I love a good challenge.  While talking about sales training with a sales manager from another industry, I made the statement, “Our kind of selling is different.”  The sales manager, who fancies himself as an expert and comes from a consumer-based background, took offense.  He asked me to differentiate our type of sales from the sales background he experienced.   Transactional sales Thinking back on the several hundred books on selling that I have read, I would characterize all but a handful as focusing on transactional selling.   Transactional selling is focused on making a one-time sale and then moving on to the next customer.   This type of selling is often used for commoditized products or services.   Think about the last computer you purchased.   Did the company create or provide anything that caused you to want to continue your relationship?   In my mind, the salesperson's goal was to make the sale – period.     O...

In a blog titled, Advice for Distributor-friendly Manufacturers , I said this: Understand your distributor's business model.  Distributor associations publish Profit Analysis Reports.  Reviewing these allows you to better understand the Gross Margin levels needed to drive profitability. Looking for ways to reduce duplication of effort and streamline operational processes allows distributors to operate profitably when slimmer margins are required. Helping your distributors be better helps everyone. A couple of manufacturer-type salespeople noted that their distributors were not members of distributor associations publishing a Profit Analysis Report (aka PAR report). Yet, they are still keenly interested in better understanding their distributors’ models. One asked: What would be interesting and worthwhile questions to ask to find out a distributor business model? Before we launch into the questions, let me share a bit of background information. Some of you may...