Dave Kurlan is a top-rated speaker, best-selling author, sales thought leader and highly regarded sales development expert.
Today, Seth Godin's post, Would We Miss You?, got me thinking about one of the very important qualities possessed by great salespeople but one of the few characteristics that we can't measure in an assessment. Are your salespeople memorable?
Salespeople can be memorable in a number of ways and for many reasons but one thing is for sure, prospects don't remember bad salespeople. For example, suppose we put a new salesperson on the phone and this individual makes some calls - bad ones - and prospects either hang up or express their disinterest. Then we super train the new salesperson who, over time, learns to be quite effective over the phone. Next we ask the salesperson to recall the prospects that were called during the first week. The salesperson balks at this idea, worried that these prospects will remember the horrible calls that were placed. However, those worries are unfounded because when the salesperson calls back, the prospects seem to have no clue that they had ever received a call from this salesperson before. Lousy is not memorable. Average is not memorable. Great is memorable. But a lot of salespeople have tremendous expertise, use it at the wrong time, too early in the process, and prospects don't want to hear it and blow your salespeople away. Not memorable. However, salespeople who are just plain great at selling, especially at the beginning of the process, on the phone, in the first meeting, engaging prospects, asking great questions, listening effectively, following up with more great questions, in order to provide an opportunity to later demonstrate their expertise, are memorable. Prospects by from memorable salespeople and continue to buy from them over time.
How many of your salespeople are memorable?
(c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
© Copyright Dave Kurlan All Rights Reserved