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The Sales Buzz Issue 165 - Obstacles to Sales Caused by an Outdated Selling Process
June 20, 2012
Hi,

In this week's Sales Training newsletter we look at why your sales process could be out of date...

Are obstacles to sales stopping your sales process and making it difficult to get in front of potential customers. Many sellers are finding that the way they have been selling for years is no longer working, find out why and what you can do about it...



Obstacles to Sales Caused by an Outdated Selling Process

This week we received the question below into the website. It raises an important point about an obstacle to sales that many sellers are now facing and we predict that it will become more of an issue in the future.

Think about it, the sales process you are currently using is probably the way you have been selling for many years.

Much of the sales training given to large organisations hasn’t changed for decades.

A few words may have been updated, and the language may have changed to take into account how manners and etiquette have moved on, but I bet the process has stayed very similar to what you started out with.

The process starts with how you prospect and make first contact with the potential customer and then get to meet and pitch to them.

It’s this first contact and appointment setting that many sales people are finding is out of date and no longer working.

We live in the age of communication and information and your prospects are used to many different forms of information communication. The Internet, email, text, hundreds of TV channels, mobile phones, and more, all communicating information and easily accessed.

It was only a matter of time before the old ways of contacting prospects with a single stream of communication lost its potency.

20 years ago I could make sales appointment calls and get through to decision makers without a gatekeeper closing me out. It was impolite to question a caller. The telephone was our primary method of communication and businesses and the public only received a few sales calls.

Now it’s different. Calls are screened, prospects and gatekeepers will stop you dead and question your reason for calling. The old sales technique of cold calling and trying to gain agreement to a sales meeting just doesn’t work anymore.


Read this question that was sent in by a working salesman and see a real example of why some sales techniques are out of date:

I work as a salesman for a commercial lighting company. Because I have relatively few customers I am knocking doors to businesses most of the time and it is frustrating!

The sale is a 2 call process. An appointment has to be made for a free energy assessment and then I return with a representative from the local utility to do a presentation.

I have 2 repeating situations:

Continue reading the question and see what answers have been offered...








I'm Stephen Craine from the website Sales-Training-Sales-Tips.com

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