Getting the Edge in Professional Selling
By Terence A. Hockenhull
WHEN your company sells limited product lines, it is a simple matter to allow the sales team to sell the full range to the customer base. However, larger companies that carry hundreds of different items will often task individuals to sell specific lines or products.
One of my clients is a major reseller of software, hardware, consumables and peripherals. Tasking individuals to pick up the responsibility for one of these four areas makes sense. Indeed, even the hardware division is broken into laptops, portables, desktops, office applications, and servers!
Cross-selling means selling (or helping to sell) products that are manufactured or sold by your company even when they fall outside your own product responsibilities. Yet for all sorts of reasons, this is something that rarely happens. At worst, there are companies that discourage this practice (although why is a mystery to me!). Cross-selling is a strategy that should be encouraged.
The Pareto rule applied to selling states that 80% of business (sales) can be derived from 20% of the existing client base. Reselling the same product to existing companies over time may contribute significantly to business; nonetheless, it seems to me that cross-selling is a faster and more productive way of securing additional business with relatively little effort.
Perhaps the greatest barrier to cross-selling is an inability or unwillingness by the salesperson to listen to his or her customer. The salesperson who approaches a client with the sale of a particular product in mind will almost certainly focus on delivering his well-rehearsed sales pitch and uncovering needs for the product. He may listen very carefully for “buying signals” that will indicate the client’s interest in his product.
However, in doing so, it becomes apparent that other needs expressed by the client (that might be met by other products in his company’s range) are strained out as extraneous.
Another reason is fear of the unknown. In this situation, a client may be quite explicit about his needs and requirements. And, these needs might well be adequately met by available products. But if the product falls outside the range (and product knowledge) of the salesperson, he may choose not to hear the client’s needs and respond in an appropriate manner.
One appliance company asked me to accompany salespersons on sales calls to review their skills and ability. We visited a number of houses in a residential area, and I watched and listened to the young salesperson make a reasonably professional presentation of his floor polisher.
The customer said (on at least three occasions during the sale) that the only floor areas not covered by carpet were the kitchen, bathrooms, and entrance hallway. She also commented that her vacuum cleaner was rather old and would need to be replaced. Yet the salesperson, whose company carries an extensive range of vacuum cleaners, failed to respond in any manner whatsoever.
After we had left the premises, I asked him if he had heard the woman say she needed a new vacuum cleaner, and he admitted that he had. However, he told me he knew little or nothing about these products and, for this reason, felt he was incapable of selling them. Sayang!
There are companies that encourage rivalry between departments. While this might engender competition that, if effectively managed, can result in greater effort and an increase in sales for competing departments, the downside is that salespersons will actively avoid cross-selling, since no-one will want to give a “sale” away to another department. (Crediting a percentage of the sales value to the referring department is one way of overcoming this problem.)
Dealing with a large accountancy and consultancy practice in Australia, I was rather surprised to hear one manager comment that cross-selling was actively discouraged for the following reason. The manager’s department offered tax services; other departments handled audits, small business management, strategic planning, investment planning, and insolvency. According to the manager, clients preferred to use different consultants for different services, and if they picked up on a cue to sell small business management services, they might subsequently lose out when offering tax services.
Yet, in a client review later in the year, many clients commented they would be happy to use the same company for other services, provided they felt the services were competitively priced.
Most salespersons will admit that it is easier to secure additional business from existing clients than to find new clients. After all, if the client knows, likes, and trusts the salespersons’ company and has seen the quality of the products or services already bought, it should be in their best interest to buy from the same vendor again.
I know of one building supplier who has split his sales team into four major divisions: insulation; interior fittings and fixtures (doors, windows, cabinets, etc.); electrical (switches, lights, etc.); and interior finishing (wallpaper, paints, etc.). Each department takes time each week to orient the rest of the sales team with their product range, so no one is in any doubt about what products are offered, or indeed, their application.
On a weekly basis, a joint sales meeting is held when each department discusses major contracts and the likelihood that sales of other products might result. Where appropriate, salespersons actively involve the other departments, taking them along on sales calls and introducing them to key decision-makers. When a client only wants to deal with a single salesperson, liaisons and discussions are held back in the office to ensure that all appropriate products can be offered to the clients by the servicing account executive.
Once this system was implemented, sales volume increased dramatically. The company president was delighted with the results. Furthermore, he says that it has proved much easier to introduce new products into his product range, and perhaps more importantly, sell them to his existing clients.
When it comes to cross-selling, it is essential that all salespersons have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the available products and services offered by other divisions within their company. They must be prepared to listen for verbal clues that tell them that the client might need one of these other products. And if they don’t want to handle the sale themselves, take steps to introduce another salesperson who can quickly pick up on the business opportunity.
Terence A. Hockenhull is a long-term resident of the Philippines. He is an accomplished sales consultant who currently holds an executive sales position with an Italian geotechnical company.
terry@charteris-inc.com
