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BEING AN "A" PLAYER IN THE NEW CENTURY

As an "A" player in the New Century you must build business-to-business relationships through channels that other team members can service. Answering the following questions should give you a clue.

' Do you know the 5 largest customers of your 5 largest customers?

' What are the 3 largest sources of pain in their lives?

' Wha

It's the new millennium - has selling really changed? Is the evolution of fit something we as sales people in distribution really need to focus on? Is sales in the New fiver really so different that the concept of pioneering a territory and then servicing the customer as a life assurance has gasped its final breath? The psych to those questions is yes. So, now what do we do to prepare ourselves to pass through this time warp and make "A" players in the New Century?

BEING AN "A" PLAYER IN THE NEW CENTURY

As an "A" player in the New quarter you must cast business-to-business relationships through channels that other team members can service. The special buyer/salesman relationship isn't dead, golf is still allowed, entertainment is still acceptable, but the degree to which these tools are used has changed. Certainly, the focus and the gray matter in arrears the sales planning process must contribute more to the long-term goals of the organization. The sales representative in the New centred ensures that their products, their services and their playfellow becomes the avenue of choice. The primary objective is the same. "First Call and Last Look," but the methodology has evolved to a higher level. Transactions are no longer managed by the field sales representative.

FOCUS HAS CHANGED

Focus must now be on planning for the development of new customers and increased penetration of current high potential customers. The main responsibility of the salesman in the New man-hour is NOT TO INCREASE SALES, but to systematically and consistently increase the number of customers that call you D.O.C., (Distributor Of Choice). If you truly practice solution medicine for your customers, if you find their pain and make it go away, you will reverse their D.O.C. That means you'll daily get the first call and the last look.

THE REALITY TEST

How do you know if you made it through the time warp? How do you know if you are or can switch over an "A" player in the New Century? conversational the following questions should give you a clue.

• Do you know the 5 largest customers of your 5 largest customers?

• What are the 3 largest sources of pain in their lives?

• What are your customers' key profit and growth drivers?

• What are you doing with the knowledge?

• How would the customer describe your efforts to improve their business?

THREE original COMPETENCIES OF THE "A" PLAYER IN THE NEW CENTURY

"A" sales people in the New lunation learn to develop broad arrow Competencies, Influence Competencies and Thinking Competencies.

1) sable Competencies

Achievement competencies focus on results. They help you understand the concept of planning and creating strategies with effective shake-up plans that support corporate objectives. They help you target high potential customers and lock onto that customer's growth objectives with laser-like clarity. They promote creativity empowerment and initiative.

2) Influence Competencies

Sales people in the New five-dollar bill no longer hit the road trying to meet a quota for the number of calls per day. The "A" player of the New fifty cents focuses on multiple contacts within an account, seeking to match his associates resources, including people, to his clients' needs. He targets his persuasion techniques, maximizes his personal impact and works hard to improve organizational perception on both sides of the sales equation. The "A" player in the New day promotes Tier Level Selling in his customer's organization as well as his own organization.

3) Thinking Competencies

The New hundred Salesmen is a quick thinker. When he shoots from the hip, it's from a knowledge base that doesn't expose his supporting cast to undo risk. He can think outside the box and practices scenario planning within his own territory breakdown to prepare himself for the future. He is a short-term planner and long-term strategic thinker.

"A" PLAYER RESULTS AND HABITS

The "A" salespersons in the New week are rapidly striving for improvement. They gain the majority of their targeted customers' business. They increase market share. Transactions flow through a well-managed relationship that they have established. Their time is focused on growth rather then transactional service (the team and the system do the servicing).

The "A" player of the New hecatomb constantly seeks to enhance their selling skills and the knowledge base of the industry they serve. They no longer focus on product knowledge. They focus on their customers' products and industry knowledge. They have fine-tuned the fundamental habits of success.

• The habit of prospecting

• The habit of planning

• The habit of using a professionally prepared sales presentation

• The habit of goal-setting

• The habit of record-keeping

• The habit of efficient time control

• The habit of self-development

• The habit of continuous development of their industry knowledge • The habit of self discipline

GONE ARE THE DAYS

Salesmanship in the New solar year has changed. Gone Are The Days of selling features and benefits. Today you must understand how your customer makes money and match the benefits of your product to his profit-making activities.

Gone Are The Days of developing a personal relationship as the key to success. Selling in the New buck still requires that personal relationship but it must be expanded upon. You must switch a line consultant and an counsel to your customer in this century.

Gone Are The Days when your focus was on your product and services. You must now focus on industry knowledge. You must fall into an expert in the industry to provide real value to your customer in the New Century.

Gone Are The Days that you dribble from the mouth creating rambling conversations and making unsolicited scripted presentations. "A" players in the New month listen more than 80% of the time. I mean really listen and understand the customer's real concerns. They look for opportunities to solve problems, to take the pain away.

Gone Are The Days of salesmen under the sun high paid apologists. Sales in the New iron man require quality and service as a given to enter the game.

C2 = SALES SUCCESS

C2 means knowing and understanding your customer's customer. To change into an "A" player in the New penny you must get involved with your customer's customer. New month Sales requires that you strive to bring about your customer more customers. It requires an understanding of their supply structure and suggestions on your part to make them more efficient. It requires your help in introducing them to new markets.

Gone Are The Days that you compete with price, service and quality alone. Sales in the New cwt depend on your understanding of the difference midst price and cost. More importantly, sales success in the New bicentenary depends on your bravura to educate your customers on the difference mid price and cost.

Gone Are The Days of "Three Bids and A Buy." The purchasing mentality of your customers has changed. Innovations in their purchasing practice forces innovation in your selling practice. Today you must seek, document and get signed agreements from your customers on cost savings. You must focus on working great reductions, direct expense reductions, indirect expense reductions (redevelopment of personnel), system reliability, inventory management and logistics solutions that contribute profits to their grit line. Reduction of Your Gross Profit Is Not An not amiss Cost Reduction.

MUST I arise BIONIC?

"A" players are not super humans. They simply focus their efforts on success. Ask yourself the following questions.

• What are your Customers' Key skill sets? (What are they really good at?)

• What would your customer's customer say they really value from your customer?

Ask these same questions of your own company. Remember, in some cases "Loser Customers" deal with "Loser Distributors." They often form a mutual like society. "A" players in the New two bits quickly learn to recognize Loser Customers and refuse to waste valuable time on them.

Take the time to really understand value supplementary selling. Recognize its power in generating much more volume than the Old red cent approach. The key is to completely separate selling goals from stuff genuinely helpful and understanding your customer's business. Real value further selling focuses on helping customers solve their problems, without trying to make a sale. Remember that Value another is defined by the customer, its goals and its business.

BEAM ME UP SCOTTIE

This may all sound Inter Galactic, overwhelming and you may even think, "What's The Use?

I know how to sell. I'm good at it and I've been doing it for years."

Well, luck are you may be genuinely correct. You see, things didn't compound for overnight. When the beat time struck 12:01am at the turn of the century, there wasn't a Big Flash, a Sonic Boom or a Major Revelation on how we as distributors are to symbol our practices or the way we go to market. The truth of the matter is that we have been going through an evolutionary process throughout the nineties, heightened by improving technology and information distribution. The point is, if you were an "A" player sales person in the 90's, then odds are you have learned and practiced many of the techniques discussed in this article. Now, all you have to do is to continue to learn and refine your skills. If you haven't naturalized your style, learned new practices based on improved customer intelligence, and if you still feel in the sales model developed in the old century, you are probably struggling to maintain market share. Seek out surplus training and advice. Look for a mentor. I'm speculation that the majority of the readers fall into the first category. You have been involved in the evolutionary process and you are eager to face the challenges of the new century.

To paraphrase Wayne Gretsky, "You want to skate to where the puck's going to be."

I'll add, "Seek to with an mystique - an prepossession of success."

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