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by: Dave Fellman

The guys I play basketball with call me “Old School.” I think that has more to do with my age than my playing style, but I consider it a compliment nonetheless. And the fact of the matter is that my game is a lot more fundamentals than flash.

An attendee at a recent seminar called me a dinosaur. “I came here looking to find some new ideas,” he said. “You didn’t teach me anything about selling comprehensive solutions at the C-Level in the digital arena, just the same old ‘prospect-and-follow-up-and-ask-good-questions’ crap I’ve been hearing from my boss. Dinosaurs are extinct, man, and you’re not helping me any by telling me to sell like one.”

In case you’re interested, this guy was sent to my seminar because he’s at 60 percent of the sales level he’s supposed to be at after a year and a half on the job. Personally, I think he’s a whole lot closer to being extinct than I am.

Ask Good Questions

I went out on a first appointment sales call with a young salesperson last week, and the salesperson made his standard presentation – his ‘spiel’ as he referred to it – and then we pretty much left. “How did I do?” he asked me as we walked out of the building.

“Well, that depends on what you were trying to accomplish,” I told him. “Were you hoping to educate your prospect or trying to educate yourself?”

“Why would I need to educate myself?” he asked. “I know what we do.”

“Sure,” I said, “but do you know what he needs? Or more importantly, what he wants from a supplier and might not be getting from the one he’s buying from now?”

I’m a very strong believer in a three-part definition of a “fully qualified” prospect. The first part is that they buy, want or need what you sell. The second part is that they buy, want or need enough of it to make them worth pursuing. The third part – and ultimately the most important part – is that they have some interest in buying from you. Don’t ever forget that every significant prospect is probably someone else’s customer right now.

If all you’re doing is making a “spiel,” you’re talking but not qualifying. And I don’t care how much flash you put in your presentation, it’ll be worthless if they don’t actually buy, want or need what you sell, and even more worthless if you can’t give them a good reason to stop buying from the other guys and start buying from you. “We do X, Y and Z” is not a good reason to change suppliers or to start doing things a different way. “Thanks for answering my questions, telling me about those problems you’ve been having and giving me the opportunity to tell you about a possible solution” is a much better strategy.

And while I’m on the subject of “making a spiel,” I always want to smack any salesperson who uses that word. It’s a derogatory term for what should be a highly professional endeavor. It’s bad enough that most of the general public holds the sales profession in such low regard. I hate it when salespeople perpetuate the stereotype with words, actions or attitudes.

No Jargonauts Need Apply

Another fundamentals vs. flash issue is salespeople who speak fluent jargon, or who seek to impress potential clients with big words – often misused – when smaller words would make for more effective communication. Last month I made four sales calls with a printing salesperson who used the word “facilitate” so many times during the first call that I consciously counted the number of times he used it on the next three – 16 times! At one point, he said: “I want to facilitate a dynamic process of making it productive for you to order all of your image-dependent printing from me.”

Here’s what I think he meant: “I think I can make your life a little easier – at least the part where you’re involved with printing and printers – and I hope that will earn me a large share of your business’ especially the jobs that have to be done right the first time!”

Which one of those statements makes the most sense – or has the most appeal – to you? Do you sometimes wonder what the salespeople who call on you are actually trying to say? How many times in the last six months have you heard some variation of: “Our (digital workflow/document handling/paper ordering/production tracking/employee benefits) solution will foster an improved business model and enable greater profitability.” Does that make you want to buy it or call for help?

Bottom Line

The bottom line to this discussion is that fundamentals beat flash in selling far more often than the other way around. The salesperson who asks the best questions is most likely to find real opportunity, and in turn most likely to present the best solutions to whatever problems his/her prospect may be having. I’ll grant you that many things have changed dramatically over the last 5, 10, 20 or even 50 years, but the fundamentals of selling have not changed a bit. I vote for more “old school” and less jargon, more prospecting and better questions and more professionalism and less emphasis on finding new sales paradigms and other non-existent shortcuts. And less excuses, while we’re at it but that’s a topic for another day.

Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry. He’s a popular speaker who has delivered seminars and keynotes at industry events across the United States, Canada, England, Ireland and Australia. He also is the author of “Sell More Printing!” (2009) and “Listen to the Dinosaur” (2010), which Selling Power magazine listed as one of its “10 Best Books to Read in 2010.” For more information, visit www.davefellman.com.

by: Richard Ensman

Hear the term “competitor intelligence,” and you may visualize sinister activities like industrial espionage, electronic eavesdropping, and other shadowy phenomena that smack of poor ethics or illegality.

Typical competitor intelligence gathering techniques, however, are not at all like this. Rather, they’re based on common-sense research principles, and usually involve public information available to any wise business person willing to seek it out.

Competitor intelligence is far from a luxury and, at times, may even be a critical ingredient of business success today. Think about it: only through knowledge of your competitors’ products, market penetration, and strategic strengths can you effectively position your own products and services in the marketplace.

Analyzing the Competition: What to Look For

The secret to effective competitor analysis is to identify exactly what you need to know, and zero in on that data crisply and efficiently. Then, you can use that information to help achieve your own business objectives. Here are some common questions you might answer through a competition analysis:

What are the unique selling propositions of my competitors? What can they do that I can’t?
What are my competitors’ customer service capabilities?
Where are the gaps and weaknesses in my competitors’ business operations? How can I turn these into competitive strengths of my own?
How do my competitors’ prices fare in relation to mine? Do prices vary from season to season? What discount programs do they make available?
What key marketing strategies do my competitors pursue? Do they tend to focus on particular segments of the buying population?
What is the quality of my competitors’ products? Do customers perceive this level of quality?
How do my competitors perceive me?
How would I describe the financial posture of my chief competitors? Can I estimate their profit margins? Are their behind-the-scenes operations more or less efficient than mine? Are competitors’ costs being soaked up in some way?
What distribution channels do my competitors use? Who are the middlemen? How fast is distribution?
Who supplies my competitors? What unique financial arrangements do my competitors have with suppliers?
What is my competitor’s market share? Is it going up or down? Why?
What is my competitors’ vision of the future? Does it include expansion plans?

Searching for Answers

Now, you have a list of things you want to know about the competition. How do you find the answers? An amazing variety of information about your competitors is available at your fingertips right now. As a simple starting point, know your trade. This means reading industry and local business publications (which may cover your competitors) and listening to competitor scuttlebutt in your community.

To continue your investigation, begin to inspect your competitors’ advertising in both consumer and trade media. You’ll learn about their product line and capabilities. At trade shows, stop by the booths of your competitors. They’ll be putting their best foot forward here. Pick up their literature and observe their product displays. And if you notice that your competitor is making a presentation at a trade meeting, don’t miss the opportunity to attend.

Go a step further and conduct a formal competition survey. Call or write your competitors, requesting product and pricing information. Observe the speed and nature of the responses you receive, and the content of any ensuing contacts your competitors make. A step further still: consider a service analysis, using a “mystery shopper” or “mystery customer.” This shopper, a trained employee or consultant, can visit or call competitors with pointed questions about product quality, delivery, past performance, or specific issues youre concerned about. The answers will often reveal information about your competitors’ philosophy, product performance, and market strategies.

At times, you may need to gather in-depth qualitative information on your competitors. This is the type of information you can obtain only by talking with other people. Make a list of questions you’re trying to answer: questions about new product lines, weaknesses in the market, or service response, for instance. Pose those questions to your peers, or to the peers of your friends and colleagues in other industries. Next, move to your suppliers, who may have extensive information about your competitors. And don’t hesitate to take the opportunity to chat with prospective employees about their experiences with your competitors.

As you ponder all these business intelligence opportunities, remember that you need not – and should not – pursue all of them. The secret is to identify a select few intelligence-gathering strategies that you can call your own. Work those strategies into your day-to-day routine – say, by making it a point to ask a competitor-related question or two of a visiting sales rep or spending time gathering competitor information from the Internet once a month. The result: you’ll learn how to stay a step or two ahead of your competition and you’ll learn more about your own hidden business potential as well.

Sales Tips: Fundamentals Beat Flash