We’re counting down the top tips of 2021 and for my intro to the series and the full list of top tips, just click over to DailySales.Tips/BestOf2021.

Here’s #9:

746. 18% Increase in Acceptance of Proposal Using Video – Elias Crum

You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today through the end of the year we’re going to countdown the top 10 tips of 2021, but you don’t have to wait. You can get the entire list by clicking over to DailySales.Tips/BestOf2021. No spaces.

Now, this was a little bit tricky. As I looked at the list, no matter how we calculated, whether we looked at total downloads year to date or the downloads per tip in the first 30 days there was a strong concentration of tips from January. I then thought about featuring the top tip from each month from January to October, but ultimately made the executive decision to feature the real top 10, which also happen to be pretty helpful in thinking about how to start off the new year right.

The great news for you is that you can find both lists, both the natural top 10 and the top tip from each month at DailySales.Tips/BestOf2021 or on this tip at DailySales.Tips/1068.

While you’re there you might want to join the listener list, because as you know if you’re already on that list, I occasionally provide previews and sent out both of these lists last weekend to those who were already subscribed. With that, let’s kick things off. Here’s #10:

Best Sales Tips of the Year

#10: How To Stay In Tune With Your Prospects Buying Process – Hannah Ajikawo
#9: 18% Increase in Acceptance of Proposal Using Video – Elias Crum
#8: Sales = Leadership – Jason Cutter
#7: Plan Your Day – Mary Grothe
#6: Inputs, Habits and Consistency – Scott Ingram
#5: It Takes a Village – Sid Nazareth
#4: Your Price is Too High! – Jerry Pilkey
#3: Setting Personal & Professional Goals: Tips for Optimizing Commitment and Performance – Todd Caponi
#2: How to Meet New Business Contacts During a Pandemic – Jen E Miller
#1: Open Ended Questions – Ion Farmakides

“Sales is about listening and sharing and teaching and being an asset for your customer.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1067

Do you rethink your traditional negotiation techniques?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Todd Caponi on LinkedIn
Todd Caponi on Twitter
The Transparency Sale Website
The Transparency Sale Book
The Transparent Sales Leader Book

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Todd Caponi. Todd is the author of the 3x award-winning & best-selling book, The Transparency Sale, and a top-rated keynote speaker & trainer as Principal of Sales Melon LLC. His next book, The Transparent Sales Leader, is planned for early 2022. Here he is:

Todd Caponi:  Hey there. I don’t know about you, but it always seemed weird to me that I needed a different personality to sell than I did to negotiate. What I mean by that is sales is about listening and sharing and teaching and being an asset for your customer. You build that relationship from the first interaction, you take them to the goal line. The most important point where they say yes. And suddenly we go into this kind of liar mode where subconsciously we’re not sharing what a good deal is. And maybe we’re making up fake expiring discounts. And maybe we are taking many of the techniques that we use to negotiate from former FBI hostage negotiators.

Don’t Get me wrong. One of the greatest books of all time is Never Split the Difference. But the cover even says negotiating as if your life depended on it and field-tested tools for talking anyone into or out of just about anything. That doesn’t sound like we’re building trust, does it? And in industries where we’ve got renewable technology like SaaS or in industries where we’re selling services, where that upsell, cross-sell, renewal, long term relationship really matters traditional negotiation techniques that are designed for one time interactions like releasing hostages from a bank heist or a robbery gone wrong, or even an old school software deal where it’s a perpetual license where you buy the bulk and then maybe you pay a maintenance fee going forward.

Sure, those things were great, but this is 2021 going into 2022. We are needing to build relationships. We don’t have the advantage of tasing our customer when we get done with the negotiation because they’re going off the jail. We need to have long-term relationships with them. And this is why this idea of transparent negotiating is so valuable, and it’s why it’s probably the most popular thing that I teach, and I’m actually teaching it 5 times this week. So it’s certainly top of mind. But transparent negotiating is about really changing the game of negotiating. So that when we talk about price and when we make our proposals, it also leads to our negotiations becoming much more fruitful and trust-building instead of eroding right at the goal line and it’s about playing your cards face up.

You and your organization, like every other for-profit organization in the world, there are four things that matter to your company.

The first one is volume. How much the customer commits to in terms of products, technology, licenses, services, the more they commit to it’s probably better for you. Right?

Number two is timing of cash. The faster a customer pays, the better it is for you and your company. Trust me. Slow-paying customers is of no value to you. You want customers to pay faster, right?

Number three is the length of commitment. How long a customer commits to your products, technology, and services that comfort and confidence and predictability is really valuable.

And number four, talking about predictability is the timing of the deal. Your ability as an organization to predict when business will happen is immensely valuable. So when the customer signs is not only valuable to you and your quota, but also to your investors but even more importantly to your organization, to be able to resource and to be able to plan.

So my advice to you is to rethink traditional negotiation techniques. If you feel like you need a different personality or that you’re eroding trust at the goal line, you probably are. And transparent pricing and negotiating is all about telling the customer; Hey listen. Our pricing is based on four things that matter to us. How much you buy, how fast you pay, how long you commit, and when you sign? Your pricing is based on those things. And as we get into these discussions, the levers move both ways on all of these things. Your price is too expensive. We need net 60 payment terms or we want to pay monthly. We don’t want to commit to 3 years, we want to commit to 1 year. We want to sign whenever the heck we want. Will you hold the price in the next month?

You can use those four levers as your basis to make sure that you’re getting value for every dollar you give away or every other concession you give away. You also, like I said, are building trust to the goal line instead of eroding it. And if you play that last lever, right, that timing of the deal right, your deals will become more predictable overnight.

So give that a thought. And if you need some help with this, reach out. It is a common thing that I talk about and teach, and I would love to be a resource for you to help you get over that hump and continue to build so that your customers stay. buy more and are more likely to become an advocate. All right, thanks!

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Todd and to get your own copy of The Transparency Sale or to preorder The Transparent Sales Leader, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1067

Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for the start of our top 10 sales tips of 2021 countdown.

“You will start to become very aware of your choices and it will give you the opportunity to change them to something so you have the results you desire.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1066

Are you unstoppable or are you unstable?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Meshell Baker on LinkedIn
Meshell Baker On Youtube
Meshell Baker on Facebook
Subscribe to Meshell’s Mailing List

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Meshell Baker. Meshell is a certified sales confidence igniter and an authentic selling crusader. She helps business owners and sales leaders tap into unlimited human potential to create diverse and inclusive culture change and disrupt the sales training status quo. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello and welcome to today’s Daily Sales Tip and today’s tip is a question to you. My question to you is, are you unstoppable or are you unstable? Yes, you heard me say unstoppable or unstable. So let’s dive in.

Unstoppable is defined as being impossible to stop to prevent being incapable of being stopped. Now, unstable is prone to change, fail, give way, or not steady. And the reason I ask you this is because sales is not an easy career. You are constantly being met with the unplanned, the unexpected, the uncomfortable, and uncertainty, and your decision about how you respond to those situations will define whether you are unstoppable or unstable.

Now, what happens for someone who has decided that no matter what I will succeed, they have taken hold of their thoughts. And I want you to know that every human being, on average has 60 to 70,000 thoughts a day, and it has been shown that 90% of those thoughts are the same as yesterday.

So what that basically means is that when you are thinking about being successful in sales, when you are saying, I need to, I have to and I’m trying. You’re actually repeating the thoughts from yesterday. You are generally doing the activities of yesterday. And because everything starts with a thought, that means that the same thought will create the same choice, the same choice will create the same behavior, the same behavior will create the same experience, and the same experience will produce you having the same emotions, which is just a loop. And we know that our decision is based on emotions.

So how do you change this? How do you get to the place where you become unstoppable?

We’re in the face of the unplanned, the unexpected, uncomfortable, and uncertainty that you hold steadfast in your emotional state of belief that no matter what happens, everything is working in my favor. I will succeed. This will be turned around no matter what the buyer says. No matter if the contract is signed or not. No matter if I get the job. If I get the promotion, I am still succeeding.

How do you hold that state?

Well, that goes to the habit of mindfulness. What are you doing and saying to yourself first thing in the morning? However, you start your day, if you start your day in problem, you are literally repeating what happened to you yesterday. Instead of beginning your day with a set and a standard non-negotiable that I am imprinting on myself, that today will be amazing. And the linchpin for this is to create and change the pattern so that you are actually experiencing the successful sales outcome that you desire and you know you are capable of. You did not take your sales job thinking you would not succeed and you are more than capable.

Anyone listening to this. No, you will succeed when you change your thoughts to see perceive and believe in success. And that begins with what you do first thing in the morning. Create a non-negotiable standard of meditation, a visualization of affirmation of your success, and hold on to it. No matter what you see, feel, hear and think. And as time goes by, you will be amazed at how you start to create the outcome, instead of responding and reacting to the situation.

Have an incredibly successful sales day today and remember or ask yourself all day long, “Am I unstoppable or am I unstable?” And you will start to become very aware of your choices and it will give you the opportunity to change them to something so you have the results you desire. Have a great day selling.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with the unstoppable Meshell Baker, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1066. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“You can overachieve and feel great about yourself in your strong weeks, and continue to feel good, even in your off weeks, because you kept going and stayed disciplined.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1065

Where can you be disciplined?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Submit a Sales Tip

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. In yesterday’s tip, I talk about how what we DO is much more important than what we Say. Do is greater than Say.

Today I’m going to build on that idea and talk about how Discipline and what you consistently DO is far more important than Motivation. Again, a shoutout to Matt Wilpers, one of my favorite Peloton instructors who prompted this tip.

Here’s the deal.

Motivation is fleeting. We see this at the start of every year as many people set New Year’s resolutions. They’re motivated to start the new year strong and change something about their life. Maybe it’s their diet or their workout routine or maybe it’s their prospecting efforts. Now imagine what the graph looks like over the course of January and even through Q1 as we look at how many people stay committed to these goals and activities. They fall off dramatically and very few people maintain beyond the first few days, weeks, or months before they settle back into the regular habits. I think this mostly speaks to motivation.

There’s nothing wrong with motivation, but we’d be much better served by staying consistent and being disciplined. If you can commit to a daily or weekly activity and just stay disciplined about doing that thing, no matter what, you’re going to get better results. It doesn’t matter if you’re motivated or not. It’s about having the integrity and being accountable to yourself to just push through.

Yesterday I talked about what you Do is so much more important than what you say. These ideas are connected, and this podcast is a great example. If you’ve listened to my own tips here for any amount of time you know that I’m constantly talking about the importance of consistency. That’s what I say. What I do is release one of these tips every single day and today I’ve now done that 1,065 days in a row. I’m about a month away from having maintained that streak. Having headed the discipline to make sure it happens no matter what for 3 years.

Now that really says something, doesn’t it?

So don’t worry so much about being motivated. Sometimes you will be, and if you’re human, sometimes you won’t be. Instead, where can you be disciplined? What can you commit to doing day in and day out, week in and week out, no matter what’s going on? I think this also means you need to carefully think through what’s sustainable? Set the bar at what you can accomplish even if you’re not feeling well or are completely overwhelmed. You can overachieve and feel great about yourself in your strong weeks, and continue to feel good, even in your off weeks, because you kept going and stayed disciplined.

I hope that helps. Give it some thought. Better yet, do something about it. Look at what you’re trying to achieve, break it down into it’s simplest form and a daily or weekly activity, and commit to being disciplined around that activity. Then tell me about your results on the other end. This has certainly worked well for me.

Now, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast on your podcast player, and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“I’m more interested in learning from what the Doers Do, than from what the Sayers Say.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1064

What can you say about yourself and the kind of person that you are through your actions and what you do?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. This weekend I’ve got a little 2 part mini-series with two ideas that are very much connected and interestingly they both came from the same Peloton class last weekend with one of my favorite instructors: Matt Wilpers.

Now it was tomorrow’s tip that was prompted directly by Matt. It was what I saw on somebody else’s profile that flashed by on the leaderboard that prompted today. It was simply the word “Do” followed by the greater than sign, followed by the word “Say.” Do is greater than Say.

I SO identify with this. In fact, I said somewhat spontaneously on the stage at the Sales Success Summit a few years ago that I’m more interested in learning from what the Doers Do, than from what the Sayers Say. That’s still very true and kind of what the Sales Success Stories podcast is all about, but today I want to talk about what it says about us.

The other thing this idea says is that Talk is Cheap. It’s easy to say things, it’s much more difficult to actually do things. Actions speak louder than words.

So what will you DO?

As we come up to the end of the year here and start to think about our goals and aspirations for the next. We’re probably going to say some things. Better yet we might write down some of our goals, and that’s all good stuff, but what are you actually going to DO.

At the end of the day, that’s kind of the only thing that matters. What can you say about yourself and the kind of person that you are through your actions and what you do? Give that some thought and tomorrow I’ll build on the idea and talk about how Discipline is greater than motivation.

Now, I’ve got something for you to DO real quick. Make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and then, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Your SDR or BDR will see that you value them and that you’re doing everything you can to help make sure that their meetings stick so that you all win together.” – Jack Wilson in today’s Tip 1063

Are you using video to set up discovery?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Jack!

Seismic
Jack Wilson on LinkedIn
Jack Wilson on Sales Success Stories interview
Submit a Sales Tip

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jack Wilson. Jack was the star of episode 57 of the Sales Success Stories podcast back in the day and is now a Senior Director of Enterprise Sales at Seismic. Here he is:

Jack Wilson: Hey there Daily Sales Tips Community. Today, I’ve got a tip for you that will help you leverage video to establish early rapport, set yourself up with more meaningful discoveries, and foster great teamwork between you and your SDR. If you’re lucky enough to have this support from one. First, you’ll need to make sure that you have access to an easy video tool. My personal preference is Vidyard, which you can download for free. Then all you’ll need is whatever you use for virtual meetings. Assuming you can record like most of the world can now.

All right, here’s a tip. The next time your SDR or BDR books a meeting, jump on a quick Zoom call together and hit record. Take less than 60 seconds to introduce each other and set up the upcoming call. Explain that there are a few pieces of information that you’ve outlined in the email that will help you make the most of their time on the call. It might sound something a little bit like this. “Hey there Mr. and Mrs. Customers. It’s Jack at Seismic. Wanted to be able to put a face to the email and help us make the most of our time on X Day at Y time. I’ve included a few basic questions in this email that will help me get a really detailed understanding of what you’ve got going on. So instead of us getting into the weeds on the call, we can really have a valuable conversation.”

Now it’s important that you ask and your question is in the body of the email, not the video. That way, it’s easy for the recipient to go back and reference them without having to listen to the video over and over again. Once you’re done with your recording, you can easily clip out the dead air at the beginning and at the end using whatever editing tool is native to your laptop. Then upload the clip into Vidyard so you can send it with some tracking metrics and a cool thumbnail to grab their attention. This practice helps you establish early rapport by humanizing yourself and your BDR putting a face to the email or the cold call.

When your prospect responds with the boring minutiae that you need to do your job, you can spend more time in discovery getting into the more strategic, high level, meaningful conversations rather than asking the X and Y and box-checking questions that you usually need. Lastly, your SDR or BDR will see that you value them and that you’re doing everything you can to help make sure that their meetings stick so that you all win together.

Now, if you don’t have the support of an SDR and you set your own meetings. This practice is still a great way for you to accomplish much of what we talked about. In the last six months, I’ve seen 100% view rates and just shy of 50% response rates to the questions, and 5000% camaraderie with my BDR.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Jack, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1063 and we’ll have those for you there. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Leverage language services to understand and successfully close the sale.” – Wendy Pease in today’s Tip 1062

What do you do with an email or an inquiry from someone who doesn’t speak your language?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Wendy!

Rapport Translations
The Global Marketing Show
Wendy Pease on LinkedIn
Supporting International Marketing and Sales through Translation Blog
Wendy Pease on Linktree

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Wendy Pease. Wendy is the owner of Rapport International, a language services company that provides high-quality written translation and spoken interpretation in over 200 languages. She’s the author of the book “The Language of Global Marketing”, and the podcast host of the “Global Marketing Show”.

Wendy Pease: Today’s tip on how to help you sell in another language. What do you do with an email or an inquiry from someone who doesn’t speak your language? Well, don’t ignore it. Leverage language services to understand and successfully close the sale. You may be tempted to use Google Translate, but be really careful. It caused a lot of problems for companies.

I share them on LinkedIn posts all the time. A better way is to leverage translation and interpretation services. The cost is minimal compared to the potential return. You use written translation services to convert your sales materials into the language of your customers. You’ll keep their attention longer and well over 50% of them will actually pay more money if they have information in their own language. It’s a huge opportunity. And then if you have to talk to your prospects, use telephone or a video interpreter where you can get immediate access to a fully bilingual person who can facilitate the call, so you make sure you and your clients your prospect’s conversation is fully understood.

Once you have an account, you can have an interpreter in one of 200 languages in just 20 seconds or less. It’s a great hidden resource. If you’d like to know more, reach out to me on LinkedIn. It’s just Wendy Pease, P-E-A-S-E for a free consultation.

Scott Ingram: We’ve got a link to Wendy’s LinkedIn profile for you at DailySales.Tips/1062. You can connect with her there and she’s happy to provide a free consultation.

Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“I would say that out of all the videos that I send, I at least get an 80% response rate. It’s probably higher than that.” – Melissa Gaglione in today’s Tip 1061

Do you personalize your videos on your prospecting approach?

Join the conversation below and check the full interview with Melissa!

Melissa Gaglione on Sales Success Stories Interview
Melissa Gaglione on LinkedIn
LivePerson

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes in the form of a clip from my most recent interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Melissa Gaglione who was LivePerson’s top SDR until she was recently promoted to an AE role. Here she is talking about how she used video in her prospecting approach:

Melissa Gaglione: Again, I’m really into people. So an example would be, and I too, use Vidyard. I love Vidyard. It’s such a great tool. When we got it because we didn’t have it in the beginning. And I was just sending regular videos and people’s DMs, and it didn’t look that creepy but we were on to something. But the way that I use Vidyard, and it depends on how much time I have, right? A quick video would probably take me like 15 minutes. It doesn’t take too long, but using Vidyard. Okay, so let me look at a prospect, right? What do they care about? What can I find? This is where the reporting skills come in. What can I find about this person? Did they lead a project somewhere? Did they write any articles? Were they on a YouTube video or anything like that?

There was one guy. Oh, my gosh. There was this one guy who did this podcast, and he had a really cool background. He had this lava lamp, and he spoke about it in the podcast. And I used that as an opener. I was like, “I like lava lamps too because I have one.” And I use that as an opener, something that I can use that I can connect with them on. That just kind of takes it to, like, a different level. But basically, I’ll go on there on their LinkedIn. Maybe I’ll start there. I’ll get some sort of picture of them, right? It could be on LinkedIn. It could be on the company website, something because I want them to know this is for them. We know this. We know this.

And then I’ll have a couple of tabs open where maybe I’ll say, “Hey, I’m reaching out to you because of this. I see that you’re responsible for this.” They know what they’re responsible for, but spend like, 1 second on that, like, 1 second on their title. Great. You are the Chief Digital Officer. Great. We know that. But why is that important? It’s important, because in this video at 1:26, you said this and I’ll press play or in this report you said this and I’ll highlight it or in this podcast, like you said this or you did this, whatever it is about that specific person that I can show them and say, “I know you are the right person,” not just because of your title, but because you’ve either said that you needed something, like LivePerson, or you’ve done some sort of project that leads me to believe that you are a change maker, and then I’ll vibe with them on it. I’ll cheer them on, be like, “That’s great. You’re still on the right path.” I will encourage them to whatever it is that they do right. I want them to know that it’s very specific. It’s very much for them.

There was a prospect that I very much focused on how much she wanted to focus on social change. She was a huge advocate of social change, and I really wanted to pull that because I wanted to show how we can help her, not necessarily her customers, they’re more members, but how we can help her members who are in poverty or who are in these challenging places, how they can connect with them for some help. And I really wanted her to know how much I cared about the same things that she cared about. And so I really dove into who she is as a person and added the value of what we can provide and how that helps her with her personal mission of social change.

So I really dive into the person who they are, what they’ve said, what they’ve done. And I get so into it, but not too creepy. You don’t want to be creepy, but I look at it as like, “Wow, look at you. Look at what you’ve done. Like, you want to do something even greater together?” And I’ll show them a quick sample of what we can do. I don’t spend much time on it. It will be like a quick web page or a quick customer story that could be relevant, and I spend like, not even 10 seconds on it. It’s like a value mixed with a call to action towards the end. But I really want them to know, like, “Hey, I’m reaching out to you specifically. This is why we got to work together,” in a sense, and people feel very compelled. I would say that out of all the videos that I send, I at least get an 80% response rate. It’s probably higher than that. It’s high. People respond to me. They like that. I’ve taken the time to get to know them and it’s nice.

Scott Ingram: For a link to the full interview with Melissa and to connect with her on LinkedIn, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1061

Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“I believe you have an obligation as a sales professional to wow your customer. This is an excellent way to build an emotional connection with your buyer.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 1060

How do you “Wow” your customers?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Mark!

ROI 10
The Other Side of Sales
Mark Schenkius on LinkedIn
1001: 1001 Ways to influence your buyer – Mark Schenkius
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Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Mark Schenkius, who we haven’t seen since tip 1001 where he shared 1001 ways to influence your buyer. Mark is the founder of ROI 10 where he helps sales professionals get better at dealing with buyers. He’s also the author of “The Other Side of Sales,” where he shares his perspective after 15 years in procurement. Here he is:

Mark Schenkius: Hi everyone,

Today I’m going to share a true story with you. The interesting part is that this happened to me about 15 years ago and somehow, I still remember it vividly today.

I was just appointed in my new role where I was responsible for warehousing and distribution buying for The Netherlands and some other countries within our European network.

We had been working with a logistics provider for some years and I guess we both got a bit complacent over the years. We had frequent management meetings discussing topics such as service level, quality, pricing, and continuous improvement. However, there was no real energy in those meetings. It almost felt like we needed to do it rather than seeing the actual benefits from it.

During one of those meetings, it was announced that we would get a new Key Accounts Manager looking after our business. I still remember thinking: “this is probably going to be same old, same old”.

However, was I in for a surprise. This person was the first Key Accounts Manager I had ever met, who was thinking from our perspective rather than theirs. And what a blessing this was.

At one point in time, we had a discussion to put our company’s branded stickers on the side of the distribution trucks which were owned by the logistics provider. It was a nightmare breaking through the bureaucracy at their end.

At one point in time, this Key Accounts Manager came to me and said: “Mark, let’s park this topic for a week”. Obviously, I asked him why and he said: “well, next week, my manager is on holidays. Normally he needs to sign this off, however when he is away I have approval to sign off these projects and we’ll get it sorted immediately”. And so he did. The next week, 7 trucks were stickered which was a project that was outstanding for months.

This was not the end of the story. On multiple occasions, this Key Accounts Manager delivered more than we could expect from him. Even though this happened about 15 years ago, till this day, I still remember it very well. As a matter of fact, I am still in contact with him today and we meet up about twice per year to catch up.

The moral of this story is that I believe you have an obligation as a sales professional to wow your customer. This is an excellent way to build an emotional connection with your buyer.

I know you often have conflicting targets such as price of payment terms, however, try to think from their perspective. Try thinking with your buyer rather than against them. This will generate the wow factor you need.

Happy negotiations everyone!

Scott Ingram: For more insights from the professional buyer’s perspective. Definitely check out Mark’s book: “The Other Side of Sales,” and as always we’ll have links to that and more for you at DailySales.Tips/1060

Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!