No Value,Low Price,Welcome To Wimp Road

If you were in a room with 99 other sales professionals, and you were about to be ranked based on your skill and professionalism as a sales person, where would you land? Would you be in the top 20%? Or somewhere in the midst of the 80%?

If you were a client or customer trying to decide which sales professional you were going to do business with, would your first choice be to work with someone outside of the top 20%? Would you be willing to go outside of the top 20% if the price was right?

Unfortunately, all sales professionals—both the good and the bad—have to answer the one question a prospective client or customer is trying to answer without asking it. “Which do you care more about – my money or my business?”

The reality is that most sales people should not be in the selling profession. That may sound harsh, but being likable, and having the ability to strike up a friendly conversation with a stranger while simultaneously shaving a few dollars off your competition’s price isn’t selling. It’s the wimp’s version of selling – peddling prices instead of value. For the wimp, it’s all about the money.

Ask the wimp what their value position is, and they’ll stick to talking about price because they don't understand value, and aren’t inspired to put any effort into understanding it. To them, price is enough to get the job done. They believe that’s their potential client’s chief concern too.

A professional sales person understands the competitive advantages of their product or service above and beyond price, and can confidently explain the value proposition their product or service will bring to the business relationship.

The wimp is content to trek down Wimp Road looking to peddle their prices to clients and customers willing to base their decisions on price. For the wimp, success is measured by the next sale that falls their way.

Professional sales people can make informed decisions about when it’s time to walk away from low or no margin business propositions. They want to build business relationships with clients and customers who care about their business, at least as much as they care about the price of the product or service they are thinking about purchasing.

Wimps who are content to focus on price as their main strategy don’t make an effort to improve or grow their sales skills. They don’t read books about sales, or attend training seminars. They believe they know everything they need to know.

A professional sales person knows that building long-term business relationships with clients and customers who say, “We just love doing business with them,” happens when they continue to educate themselves and stay current with innovations, ideas, and best practices that might have an impact on their client’s or customer’s business.

So now, I’ll ask the same question from a slightly different perspective. Are you in the top 20% of your immediate competition? Or are you moving dangerously close to detouring down Wimp Road?

Alan Luoma: I am a Sales Coach with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, new

product development, sales and product training. I work with a great national sustainable packaging company and their exceptional distributors to increase sales. My success has been and is in utilizing the Pareto 80/20 principal in business and life. I have become an expert in seeking out and eliminating behaviors that prevent business people from being successful. I am a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network, The National Speakers Association and New England Speakers Association. You can view my profile on LinkedIn, or contact me at Luoma@snet.net