A Question from the Sales Team: How do I discover information without asking rude and possibly offensive questions? Leading questions can uncover answers worth celebrating! I regularly coach salespeople to learn more about their customers.  I often reference a bit from Harvey MacKay’s book from the 1980’s “How to Swim with Sharks without being Eaten Alive”, called the MacKay 66.  It’s basically a 66-question list of things to discover about your customer.  It covers all things personal as well as their thoughts around their company, job and career goals.  Quite honestly, it’s an exhaustive list.  But… I believe a salesperson armed with this information will outperform their competitors.  And, since I have received the same question from several of my clients’ salespeople in the past few weeks, I feel compelled to address the topic. One young salesperson stated point blank, “I have been thinking about the questions you have asked me to d...

A Question from the Sales Team: How long should I pursue an account before I give up? Chasing money is a timeless art. A couple of weeks ago I was making coaching calls with a sales guy who possessed lots of potential but less than 18 month’s experience. He’s a smart, aggressive guy with a professional attitude.  He targets his accounts, studies his results and devotes time to prospecting.  But after nearly a year of calling on a couple of major accounts, orders still weren’t flowing.  As our day wound to an end, he asked me point blank, “How long should I pursue an account before I give up and move on?”  Here are some thoughts for you to consider: Was the customer properly selected as a prospect? Is the customer in the right industry, possess the right potential volume and credit worthy?  A lot of this information is available via a little research.  Armed with a manufacturer’s directory, the internet and maybe a D&B report, we can na...

Some questions demand an answer, they literally jump up and down screaming for intelligent action. The problem is this; many times these questions develop over a long period of time. Because they develop slowly over time, they become invisible. Life’s like that. My dad used to say, “We’re too busy picking up acorns to see the tree.” I think we’ve gone past the tree and are neck deep in forest. Last week I had the opportunity to address the leadership teams from a select group of distributors at the SPA Strategy Session in Fort Lauderdale. I was the final speaker, and the meeting was running long. To cut my talk short and put a little life into the meeting, I cut my presentation down to ten simple questions. I feel each of these questions demands an answer. Together, they demand action. Question 1: Do you believe our business environment is changing? It’s pretty hard to justify any kind of answer except for a resounding… yes. Our customers want more services, faster respo...

I wrote this article for a major publication back in 2007. Just yesterday, a client reminded me of its contents. Apparently, he runs everything on a 90- day window. And while you may choose to update the technology referenced, the idea works, whether you are a product specialist, salesperson or manager.  -Frank           The Product Specialist’s Window of Opportunity Picture Benjamin Franklin – old Quaker outfit, printing press in the background – sitting at his writing desk. He coins phrase after phrase, a number still popular in daily life 250 years later. “The early bird gets the worm,” “a penny saved is a penny earned,” “a stitch in time saves nine,” and the lesser known; “Make a plan – live the plan.” Just for fun, let’s test this 250 year old kernel against the grit of our own laptop toting, blackberry driven life. Distributor managers put together a financial plan at the beginning of every year. Typically, this plan revolves aro...

Special Pricing Agreement and Thoughts about Ship and Debit Programs Click here for a brief tutorial on Ship and Debit Programs. Special Pricing Agreements (SPA) have been around for a very long time. The concept is simple; a manufacturer uses their distribution channel as a vehicle to service a customer who requires very low pricing to match some commercial situation. The details of the commercial situation aren’t really all that pertinent. They can arise due to customer potential, competitive pricing pressure, or supply contracts driven with large mega-corporations. The point is normal distributor margins no longer support the selling price and the distributor plays a critical role in providing some service to the customer. In years gone by, distributors involved in these situations purchased products earmarked for the special priced customer at sub-distributor price levels. The freshly purchased (at lower than normal cost) products were either brought “into stock” to sell...