OUT-OF-THE-BOX SELLING STRATEGIES

Selling strategies that are out-of-the-box implies that those selling strategies are not typical selling strategies. 

One of the primary goals of good selling strategies is to shorten the sales cycle.  Let me tell you: if you can develop a sure-fire way of shortening sales cycles through patented selling strategies, you can write your own ticket.  What is one of the reasons sales cycles get bogged down?  Is it because of ineffective selling strategies?  Not necessarily!  Quite often the sale slows down because the order size is too small and the operating management group with whom the sales team is involved is middle management.  It is no secret that one of the dimensions of middle management is that they tend to move slowly, slowly, and to be sure, more slowly.  So even though the dollar size of the proposal might be within the range of authority of the middle management team involved, the best selling strategies known to man won’t make them speed things up.

Here is one of many out-of-the-box selling strategies when there has been widespread product testing, all positive meeting and events and nothing but blue skies ahead.  Instead of developing your proposal so that the dollar figure is within the middle management team’s level of authority, put together a proposal that only the most senior manager, a C-level manager, can approve.  In other words, get the decision out of the hands of middle management.  Remember when you are developing selling strategies, big proposals get big attention.  Little proposals get little attention.

Case Study Story.  Late one year, one of my best salesmen had been working with a well-known high tech company to replace a few of their printed circuit board layout workstations.  Quite a few of the departments had indicated keen interest.  The testing via a solid benchmark had gone well.  My salesman was well liked throughout the client environment.  It was late December and his initial modest proposal for a few workstations was bogged down in middle management.  As selling strategies go, always taking the conservative route can be a serious mistake.  I met with my salesman and told him to put together a proposal to replace every single competitive printed circuit board workstation our client had installed.  Some selling strategies can backfire, and for a moment, I thought my salesman, my favorite sales guy, was going into cardiac arrest.  But he snapped out of it, did the math and exclaimed, “Are you kidding me, Bud: That comes to $7,000,000.  Only the CEO can make that decision.”  “Perfect,” I told him.  Would you believe that the CEO signed the purchase order for $7,000,000 on New Years Eve.  He did!  True story, so help me!  As selling strategies go, it is one of my favorites.

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