Sales Blunders - Blindspots
April 22, 2008 - 10:26 pm by Brant WilliamsIf the first time you’ve heard a customer’s objection is on the first sales call, then it’s too late. If you’re a sales-team of one (meaning you’re the CEO), then it’s your job to listen for what your customers want BEFORE you’re done building the thing you plan to sell to them.
It may seem like simple steps, but it’s rarely done. How many times have you seen a ’solution looking for a problem’. That doesn’t build great companies…that doesn’t even build mediocre companies. Just because something is ‘cool’ doesn’t make it a commercial success.
Get in front of your customers, learn who they are, what they care about. Let them know that you plan so solve some big problem for them and make sure that what you plan to solve is in fact a big problem for them.
Building in a vacuum is like kissing for the first time. You think you know what you’re doing because you’ve seen it and have an idea of how it should go. OK, that’s a really bad analogy - hope it brought up some funny memories for you all.
Get the picture. Build a relationship with a few key customers BEFORE you complete your product.