“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
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ROI 10
The Other Side of Sales
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1001: 1001 Ways to influence your buyer – Mark Schenkius
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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 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!