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Train with the Sales Dodo: Don't Fall in the Vendor Trap
February 27, 2008
There is no bigger insult to a sales person than being called a "vendor." Are you the reason why prospects see you that way? Learn how to migrate your clients' perceptions of you from a vendor to a partner.
By Lee B. Salz
So, it's been another round of price squeezing. Very painful! They want it cheaper and your company has tasked you with protecting margin. To make matters worse, the prospect called you one of the worst things possible…a vendor! At this point, you have probably decided that sales really isn’t fun. There is hope! You can change the entire playing field by changing your style, your approach, and your game.
Let's look at two restaurants—McDonald's and Morton's. You go to McDonald's because you are hungry and the question asked of every order is, "would you like fries with that?" (Apparently, fries go with everything). You go to Morton's because you want a dining experience—the wait staff makes initial recommendations, listens to the diner's prefernces and the end result is a stellar meal. While both are successful restaurants, this is a metaphor for the vendor/partner relationship.
Vendors vs. Partners
I suspect that this isn't overly revolutionary for you, but let's contrast the vendor/partner relationship:
• Vendors provide data, take orders, are reactive and make sales.
• Partners interpret and analyze data, make recommendations based on their client’s wants, are proactive and practice matchmaking to form mutually beneficial relationships.
In the movie Wedding Crashers, true love is defined as the soul's recognition of its counterpoint in another. Wouldn't it be great if client relationships worked the same way? Well, they can and they do. When true business partnerships are formulated, both parties grow as a result. In essence, one plus one equals four. But how do you find a match?
It's all about the mindset. If you wake up each morning with the goal of selling something to someone, the likelihood that you will formulate a partnership is probably equal to or less than zero. Business partnerships come together by identifying the synergies between organizations resulting in strong benefit for both.
The mindset of a matchmaker is very different than that of the traditional salesperson. Matchmakers wake up each morning with the goal of finding common bonds with business associates. Think of Velcro: The tighter the bond between the two surfaces, the more difficult it is to separate them. Thus, the ideal business partnership is created.
Building Business Partnerships
What does it take to do this well?
First, you have to master your half of the equation: knowledge. You need to know every bit of what your company does and who the right audience is for it. You need to understand industry challenges and issues impacting your users. The best sales people are often viewed as industry experts because they have invested time to study and learn what is important to their clientele and mastered those elements. But most sales people never do this.
The second component is the ability to ask key questions of the potential business partner and synthesize the information. Launching questions into the air and failing to process the information is a common mistake. When preparing for the meeting, you should know what questions you will ask and the possible responses that you might hear. You can then prepare the appropriate direction for the conversation based on those responses.
As a salesperson, there are a number of things you can do to establish partnerships instead of vendor relationships. Here's a take-away to-do list to keep you and your team on track:
• Learn and understand your company's capabilities so you can clearly articulate them.
• Study the industry you are in. Become well-versed on the issues impacting users of your product or service.
• Ask global questions to understand the overall perspective and direction of the company, not just relative to your solution.
• Analyze your client's data. Ask questions of them and make recommendations based on responses.
• Focus on match-making, not selling.
Lee B. Salz is President of Sales Dodo, LLC, author of Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager and an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management. Lee is available for keynote speaking, business consulting and sales training. He can be reached via e-mail at lsalz@salesdodo.com, his website at www.salesdodo.com or by phone at 763.416.4321.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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