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However, to save the customer time, managers and staff must put in extra time to discover what the customer might consider a problem. Sales staff must scan company Web sites, read corporate annual reports, and talk to competitors in the industry so they can get a feel for prospects' issues. Sales people should thus be rewarded not based on immediate returns and quick-profit producing sales but long-term client building results. Developing and executing such a problem-based sales approach can take longer htan traditional approaches that simply stress product quality. "Eighteen months ago, an opportunity that did not pan out after four to six weeks would have been labeled a low priority," but a "sales cycle of three to four months is now mainstream." It may take twice as many contacts to close a sale today and "surprisingly, both entrepreneurs and experts agree sellers can't always shortcut the process by...
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