Filed Wednesday, January 21. 2009
Everyone is a salesperson. If you can’t sell your ideas to your boss, you won’t get the budget to do projects. Very few universities have practical courses on how to buy and sell technology.
Most deal in conceptual theories and don’t focus on the pragmatic skill sets needed by the everyday manager and director of technology. For the most part, seminars taught by practitioners are more relevant and immediately applicable to the selling and procurement of equipment and services.
Based on practical experience, these are the top 12 pragmatic tips I’ve taught to students.
- Know your product or service cold.
- Know your market. What do they want and need?
- Know your competition. What are their weaknesses, strengths and resources?
- Know your company’s limitations. You can’t be everything to everyone. No one can.
- To keep in touch with reality, always study the total picture. This includes your competition, the marketplace and other outside factors.
- Deal fairly. Forget the hard sell or the quick fix.
- Stay away from price as a single-buying criteria (as a seller or a buyer). Sales are often emotional decisions. They’re not always financial ones.
- You might only have one chance to sell the customer. Do it right the first time.
- Gain integrity by knowing when to walk away from bad business.
- Support what you sell. You might uncover more opportunities and create add-on sales.
- Continue to learn new things and concepts. If you stop, you’d might as well retire. The market today is too dynamic for routine workers and those who cling to yesterday’s solutions.
- Big doesn’t equate to good. Small firms are often more attuned to special markets. Don’t discount the small firm and don’t necessarily hold the large firm as the best.
Do You Believe?
You have to believe in what you’re selling. If you don’t believe in it, why should the customer or your boss?
If you’re selling an idea or project that needs approval and funding, those who sign off on the budget have to be sold. Sales expertise is not learned in a three hour seminar or by reading a book. Like anything else, it takes time and practice to become proficient. Learn from your mistakes as well as from the person before and after you.
Carlinism: Buying and selling technology in today’s environment takes skills that many “order takers” don’t possess.
Not modified