Sales / Sales Management

Professional Selling Skills: A fundamental now more essential than ever

August 23, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

In 16 BIE (Before Internet Era), business purchases were made by decision-makers who needed to buy stuff for their operations, and they almost always needed help with technical questions, innovations, pricing, availability, delivery, etc.

That year, a/k/a, 1977, every business buyer went to work expecting salespeople to call on them, unscheduled. To a prospect, a “cold call” was not optimum but usually was tolerated. Yes, in those days, you could walk into a business where you were previously unknown and leave with a sale. For current customers, dropping in was expected as good service. Remember, this was BIE, when a salesperson was the equivalent of a website.

As beautifully as this dance by motivated parties worked – one needed information and the other provided it – salespeople were still trained to conduct business with what Xerox (where I worked in 1977) called Professional Selling Skills (PSS). There were three key components to PSS: overcoming objections, closing skills, and probing. [Continue Reading]

The Gold-Mining Tool of Professional Salespeople

July 19, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

What follows is a story about the most powerful tool in sales.

A few decades ago, a 27-year-old, shiny, new copier sales representative was minted by Xerox Corporation. Already a sales veteran, it wasn’t his first rodeo. Indeed, he worked his way through college selling on commission.

Commissioned salespeople, like entrepreneurs, work the marketplace high wire. Observing this act, a salaried employee once remarked that selling on commission was “living by your wits.” In the vernacular, business-to-business sales professionals know and accept that “you eat what you kill.” [Continue Reading]

Stardate 10920: The Force is with the customer

June 14, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

– Earth, Stardate 8511 (The Age of the Seller)

Once upon a time, in a galaxy that today must seem far, far away, sellers controlled all information about their products, services, and innovations. Consequently, customers learned what they needed to know from salespeople, who traveled far and wide dispensing information to, and collecting sales from, grateful and beholden customers.

If one had observed such a meeting, the customer would have nodded his head in wonderment as the salesperson revealed the virtual magic that was his product.

And in this land, the Force – control and availability of information – was with the seller.

– Earth, Stardate 10920 (The Age of the Customer) [Continue Reading]

Why you should have a close – and profitable – relationship with failure

June 7, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

In my reading over the years, I’ve consistently been drawn to autobiographies of people who took great risks and found greater success. Of course, you can’t go wrong reading about the great intellects and leaders like Washington, Lincoln, Churchill, etc. But my favorite autobiographies have been those who are/were alive during my life because I could identify with the issues they were up against.

Contemplating why I’ve been drawn to this genre, eventually I realized it wasn’t because I was in awe of their celebrity, riches, or other success markers. It was because in every honest autobiography there is a heaping helping of examples of how that person failed. Modern failures. [Continue Reading]

Storytelling Gave Birth To The Marketplace

January 24, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Cogito ergo sum. French philosopher Rene Descartes proposed this idea in 1637, which translates to “I think, therefore I am.” Certainly, the power of abstract thought is what separates humans from other animals.

Anthropologists now believe Homo sapiens succeeded, unlike other members of the genus Homo, Neanderthals, and Cro-Magnon for example, because their (our) brains had a greater capacity for speech and language. Today Descartes might modify his philosophy to “I think and speak, therefore I am.”

In Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith proposed the written word as one of the three great human inventions; the other two are money and mathematics. But long before humans were writing we were telling stories. And these stories – told, memorized, and retold over millennia – became the headwaters of human development. And here in the third decade of the 21st century, humans still love to tell stories almost as much as we love to listen to them.

Another thing that’s older than writing is the marketplace. Long before Madison Avenue ad copy, merchants were verbalizing the value and benefits of their wares. Clearly, early business storytelling was the origin of modern selling skills. [Continue Reading]

The “Customer? What Customer Syndrome?” Part II

January 17, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

Last week you were introduced to a dangerous trend in the marketplace, which I’ve named the “Customer? What Customer? Syndrome,” or CWCS. This condition is found in companies that are more concerned with competitors than with customers.

You learned that Level One CWCS infects employees who have received little or no training about the direct link between customers and their employer’s success and, therefore, their paychecks. Level One is dangerous but not hopeless because those so afflicted can be cured with better hiring and training.

Now let’s talk about Level Two CWCS, which only afflicts managers. Level Two is more troubling and organizationally more devastating because it occurs at the top, where strategic decisions are made. [Continue Reading]