“Anything They Can Do, I Can Do Better”

According to sales consultant Floyd Hurt all purchasing agents have one main thing they expect out of a salesperson: someone to relieve their buying burden. Salespeople need to ask questions to find out what’s important to potential customers and also to probe for niche areas that they can service to get in the door. Then they must deliver superbly. “Try to find some small nook or cranny that you can use to prove to the customer that you’re good and reliable,” says Hurt. “Find something that you can do more efficiently or cost effectively than the other guy, and then magnify it.

“For example, if you know buyers need something on Thursday and you know you can get it to them on Tuesday, tell them that with a little difficulty you can deliver on Tuesday. Then deliver it with fanfare.

“The very first chance a salesperson gets to do anything, it must be delivered so far above expectations that the other guy pales,” explains Hurt. “If the sale is a $2 box of pencils, don’t send it – deliver it. With email and Internet, we tend to forget that the face is still the most important thing in relationship selling.”

It’s very difficult for people to throw away things that are interesting and fun to play with. So, Hurt encourages salespeople to come up with novel promotional items to break through to the customer and serve as a continual reminder of a salesperson’s desire to do business. “What most salespeople fail to do is truly break through with something that makes a customer notice them instead of somebody else,” Hurt points out. “I recommend three-dimensional. Find something that breaks through to that customer. “

Floyd Hurt is an author and president of The Rousing Creativity Group in Charlottesville, VA. For more information, call 1-800-844-6568 or email rousing_info@rousingcreativity.com.

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