In marketing we often hear of the four P's: Price, Product, Promotion, & Place. But what we often fail to teach our business students is what comes before we ever talk about any of the P's... the market. The P's only matter once we know what problem we're solving, how many people have said problem, what they're willing to pay to have the problem solved and how many times in a given year the problem occurs. It's only after we have defined our market that we can then discuss what product we're selling and for what price. I will go into much more depth on "The Market" in the first series of Selling As A Science. Understanding your market is the fundamental first step that most sales and marketing executives miss, and it's often times because we jump straight to the 4 P's. Market's are broken into two sections with the first section being defined as: 1) What problem are you solving? There are needs, wants, and desires in life and people pay for these according what they are the level of pain they are by not having this problem solved. So, the first step in identifying your true market is to deeply understand what problem you are solving. 2) What is your solution for said problem? How are you solving this problem, what is your solution that people will buy to solve the problem, need, want, or desire they are facing. 3) What price are people willing to pay to have said problem solved? This is not your "price" this is merely a range or prices that people are willing to spend to have their need, want, or desire fulfilled. In part 2 we will discuss where does your product fit on the quality scale, high-price or low-end commodity. 4) How many people are willing to pay to have said problem solved? Now we know how many people x the price they are willing to pay to understand the total addressable market. This understanding will greatly aid in our development of promotion and place. Understanding the first four segments to Part 1 of "The Market" will lay the ground work as we begin to develop a complete understanding of addressable markets and the best way to sell into our target addressable markets. Selling As A Science to launch October 30th!
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In almost every organization tenure and/or sales experience reigns over sales training or sales methodology. That's because most have only attributed training or methodology to experience. Most believe that sales is an artsy ability that some have and others don't and the only true test of one's ability is that of time. I couldn't disagree more. I was recently working as a consultant for a startup in Philadelphia and out of the 3 new sales executives they hired, none had any prior sales training. What was more concerning was that formal sales training was not even a criteria they were evaluated on. Truth be told, their past performance and experiences were 90% of the evaluation process. Sure, sales is the one area of an organization where performance is easily measured - but there was nothing more that any of these individuals brought to the table more than simple experience.
Launching October 30th, which is the conclusion of my #30daystill30, will be www.SellingAsAScience.com. When treated as a science, as a repeatable function, sales will begin improving drastically. Sales rep 1 isn't struggling because they aren't very good selling product Y or because rep 2 has better accounts. Sales rep 1 is struggling because they aren't taking a methodical, analytical approach to the game. When treated as a science, anyone, in any scenario, can be successful in sales. Over the course of my career I have encountered both bosses and leaders, and always - always the leaders are the superiors who are significantly more successful. I highly suggest new founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs to understand the graphic below.
As we venture into the 4th and final quarter of the year, sales executives are facing the most intense weeks of their year. Quotas are made and/or missed by Q4 execution. With that, most are beginning to reap the benefits, or consequences, of a years worth of preparation. One of my favorite quotes is, “failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” For all my Q4 sales athletes, don’t be discouraged, it takes multiple touch-points before a successful sale.
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AuthorCarl Eppolito is an experienced sales producer, coach, and author. ArchivesCategories
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