If you think about Global sales across multiple genres, it’s possibly not quite as simple as you may initially imagine.
We often hear such immortal lines as
“This product sells itself” (no product does that)
“They are a born sales person” (no, at birth a baby is a baby)
“The toughest negotiator you’ll ever meet” (ok fine)
“The best sales person you’ll ever meet” (ok fine)
“This product is unique” (generally it isn’t)
So with that in mind, let’s look a little deeper into the sales process from a slightly different perspective. One very important thing to consider in the sales arena, is there are always 3 sides to a sale, hence the title of this article.
The Company Side
The Buyer Side
The Sales person side
Let’s take the Company side first,
They will always want to sell for the best (highest) possible price, ideally with zero discount and paid over the shortest possible time having spent the least amount of marketing $’s as possible to find their perfect client.
Their leverage is the brand and limited supply creating a demand which means the price stays high.
The Buyer side,
This client wants to buy for the best possible price (lowest) securing the biggest discount and also a long payment term, ideally interest free over maybe 5-10 years. Is quite happy to walk away if the offer doesn’t meet their expectations.
Their leverage is, it’s a buyers market, plenty of different options and they can go where the best deal is.
The Sales Person side,
This poor guy is really stuck in the middle of the other two, they have to protect the Company margin whilst satisfying the buyer demands, generate an urgency that may not exist, build a value that may also not exist, hold out for the highest price and the shortest possible payment term, while at the same term securing good enough discounts for the client to encourage them to buy now, all of this to satisfy the Company the Client.
Their leverage is their sales skills, and the motivation behind this, their own personal needs which could be any of these.
Commissions (they have bills to pay), to meet their quota or target (helps to keep their job, think of previous reason) to be the number one in their team (fuel their ego) or even just for the love of providing a great service to the client (thinking longer term for repeat business) also doing the best job for their Company (they are proud of the brand and want to maintain price integrity)
So as you can see the sales role isn’t always as simple as being great talker, or even a great closer, sometimes it’s about being the great filling in an otherwise tough and challenging sandwich.
At Vos we specialise at looking at all aspects of the sales process from variable angles, which enable us to come up with very creative solutions, really it’s about expanding your mind and being open to different methods, which as we know are not the most common of mentalities when companies are pushing to achieve sales targets and budgets.
Are you stuck with seeing the same problem every day, without a solution?
Let’s talk, kevin@vosconsultants.com