It's Not What You Sell (But How You Sell It)

As more of NY Report's business has shifted to events, we are always coming up with new ideas on what to sell (i.e., new event ideas to generate opportunities for our clients and new revenue streams for us). However, the best ideas don't generate revenue if they are not sold properly. 

For example, when the first few issues of The New York Enterprise Report came out in 2004, the response was overwhelmingly positive. But, we didn’t sell many ads. I quickly realized that I, as the sole salesperson at the time, had crappy sales skills, and if this company was going to go places, I would need to get better at selling. 

I started with sales training and have continued to be a student of both sales and sales management. At the end of the day we have to be masters of what we sell (in our case advertising and event sponsorships), but also how we sell.

At our weekly sales meetings, we discuss topics like upcoming events and special sections and who the sales team should be calling. But we also discuss sales techniques. (This week we discussed "The D.E.A.L Memo"). 

Here are a few things that, based on my experience, companies can improve on in how they sell:

• Really understanding why customers by the product you are selling and developing questions to uncover the related needs.
• Understanding who is really likely to buy (versus who is likely to waste time) and proactively disqualifying.
• Developing proven ways to determine budget (hint: asking "What is your budget for this?" doesn't work).
• For B2B companies, leveraging Linkedin so you can find out who you should be calling and hopefully finding a contact to introduce you.
• Having canned responses to common objectives.
• Having the prospect sell herself by asking her the right questions.

I have seen companies with poor products and services do really well because of good salesmanship. I have rarely seen a company with great products do well with poor salesmanship.