2022 Focus Area #1

Bring All your resources to the sale

As the Sales Professional,

You are the Quarterback of your company’s resources

Think about your own buying experiences.  Who would you rather do business with?  One single salesperson who only gives you their knowledge and skills? Or, a salesperson who brings a team of experts with her to the sale?   For me and every customer I have worked with, we prefer to work with a team of experts.  We prefer to work with a supplier who can bring us more products, more services, and more connections in the industry.

The lone ranger approach to selling is a tough way to go in today’s market. To be an expert in all facets of your business is just not practical.  The salesperson who can become the quarterback of resources for their customers will win over the solo salesperson.  When I say quarterback, I mean you have to be the one that initiates it, champions it, keeps it going when all others do not want it, explains to the customer how it works, etc.  The reason you have to do all this is because very few (none that I have found) companies have a policy or mandate or even encourages this behavior.  That is why it’s so powerful and such a differentiator to your customers.  One word of caution.  It’s not about getting others to do your job for you.  It is all about showing up as a strong team of experts in multiple areas of your business. 

This is one of the biggest struggles I see for salespeople in agribusiness.  Our customers and our facilities are spread out across large geographies.  So, it might not be easy to have someone on your team just stop in and meet with a customer.  However, the biggest struggle is that the salesperson just doesn’t think of doing it or they don’t take the time to learn who or what their resources are.  This is a big mistake.  Especially in the early years of your sales career.

Younger salespeople struggle with a credibility issue.  From that 20-30-year-old age range, producers can have doubts about your knowledge and abilities.  And the salesperson themselves can have self-doubt about their knowledge or expertise.  What better way to reinforce your customer’s confidence in you and build your own confidence than to bring in your resources? 

Listen into the podcast version for more explanation on the steps and benefits listed below.

4 Steps to becoming the quarterback of your resources

1. Go spend time with them.
2. Have them spend time with you
3. Discover the opportunities, limitations and impacts of your resources
4. Facilitate the implementation of those resources

5 benefits from bringing your resources

1. Your confidence goes up
2. Your fellow employee’s confidence goes up, which means higher engagement, higher retention, and improved customer satisfaction.
3. You bring more to your customers
4. Your customers feel more connected to you and your company, which means higher retention rate
5. Your personal brand grows in the eyes of your customer and your company

Related articles:

• Who’s in your corner

                  To learn who and how to use the internal company team

• Silos in Agribusiness

To learn more about how to tear down the barriers between departments

• I’m not in Sales

To help those people in your company understand that everything we do is designed to sell.  Which means everyone is in sales.

• Crosstrain the empathy-less Salesperson

This is for that salesperson that needs to learn how to be a better team player

If your team would like to explore the opportunity of holding a workshop, give me a call and let’s have a discussion on it.        

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