Sales
Business to Business Sales
September 20, 2011 | 
Author Business to business sales can be much different than retail sales. Businesses have budgets they are working with and immediate needs that must be filled or the company could go out of business. A retail customer will not pass away if she does not buy that new washing machine right now. But if that printing company does not get new presses then it may not be able to compete in the marketplace. Use good sales strategies when you are involved in business to business sales.
Cold calling in business to business sales can be frustrating and tedious. But it is a necessary part of the process that every sales professional must master. Any person you get on the phone could possibly influence the decision-makers’ opinion, so you should have a professional attitude from the moment you dial the phone. The term used to describe secretaries and receptionists is gatekeepers. The gatekeeper’s job is to screen calls for the decision-makers. Make friends with the gatekeepers and you will gain access to the decision-makers.
Posted in Sales | 
Tags: Budgets, Business Clients, Business Customers, Business Sales, Business Topics, Decision Makers, Decision Making, Emotion, Gatekeeper, Printing Company, Professional Attitude, Professional Image, Receptionists, Retail Customer, Retail Sales, Return On Investment, Sales Business, Sales Strategies, Secretaries, Washing Machine | 
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Is there an alternative to cold calling in sales prospecting? There is and it’s good old Google! Ah, Google! Possibly the greatest invention of the 20th Century. What did we ever do without it? I know what I did without it because I was selling before it existed. I can remember spending a whole 4/5 days ringing the head offices of my target clients so that I could get their annual reports. These annual reports were like gold dust because they listed every regional office, they outlined the company’s vision for the future and they gave the basic financial information about the company. In short they gave me all the information I needed to know to generate my sales strategy for the coming year. Way back in the day, that 4 days was the best investment in my sales year. What I did then was easy to do but it was also easy not to do. That’s why many of my competitors never did this level of research.
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