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Daily Sales Tip: Soar Like An Eagle

Sales professionals fall into two classifications: eagles and journeymen.

The majority of sales organizations are composed of journeymen who rely on their knowledge of the company and its offerings in sales calls. Journeymen are most comfortable talking about their company's capabilities. They make lots of statements about their capabilities, in hopes that something will resonate with the buyer. In general, journeymen see their job as a facilitator of transactions between their company and its customers.

While representing less than 20% of most sales teams, eagles produce the bulk of sales revenues; in some cases, more than 80%. What makes eagles so much more effective than journeymen? Eagles focus on the customer and their business issues and have intelligent conversations about their customers' challenges. In general, eagles see their job as capturing pertinent customer information, diagnosing customer issues, and then prescribing the most suitable solutions.

Customers view journeymen as sales agents or vendors only. However, they view eagles as consultants, because they provide value in every meeting. Customers will buy from journeymen if required, but in general, they buy a lot more from eagles -- as much as four times more. And they like buying from them.

Source: Sales trainer/marketing consultant Michael J. Nick (www.roi4sales.com)

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