The last few years has seen me move from the front line to helping people out in advisory positions. It’s understanding what they are going through and walking them through the process of seeing the world through their customers eyes. This requires a little bit of art and a little bit of science, and there is no better way to learn this than from somebody who has done it before, someone who has been teaching these processes.

To get something done in an organisation is a bureaucracy and from my perspective sometimes this bureaucracy doesn’t make sense and is counter intuitive. And when you try to attach logic to it, you only get even more frustrated. You have to understand how each person on the value chain gets rewarded and what they need to see. You have to provide them with what they need even though in some cases it does not make any sense to us.

I think the process of teaching salespersons how companies buy is a necessity as what they initially need to show buyers is not a demonstration, presentation or proposal. It’s the understanding of what the buyer cares about, it’s about building “know, like and trust” relationships. Don’t waste your time with cold pitches! Learn how to make personalised, relevant pitches if you want to be a top salesperson. Learn how to warm-up the buyer to start a business conversation. Learn how to build this conversation into a meeting. Learn how speak to buyers about their needs and what they care about, the problems they face and how you can help them.

Usually these processes take a little bit of reprogramming! Learning not to speak about yourself or the features and functions of your products. For organisational guidance and personal mentoring, contact me via e-mail.