Successful Selling –

Salespeople are the most powerful people in the entire world.

They’re the only group of business men and women who get to decide, not only the kind of company they want to work for but, more importantly, how successful their company becomes.

In addition, the unemployment rate for sellers who can perform is zero  because every single company in business is looking for a top salesperson.

Now, that’s power.

Salespeople have more control over their company’s future than anyone else.  They  determine the income level and profitability of the business by what they sell and how much they sell.  Show me another profession where the achievement of annual budgets, company strategies, and marketing programs  depend on such a small group of people.

Once again, that is the power really good salespeople acquire once they are hired by a company.  Too few salespeople realize the power they possess or, if they do, they are unable to use it for its intended purpose—keeping your company healthy.

Unfortunately, however,  the future of many  companies does not lie in the hands of their sales reps.  Instead, their success lies in the hands of  customers who have taken the power from  the seller.

Customers decide when they want to order, what they want to order, and how much they are willing to pay.  Those are all key decisions sales reps should be making for customers.

Customers are not supposed to determine a company’s success, sales reps are.

What Farmers Really Want

Farmers really have one thing on their minds and that is putting companies like yours out of business. Oh, they don’t do it intentionally;  it’s just part of their nature to hound suppliers into lowering their asking price.

My father farmed for 55 years and was one of the most honest, church-going people you’d ever want to meet.  But put a salesperson in front of him, talking about the price of his product, and it was not a pretty site…at least not for the salesperson and his company’s bottom line.

The sales rep would relinquish all his power the moment my dad said, “Your price is too high.”  That meant lowering the price far enough until my father got what he wanted.  It didn’t seem to matter to the sales rep what his company’s costs were and my dad sure didn’t care, so he got his way.

Farmers DO want to buy from reputable companies.  Farmers DO want to buy from stable companies, and they DO want to buy from companies who can provide them with everything they need and want in terms of quality products and quality services.

Nevertheless, if you don’t know how to use your power or how to sell your company’s values properly, customers are the ones who have both the power and control over your sales territory and the ultimate success of your business.

Many sales reps don’t believe they hold the key to their company’s profitability.  They have yet to figure out that they determine whether or not their company’s programs and strategies work.

After all, that’s a lot of responsibility—a  tremendous amount of power—the kind of power no one else in the world possesses.

What kind of company do you  represent?  One that allows customers to determine your future and the future of your company?  Or one that has a stable, long-term future based on the power you continue to possess as a sales rep?

You decide.  The power is in YOUR hands.

Happy Selling,

Rod