A sales consultant proves their value to their company by increasing sales and having their customers respect. How does your customer prove their value to upper management? Most of the time it is by problem solving and managing their budget.

When salespeople make a presentation it is geared to solving a problem or creating a new opportunity. An example of this would be selling a 26” Automatic Scrubber. We demo the machine pointing out all the bells and whistles and showing the customer and their workers how the machine works. They like it and want to buy it. We give them a price. We are done right? Wrong.

So many times we do all the right things and think we have a sale only to find out upper management puts the kibosh on the deal. All the effort and time is gone down the drain. What we need to do is teach our customer how to sell our product to their boss. By teaching our customers how to present the product to their boss will help eliminate the dreaded kibosh.

How do we do this?

First try to have upper management at the demo. Let them see for themselves that the product works to solve the problem. They also see that the employees can use the product safely and easily.

Secondly make sure your customer knows the equipment or product is a tool to achieve a better and more consistent work environment while using less labor then they currently use. Stress that they can redirect that labor to enhance other needs.

Third make sure you have the (ROI) Return on Investment figured out. This should show them how prudently the money is being spent, and worth its value. If your product can be leased have the leasing options ready. Be prepared and make sure your customer is prepared.

When your customer knows how to present your product to upper management they will elevate themselves in the eyes of the management team and gain respect. This will also elevate you in your customer’s eyes. Which will create more successful sales.

David Corker is a sales manager in the jan/san distribution industry. He can be reached at corkerdj@yahoo.com


posted on 2/3/2016