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Article Title: Stop Being So Nice... It's Not What Prospects Are Looking For
Author of Article: Jill Konrath
My Thoughts: Dear Jill, I don't dispute the fact that prospects have more than enough friendly salesmen to deal with and would have better use for someone who can prove how their product/service will increase the prospect's business, but the truth of sales is the right place at the right time. I've been a real salesperson for 5 years now selling uniforms, copy machines, and now sales leads. I know what I'm talking about, I'm the guy that makes 50 calls a day, I'm the guy that knocks on doors, I'm the one in the trenches who is actually talking to people. I'm not the Sales Manager or CEO who claims they've been doing this for 15 years and nothing has changed, even though they've lost touch with the streets years many years ago. The key to being a good salesman is persistence and luck. You have to be persistent enough to keep getting in front of the same people time and time again until you're lucky enough to catch them at a moment when they're finally willing to buy. I consider myself a no-pressure friendly salesman, but I've tried it all though for thousands and thousands of potential prospects. I agree being the informative consultant would work better than the friendly salesman more often than not, but there is no real method to this business. The new NICE as described in this article can be misinterpreted many ways as too pushy or thinking you're smarter than the prospect because you figured out a few things about their business and how your service will make improvements for them. I've layed out logical plans on how my product would significantly increase businesses to a countless number of prospects and it's the same role of the dice. Sales is scary because its unpredictable, the idea of not knowing what business is going to close for the month frightens management so they come up with all these methods and formulas like this article has. Sure the article's method makes sense, but its not an answer. There is no answer to this business. Why do you think sales managers change every 6 months for most companies?
My Name: James Zeiss
My Title & Firm Name: Account Executive, FindWhitePapers, Inc.