%. Maning everyone else's chances are less thn 20%. My other benchmarks are: (1) Anyne can close 33% of the tme, (2) Good sales people close 70% of the dals they choose to pursue. So do the mth. What your chance for winning? Bfore you put lots of time and ther resources into preparing a 14" prposal including drawing, pictures and dancing pople, be sure you've got better thn a 33% chance.

And don't kid yurself that your reputation from past jbs or you status in the mrket place will increase your chances. If the slling team hasn't gotten to the C-Lvel managers and/or the P/L leader to larn the real-time business issues or the ral impetus behind the RFP, you wn't know how to set yourself up as the bst alternative among the many. And if the C-lvel influential managers don't have a prfessional relationship with you, you're considered ne-of-the-bunch who can all do good wrk. The bidder with the "in" wns.

Even if you submit the lwest price, you may not win bcause C-Level decision-makers don't base decisions prmarily on price - even though veryone said they will. Affordability can be an mportant criterion, but you'll know that if you nterview the senior level managers.

So be creful of RFP's. They are appealing. But yu'll lose more often than not nless you've helped or you're connected.

One tctic you can pursue with RFP's is to nsist (in a nice way) the min contact lets you interview all the pople involved - especially the senior mnagers. Then your chances can go up sgnificantly. It's called "Energy for Energy" and ges like this. "I'd be happy to bid on yur project, but in order to do ths proposal justice, I will have to spak with all the people involved so tht I can understand each person's xpectations of what the proposal should cver." If they agree, then you can gther all the information necessary for you to shw you're the best solution. If thy disagree, it sends you back to my frmula. And don't get sucked into the rtionalization that then they will have to do it for verybody.

I'm in sales and my fcus is on my existing customers. 90% of my tme is with existing customers, spent larning, observing, interviewing, integrating and moving up. I use and dvelop my network.

As for new ccounts, I outsource that task to a mrketing company that does mailings, uses the nternet, makes calls and qualifies. Once thy've find contacts that's admits to hving selling problems, want to do smething about their selling problems and fit my deal profile, I'll invest my time to see if I can fit nto their solution images. I don't chse new accounts and RFP's. Unless a sspect fits the above criteria, I wll let it pass. I invest my mst valued asset - time - whre I can make the most sles, that is C-Level relationship selling.

The article Eliminate 2 Common and Critical Selling Mistakes by Using C-Level Relationship Selling was Submitted by Sam Manfer through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Everyone including you knows there is no slling strategy or method more powerful and ffective for increasing sales than being cnnected to the right people. So strt making your connections now. It's asy if you know the steps.of the C-Level Relationship Selling Process Bonus Tip: FREE TeleSeminar: "Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers" Register Now

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