Schizophrenic Sales Skills
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I was in a sales training class recently and sitting next to me was the Purchasing Director for a Fortune 1000 company. After a couple of days of polite conversations with him I finally had to ask, “What the heck are you doing in a sales skills seminar where we’re learning how to sell to people like you?” His answer got my attention. “My department is responsible for purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products and services from salespeople. We are constantly negotiating contracts, terms, etc. as part of this
process. Doesn’t it make sense for my department to understand how salespeople sell? Every sales tip I learn here can be used to our advantage in purchasing.”
“What the heck are you doing in a sales skills seminar…?”
The lesson is obvious isn’t it? Doesn’t it make sense that we might benefit by learning more about how purchasing departments work? We could benefit by knowing how they view us, what they look for and generally how purchasers purchase.
In 600 BC Sun Tzu wrote in his well-known military strategy book The Art of War that “We must know our enemy.” While I don’t view Purchasing Managers and their kind to be enemies, they can certainly cause conflict in our attempts to sell. We might be smart to listen to Sun Tzu and turn his military advice into sales tips by getting trained on how to navigate our way through purchasing departments.
There is no shortage of places we might go to find this training. Click here for a resource list.
Related links: Tips for Sales: Don’t take this customer bait., Customer Negotiation 101
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Tags: negotiation, sales-training
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July 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Take a look at one of the first posts on my blog. It was a while ago, but I share about Sun Tzu as well. What we as teachers should teach is how to align with the buying/purchasing process. Imagine if this man came to one of my trainings and heard me tell the audience to pay attention to buyers needs, listen to them and align to their goals. Probably walk away, in I don’t know, a good mood? I want to be the next sakes guy to call him.