Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1515304
FEBRUARY 2024 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 13 Dan Feinberg: Isn't that part of the marketing? Before it even goes to sales, you have to look at the potential. I was vice president of sales for a Fortune 200 company. But when we were still just a tiny company, we took most of the mar- ket from our competitors. We did it through sales, not marketing. We had individual sales- people who were not only selling the prod- uct but were finding out who the key decision- makers were and then building personal rela- tionships with them. Beaulieu: e account plan was a filter that caused them to focus on accomplishment, not activity. e sales plan doesn't come from mar- keting, it comes from the salesperson. We'll find people on their own and bring them to the party. e account plan filters these accounts. If there are hot buttons and crucial steps to winning that account, they get identified in the plan. Feinberg: ere is always a hot button. Sometimes, you get it on the first visit; sometimes, you get it three years later. If you don't have a good product, getting more than the first sale will not happen. e foundation is that you have a good product, a good process for the product, and that your product is consistent. Price is not as important as your own cost. You need to ask, "What's the cost to use my stuff, not necessarily the price of the individual unit of my product." Nolan Johnson: What I'm hearing is that mar- keting creates the interest and captures the leads while sales gets the business. Does that qualifying process start with the handoff to sales? Feinberg: Yes, not 100% of the time, but quite oen. Matties: e lead development process is commonly confused with the selling process. Developing leads is not a selling process. Mar- keting generates leads for your sales team to then develop the next step. Relationships matter at any level, as do the type of relation- ships. e younger generation, for example, as it turns out, doesn't want to spend time in the factory. You get more of the, "Just send me the video tour," or "Just send me the link to the information." Dan Beaulieu, what shis do you see today in approaching those relationships? Beaulieu: You've got to find better ways, and I really hammered on that during the pandemic, especially in the beginning. I had been going to my clients with a plan on how to sell when you couldn't visit your cus- tomers in person. I really came down on salespeople who were complaining about not being able to take a client out for lunch. It seemed like all they cared about was the ham- burger, and I'd tell them that if a hamburger was the only pitch they had, then your shop had no value. I followed that up by helping them find ways to boost their expertise in the relationship. For a couple of those shops, their business almost doubled because we focused on relationships in a different way. Another point is about expertise. Some- one recently asked me, "Why does this sales- person only book a couple million bucks a year, and another salesperson from the same company books $12 million a year?" I said it wasn't a fair assessment. e guy book- ing $12 million shouldn't even have "sales" listed on his business card. He's an applica- tions engineer who can go to any high-end company and fill the room by talking about circuit boards, whereas a salesperson with an English degree is basically a peddler. ere- fore, bring value to the relationship. When The sales plan doesn't come from marketing, it comes from the salesperson.