National Sales Center

Being A Sales Expert Drives Success

I’ve written much about transcending from a sales rep to a sales expert. The other day I had the unfortunate experience of having to rely on a “sales expert” to the highest degree. Yes, this is an extremely exaggerated example of working with a sales expert but it drives home the message.

Before I get into my experience, let’s cover my three levels of salesmanship:

Sales Rep
Sales Consultant
Sales Expert

Sales reps deal with prospects that either didn’t know they needed something or didn’t know the best place to purchase what they need.

Consultants work with prospects that want benefits or functionality but are not sure how to make it happen. For example, a prospect may want to sell widgets on the Internet but has no clue about how to do it. In that case, the prospect hires a consultant.

Sales experts work with highly qualified prospects that clearly recognize they have a problem and need an sales expert to solve it.

Of the three, who do you think has the best close rate? If you said, Sales Expert… you are right! As I said in the past, sales reps and consultants must position themselves as sales experts if they expect to generate great success.

Here is my highly exaggerated example to prove my point.

I recently took a bad fall down a long flight of dimly lighted stairs. Frankly, I’m happy to be alive. Do you think the paramedics had to “sell” me on the need for a trip to the ER? Do you think the ER Doctor had to sell me on a Brain Scan? Do you the ER Doctor had to sell me on 33 stitches? Could I possibly say, “Let’s save some money and just give me 20 stitches?”

In the above example, all decision power was handed to the expert. When that happens, selling is no longer part of the equation. I cover this in my sales training program on sales strategies.

So, how do you position yourself as a sales expert?

1) Insure your prospect understands that they have a serious, or at least, a large and costly problem.

2) Position yourself as the sales expert that can solve it.

Spend some time today thinking about this and think about all you can do to position yourself as a sales expert.

To your success!

Nick Moreno

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