When a company begins to master the Action Selling system, a series of discoveries occur. The sequence is predictable:
- The company discovers that it can dramatically improve sales interactions with its customers.
- The customers discover that they prefer to deal with salespeople who use this more effective approach, and sales improve.
- The company’s suppliers begin to recognize the change that has taken place—partly because they can count the new dollars, but especially when they make joint sales calls with the company’s reps.
- The company’s competitors begin to feel the change in their market share and bottom line.
That third discovery, by the suppliers, sometimes leads to an initiative to ensure that everybody in the sales channel starts to operate from the same playbook. That’s when things get really interesting. Because joint sales calls turn into genuinely professional operations.
From Amateur to Pro
Joint sales calls with suppliers often come across as amateur-night productions, with the sellers either stepping on each other`s toes or preoccupied with trying not to. The dynamic changes when the Action Selling system is extended to suppliers and channel partners. Why? Because then everybody knows how professionals sell.
Seller and supplier both know that great sales calls are built upon great questions, not slick pitches. They know how calls should be structured—the order in which things should happen—and why. They know how to keep the emphasis on value, not price. They know the difference between merely “satisfying” a customer and creating a genuinely loyal one. They know how to enlist customers as coaches who guide them through organizational complexity to the most effective sales strategy. And they can communicate very effectively about all this, because they speak the same language.
What do you get when salespeople and their suppliers are Action Selling professionals? You get a supercharged sales channel.
Action Selling In Action
How much difference do suppliers notice when they see Action Selling-trained salespeople in action? A lot, according to Steven Banas, regional manager for industrial-adhesives manufacturer Henkel Loctite Corp.
Here are Banas` observations about sales reps for distributor Hagemeyer North America, an Action Selling client:
“Recently, I made joint calls with three Hagemeyer salespeople. I was very impressed with their quality and skill level. No `milk run` sales calls here; they were all well-planned and specifically designed to drive new projects to closure. What I saw motivated me to contact Hagemeyer`s regional vice president, Steve Pace, to discuss how we can work more closely together to drive sales activities between our teams.”
Contact us and let’s discuss what real professionalism looks like.