Sales Strategy

in a recent report from Conning & Company, the insurance industry research firm. It indicates costs must be cut for property and casualty insurance companies to remain competitive. Since most of these expenses are in acquisition and commission costs, one of the best ways to slash them is by having consumers serve themselves.

What Conning & Company and others are suggesting isn't just another change; it is revolutionary. What's happening in sales is disintermediation with a vengence. A quick translation traditional selling is history. Even with all the positive attributes, salespeople can be expensive, tempermental and lack loyalty. Eliminating them from the equation is making more sense than ever before.

Anyone who wants to succeed in selling can do so. But it means changing the way we think about sales and the role of the salesperson. Here is what it requires:

1. Stop fooling ourselves. Those who try to con the customer only kid themselves. A phone call came from a telephone company representative who described a new approach to meeting the telecom needs of mid-size businesses. To provide these services, the phone company was "partnering" with another firm to conduct a needs assessment and to make recommendations.

When the report was presented several weeks later, potential telephone service savings were noted if certain equipment was purchased from the partner company.

Who was being conned? Not the customer. He saw through the "report" instantly, since it was no more than a thinly veiled (and poorly prepared) gimmick to sell equipment. Did the phone company and its partner believe such a transparent, sophomoric approach could possibly succeed? If they did, they were only fooling themselves.

2. Stop getting in your own way. If anyone's objective is to make the sale, they render themselves ineffective as a salesperson. This is why more and more salespeople fail today. They are being told by their managers that the job is making sales. The president of a bank describes his company as a "sales organization." He knows exactly which products are profitable and easy to administer. There's only one problem. A dismal track record! He gets in his own way. Prospective customers recognize his objective; they sense all he wants to do is make the sale. And no one buys!