“ABE” The 21st Century Global Salesperson
March 15, 2008
There are best practices in sales that span geographies, cultures and time periods. Many of these are summed up by ABE, Attitudes, Behaviors and Execution.
Unfortunately, when a salesperson has been selling at one company, in one industry or in one geographic area their whole career, they develop provincial habits that don’t transfer well. For example, a joke about “The Sopranos” during a sales call may work in certain regions of America, but would be misunderstood or considered completely inappropriate by 99% of the world.
A difficult transition for salespeople occurs when they change from selling tangible products to selling services. The process of value creation is not all that different, but sales cycle times increase and closing ratios or buyer appointments may decrease. However, these humbling trends are justified by the increase in profit margin in service businesses v. product businesses. Below I’ve listed some tips to bring “ABE” into your organization.
Characteristics of Successful Salespeople in the 21st Century
- Formidable knowledge about industry and customers, not just your own product or service.
- Interest in life-long learning. When people stop learning they stop growing and complacency sets in. This doesn’t mean that you need to learn Mandarin or Flamenco Dancing. Find an area that genuinely interests you and then a way that it can also be useful in your career. It could be your motivator, outlet, counselor, etc…
- Effective profiling skills. Effective salespeople recognize buying habits and can equate potential buyers into categories quickly. Stereotyping is scoffed upon politically, but in business it’s called strategy.
- Basic knowledge of the world. Nothing is more insulting to a buyer than when you exhibit that you know nothing, nor want to learn about their country from geography to culture to history. Spend 5 minutes on the internet to get at least the location and leader of their country. Never lie about your extensive knowledge of the country, but imagine how you would feel if told that the Capitol of The United States is Caracas and the President is Tony Blair.
- Ask for referrals from your customers. This can only be done comfortably if you’ve delivered your service properly. Customers are usually quite willing to introduce you to their network as it builds their credibility when they introduce a superstar to others.
- “Incentivize” people to meet with you. Give them something from information to possible industry contacts. Always have something new for them in order to give them a reason to speak with you.
- Know your branding. Don’t act like John Wayne if you’re Woody Allen. Play off of your strengths, both perceived and hidden while limiting your weaknesses.
- Appropriate Vocabulary. Words such as, antediluvian, copasetic, extemporaneous, amalgamate, endemic, anomalous, etc… are appropriate when dealing with senior executives who are highly educated, but be sure that these are words that they understand so that you don’t embarrass them. However, don’t dumb it down to a point where you’re using phrases such as “Our product/service is really really really good.”
- Global Storytelling skills. Have a true, compelling story readily available. In a case where you don’t have an appropriate global story, use one of your mentor’s stories or one from training.
- Knowing when to walk away from a sale. There is nothing worse than keeping that client in your pipeline month after month along with counting them in your potential revenue stream when they haven’t said anything more than I like your product/service, but need to think it over. “ABE” uses a system that naturally eliminates this problem.