I did a webinar called "The Power of Team Selling" for the Microsoft Leadership Forum on LiveMeeting yesterday. They recorded it and posted it online.
It's a great program that is about 50 minutes long.
Steve Waterhouse
Sales Training and Consulting
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Monday, October 24, 2005
She stared at the glass and froze... (a sales training story)
She stared at the glass and froze…
I love it when companies grow, merge and change. It makes wonderful opportunities for the sales people involved. One of my newer clients has just gone thorough a buying binge and acquired a host of smaller companies that all offer related products and services. I had the privilege of working with the newly formed sales force which was comprised of seasoned pros from all of the new companies. Each one was an expert in selling their particular offering.
My job was clear. Get them all to sell everything. Sell the whole portfolio.
So here I am with this group of about 100 pros and I decided to pull out an old trick. I grabbed a water glass and handed it to the closest person and said, “Sell me this!” Ok, I put her on the spot, but that’s fair in my rule book. What did she do? She froze! She just sat their in front of 100 of her peers and said nothing. Finally, after a very uncomfortable amount of time, she said, “I sell services. I don’t know how to sell a product.”
Bunk! Trash! Huey!
There is fundamentally no difference between selling products and services. They all start with probing questions that help you understand the customer’s needs relative to your offering. Questions don’t care if they are asked about a product or service.
Mr. Johnson, what were you hoping our fugerwump would do for your company? Mrs. Smith, when you compare fugerwumps, what is most important to you? Mr. White, how are you planning to make your fugerwump decision. Insert any product or service you want for fugerwump and it works.
Let’s not trap ourselves into thinking that we only know how to sell one thing or another. If you have good sales skills you can sell many things. And if you have great sales skills you can sell them all as a total solution to your client’s ultimate need.
Oh, and the one that froze? She is actually one of the top sales professionals in the company they acquired. I predict she will go on to be one of the best as she has the opportunity to sell the entire suite of offerings of her new company.
I love it when companies grow, merge and change. It makes wonderful opportunities for the sales people involved. One of my newer clients has just gone thorough a buying binge and acquired a host of smaller companies that all offer related products and services. I had the privilege of working with the newly formed sales force which was comprised of seasoned pros from all of the new companies. Each one was an expert in selling their particular offering.
My job was clear. Get them all to sell everything. Sell the whole portfolio.
So here I am with this group of about 100 pros and I decided to pull out an old trick. I grabbed a water glass and handed it to the closest person and said, “Sell me this!” Ok, I put her on the spot, but that’s fair in my rule book. What did she do? She froze! She just sat their in front of 100 of her peers and said nothing. Finally, after a very uncomfortable amount of time, she said, “I sell services. I don’t know how to sell a product.”
Bunk! Trash! Huey!
There is fundamentally no difference between selling products and services. They all start with probing questions that help you understand the customer’s needs relative to your offering. Questions don’t care if they are asked about a product or service.
Mr. Johnson, what were you hoping our fugerwump would do for your company? Mrs. Smith, when you compare fugerwumps, what is most important to you? Mr. White, how are you planning to make your fugerwump decision. Insert any product or service you want for fugerwump and it works.
Let’s not trap ourselves into thinking that we only know how to sell one thing or another. If you have good sales skills you can sell many things. And if you have great sales skills you can sell them all as a total solution to your client’s ultimate need.
Oh, and the one that froze? She is actually one of the top sales professionals in the company they acquired. I predict she will go on to be one of the best as she has the opportunity to sell the entire suite of offerings of her new company.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Free Online Team Selling Seminar on October 25
You are invited…
Last week, I got a call from a friend who said, “HELP!! I need you to fill in for me on a webinar.” Well, I love an opportunity to make our programs available and you get this one for free. (Plus a bonus)
Here is the scoop. Just click the link below to sign up for this great webinar from Microsoft.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47857&cbClass=7582&signupkey=2659
BONUS: As a special bonus to my newsletter subscribers, I will select 10 of you to each receive a free copy of my book on audio CD. To enter, just register for the program and forward your Microsoft confirmation to me.
Here is all the PR stuff that Microsoft sent out:
The Power of Team Selling
Steve Waterhouse
October 25, 2005
9:00AM - 10:00AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
12:00PM - 1:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Speaker: Steve Waterhouse, President, Waterhouse Group
Seminar Overview: How to turn your sales group into an effective sales team.
This program will explore the many ways that teams can dramatically improve your sales results. We will examine the opportunities that teams offer and how to maximize them. We will also look at the mine field of problems that teams expose, both internally and externally and how to avoid them.
Sales managers who are looking for a secret weapon may find it in this program. You will also find ways to minimize your costs and maximize your impact. Building effective teams is one way that sales managers can effectively increase the size of their sales force without adding additional people to the payroll. You’ll see how in this program.
Sales professionals will learn how to take advantage of the team concept to sell more and sell faster. You will learn how to effectively manage your team’s resources for maximum results. This is truly the way to ‘do more with less’!
Bring your questions and problems or email them in advance and Steve will answer them during the program (info@waterhousegroup.com).
In this seminar you will learn:
* How to build and use teams to maximize sales
* How to avoid the mine field of problems that teams can create
* How teams can accelerate the sales cycle
* To use teams as your competitive secret weapon
About Steve Waterhouse
Steve Waterhouse's career as a record setting sales professional and sales manager make him uniquely qualified to help companies dramatically improve sales and increase profits. As the Semiconductor Sales Manager for Sprague Electric Company, Steve achieved record sales quotas in the Northeast and developed the most successful marketing campaign for new catalogs. When Steve took on the role of Director of Sales and Marketing for Vortech Corporation, the company's sales increased by 300% in 24 months. As an entrepreneur, Steve has successfully launched several businesses. He founded and developed Waterhouse Communications Newspaper Group, the largest community newspaper in the State of Maine. He also challenged the U.S. Postal Service with the state's first private mail delivery service.
Mr. Waterhouse is President of Waterhouse Group, a consulting and training company that helps companies increase their sales by building effective sales organizations. His clients have included IBM, Xerox, Lucent Technologies, Sun Microsystems, Guidant, AT&T, Aventis-Behring and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
He is the author of “The Team Selling Solution: Creating and Managing Teams that Win the Complex Sale” (McGraw-Hill, 2004).
Waterhouse Group
Waterhouse Group is a consulting and training company based in Jacksonville, FL with clients in 11 countries on 5 continents. They specialize in consultative selling, value selling and team selling.
__________
Don't forget your copy of The Ultimate Prospecting Manual at http://www.salesleadsforever.com and How to Leave a Voice Mail Message that Gets Results at http://www.effectivevoicemailmessages.com
Save when you order both!
Last week, I got a call from a friend who said, “HELP!! I need you to fill in for me on a webinar.” Well, I love an opportunity to make our programs available and you get this one for free. (Plus a bonus)
Here is the scoop. Just click the link below to sign up for this great webinar from Microsoft.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47857&cbClass=7582&signupkey=2659
BONUS: As a special bonus to my newsletter subscribers, I will select 10 of you to each receive a free copy of my book on audio CD. To enter, just register for the program and forward your Microsoft confirmation to me.
Here is all the PR stuff that Microsoft sent out:
The Power of Team Selling
Steve Waterhouse
October 25, 2005
9:00AM - 10:00AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
12:00PM - 1:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Speaker: Steve Waterhouse, President, Waterhouse Group
Seminar Overview: How to turn your sales group into an effective sales team.
This program will explore the many ways that teams can dramatically improve your sales results. We will examine the opportunities that teams offer and how to maximize them. We will also look at the mine field of problems that teams expose, both internally and externally and how to avoid them.
Sales managers who are looking for a secret weapon may find it in this program. You will also find ways to minimize your costs and maximize your impact. Building effective teams is one way that sales managers can effectively increase the size of their sales force without adding additional people to the payroll. You’ll see how in this program.
Sales professionals will learn how to take advantage of the team concept to sell more and sell faster. You will learn how to effectively manage your team’s resources for maximum results. This is truly the way to ‘do more with less’!
Bring your questions and problems or email them in advance and Steve will answer them during the program (info@waterhousegroup.com).
In this seminar you will learn:
* How to build and use teams to maximize sales
* How to avoid the mine field of problems that teams can create
* How teams can accelerate the sales cycle
* To use teams as your competitive secret weapon
About Steve Waterhouse
Steve Waterhouse's career as a record setting sales professional and sales manager make him uniquely qualified to help companies dramatically improve sales and increase profits. As the Semiconductor Sales Manager for Sprague Electric Company, Steve achieved record sales quotas in the Northeast and developed the most successful marketing campaign for new catalogs. When Steve took on the role of Director of Sales and Marketing for Vortech Corporation, the company's sales increased by 300% in 24 months. As an entrepreneur, Steve has successfully launched several businesses. He founded and developed Waterhouse Communications Newspaper Group, the largest community newspaper in the State of Maine. He also challenged the U.S. Postal Service with the state's first private mail delivery service.
Mr. Waterhouse is President of Waterhouse Group, a consulting and training company that helps companies increase their sales by building effective sales organizations. His clients have included IBM, Xerox, Lucent Technologies, Sun Microsystems, Guidant, AT&T, Aventis-Behring and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
He is the author of “The Team Selling Solution: Creating and Managing Teams that Win the Complex Sale” (McGraw-Hill, 2004).
Waterhouse Group
Waterhouse Group is a consulting and training company based in Jacksonville, FL with clients in 11 countries on 5 continents. They specialize in consultative selling, value selling and team selling.
__________
Don't forget your copy of The Ultimate Prospecting Manual at http://www.salesleadsforever.com and How to Leave a Voice Mail Message that Gets Results at http://www.effectivevoicemailmessages.com
Save when you order both!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
