Beyond price

Quote-focused salespeople fail to create business relationships

By -- Industrial Distribution, 8/1/2000

In the January 1999 issue of Industrial Distribution I wrote, "product and price do not provide a competitive edge." I offered two or three actual scenarios that detailed and proved, "it is impossible to sustain a competitive advantage in product or price."

So, what's different today? Not much, because too much of our selling effort revolves around sending or giving the customer a "quote."

If the buying decision is to be made on the basis of what you plan to charge for the abrasives, brushes, cutting tools, hoses or whatever, then in eight of 10 cases you lose. You'll miss getting the business. What value do you place on your service? What expertise are you building into what it is you will deliver? What will you do for the customer beyond the product and what value does that bring to the deal?

We drop off price lists, we send revised pricing schedules, and the toiling sales rep consumes valuable time just keeping up mailing quotes. Must it be done? If there is no alternative, the answer, unfortunately, is yes-but you'll lose eight out of 10 times.

"Ah ha!" says the salesperson. "I'll just send out more quotes and the law of averages will work in my favor." Do you know what happens with such a strategy?

• Salespeople get caught up in the number of quotes needed to produce sales

• Their closing ratio to submitted quotes declines even more

• It becomes necessary, even frantic, to resell themselves, the company and the products on every call

• Quote-focused salespeople enjoy only a small percentage of their customers' total volume

More than anything else, these salespeople find they are being used as just another source to "shop" by the customer. The customer uses the salesperson's quote to force a lower price from the supplier he planned on buying from in the beginning.

What's the alternative? First and foremost, gather up every 2000 issue of ID. Turn quickly to this section, which details a "world class" sales methodology. Then ... execute!

No one ever said it would be easy. And no one ever suggested that how we sell and the manner in which we sell wouldn't change.

Remember, good times mask poor performance. You will either be in a constant state of evolution in how you relate to your buyers or you will be faced with a "revolution" in those relationships. In a revolution, people (salespeople) get hurt-financially, in their careers, in their security and in their potential.

You see, the alternative always has been to sell so that your efforts equate to multiple sales and transactions. That's important to know. Quotes produce only that. We must sell in such a way that the cost is subordinate and the result is a business relationship. Then and only then will you evolve to "world class" and enjoy the status of "vendor of choice."

Don Beveridge is president of D.W. Beveridge, Jr. & Associates. He can be reached at (561) 793-4330.