September 28, 2006
Johnny's tools
Finally the smartest thing Johnny said to me was he “wanted to develop a set of sales tools that would capture information, assess value and present solutions --and then package them to use in a successful, repeatable sales process.� I guess there is hope for him. He really needs to enlist marketing to help him. I reminded Johnny how important it is to use sales tools for what they were designed to do. Sales tools will help drive a sales process – write that down Johnny!
Speaking of sales tools –I am a huge fan of www.justsell.com - I love these guys, they provide us with what my friend Jill Konrath calls “triggering events.� In case you don’t know what that means, it is basically an event that occurs in a company that can spawn interest in your products and services. For example, an IPO, or infusion of VC are pretty good triggering events. So check them out, it is a great web site. Speaking of great web sites, you may want to check out the resource guide on www.whyjohnnycantsell.com. The resource guide breaks down sales tools by books, CRM tools, ROI tools, Proposal tools, Research tools and a whole bunch more.
Posted by Michael Nick at September 28, 2006 3:48 PM | TrackBackSales professionals need an arsenal of sales tools in today’s competitive environment. They need sales tools for information gathering, corresponding with prospects, calculating ROI, presenting to a buying committee, and proposing a multi-million dollar deal to a board of directors. Some organizations expect that their sales professionals are masters of the skills and disciplines needed to create these tools. Keep in mind some of these sales tools are also represent the first client deliverables from the seller to the prospective buyer.
The reality is even the best sales professionals may struggle with the using the correct grammar or have difficulty formatting a basic letter. That’s why it’s management responsibility to equip its sales force with custom sales tools that are fully integrated into a custom sales methodology. It always amazes me to see a company spend tens of thousands of dollars on a Web site or branding campaign while its sales professionals deliver four page proposals that are poorly written, formatted, and packaged—.seems illogical and inconsistent.