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Pull Out These Four 'Stops' To Develop Customer Focus

Dirk's Article in Dartnell's Dec. 9, 1999 Newsletter, "Successful Closing Techniques: Building the Sale From Proposal to Purchase":

"The development of a proactive, customer-focused sales approach is not only possible, it is a requirement in today's market place, " according to Dirk Beveridge, president of The Beveridge Consulting Group, Inc. He outlines four issues you must consider high priority:

Immediately cease pitching your product. Your product is not hard to buy and customers can go to any number of competitors and get virtually the same product, usually at a lower price. Before you talk about your product and company, identify the customer's needs from his point of view. Factually, selling is no longer a talking activity. Primarily, selling involves active listening.

Immediately cease competing on price. Because you will never again long term have a competitive advantage in product or price, your competitive edge must be your problem-solving skill. Once you have identified real customer needs, you must develop a problem-solving plan that incorporates your product and other value-added components that satisfy identified customer needs.

Immediately cease delivering quotes. Quotes highlight your product and price. Unless you have the best product at the lowest price, you're in trouble. Instead, deliver customer-focused proposals. Proposals review the customer's needs and outline your unique problem-solving system, 40 percent of which is your product and 60 percent is your value-added components. You must deliver more than product.

Immediately cease returning to the customer only for another order. Salespeople who only show up to take an order or to say "hi" are in big trouble. You must, on a pre-planned basis, return to ensure that the service/product/system you have sold is delivering the promised results.