A recent conversation with a salesperson horrified me when they alleged the direction they were getting from the sales manager was to sell one service and focus on it completely. This brought me back to memories when I was selling copiers and our product line was very limited. In my case we had no choice since we only had one product to sell. However, today's businesses often have a suite of services to sell and can't afford to adopt this strategy.

This "one solution strategy" would be like a doctor prescribing one pill for every ailment regardless of what the patient complained about. What would you do if you had a migraine and your doctor prescribed you one pill, the same pill and dosage for everyone was his cure. It might be his only remedy for migraines, high blood pressure or arthritis and anything else you have a problem with. You would run from that doctor like everyone else.

On one hand it is great to highlight a specific product during one day of the week or during a special promotion to generate specific sales. We simply should not turn a blind eye to all the other services a client needs when they are in need.

Don't prescribe unless you know the pain

A Doctor shouldn't prescribe medicine unless they know what causes the pain and salespeople shouldn't offer a solution when we don't have enough or any information. Sending a salesperson out to sell only one solution equals malpractice in my eyes.

It is one thing when a customer walks in our door and an order taker or customer service person responds to their request and specific needs. After all, most Customer Sales Representatives will develop the "order taker" response if they aren't careful. It is another thing to send out salespeople with the idea that they sell one thing. What will happen to the other services, who will sell them if the salesperson doesn't. When we sell a suite services, it requires us to maintain a sales strategy that asks questions identifying an opportunity matching to our services. If we offer many services, we need to ask a lot of questions first.

Baskins and Robbins 31 flavors of services

The founders, Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins believed that people should have choices, so they offered 31 flavors, one for every day of the month. They believed that people should be able to try different flavors without cost, until they found the perfect one for that moment. How many times would you go to the one flavor ice cream shop instead of 31 flavors for ice cream? We might go there once, maybe. Probably when they had the flavor we wanted.

Although some businesses might not offer 31 services, many are getting close. This requires us to know a little bit about each service so we will k

now when a customer will benefit from one of our services. This raises a question, what are we doing to learn about a service and its benefits each day. If we have 21 business day, and 21 services we then have one service to learn each day. If we learn how each service can benefit our customers, we will be in a better position to assist our customers. We should have better questions to ask our customers and know when to package a few services together for our clients to take advantage of.

Focusing on target markets is a good start

Just so we are clear on this topic of a new salesperson, focusing on a few profitable target markets is a good sales strategy. Unfortunately trying to sell our services to all markets through a shot gun approach is not a wise strategy. For any new salesperson, learning about all the different industries and markets takes a long time. There are just too many variables to learn with each different market and it will become overwhelming. When a new salesperson begins their career it is helpful to guide them toward an industry they are most familiar with and have them begin there. This is not the same as suggesting they sell only one solution.

The experience of learning one industry and then another is like learning how to speak one language fluently and then leverage this knowledge toward the next language. Each new language will get easier. It is the same with selling different industries. If we learn all about the sales opportunities and benefits of the hotel and resort markets and enjoy success with them, we can transfer this experience to a new market of our choice. We will learn there are more opportunities than at first glance and gain the benefit of references and referrals within one specific market. My recommendation is to focus on three strategic markets at a time, yet always be willing to accept business from any market.

Experience tells us that when we understand the benefits to a market or industry of our suite of service, we are more likely to suggest them to our clients. What are you doing this month to expand your knowledge of your suite of services? Are you asking enough questions about how a job or order will be used?

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