Link Positioning - Marketing - Sales

Positioning

We have to understand clearly who we are, who we serve and how we gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It is crucial that we communicate a consistent message to the targeted marketplace. You have to get an HONEST comparison in how you are competing in terms of price, quality and service.

Marketing

You want to frame your message to the targeted people that you will be selling to. Identify what you are delivering to your existing customers and how they are responding to their experience with your business. Take a relationship marketing approach that connects you to the right candidates that you want to sell to. You want to position your organization appropriately. One example of making this happen would be to leverage your company history and form partnerships with the right people that are tied to what your company stands for.

Working the Sales Process

Our approach needs to move to a more proactive approach. You want to work from your greatest strength which, are your existing customers and ask for referrals. We need to have a follow up process in place to build relationships with each referral and demonstrate how you are growing your network. Take the next steps with each new prospect and create solutions that they will value. Each member of the Sales Team needs to feed the funnel by bringing in prospects and establish the right amount of backlog. Working the process means that you need to have effective leveraging your time and focus to make it happen. Have specific weekly goals that you achieve and the discipline to spend enough time in each area:

It is crucial that we practice active listening with each prospect so that we can CLEARLY understand their goals, priorities and pain. We need to take the time to document what we hear and look at how you provide them with solutions. A big step in the process is to overcome their barriers and demonstrate how you have a competitive advantage over other companies. Focus upon the elements of Service Quality so that you can form relationships that can become partnerships. It is crucial that we are able to have Apples to Apples comparisons in each opportunity and gain a position to get a last look. Each sales person needs to sell value from your strengths.

Bob Coulter