When engaging in sales activity it’s easy to assume that clients and prospects understand what we’re talking about. We are taught that if we just stop talking about features and start talking about benefits then everything will go swimmingly, right?

Well actually it’s wrong. Talking about benefits is a good start but that doesn’t mean our clients and prospects will actually understand what we are saying!

The following are 5 of the most common reasons why accidental sales people fail to get their sales messages across:
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I once heard an excellent saying from a very successful businessman. He said that small business owners decide with their wallets whilst people in large businesses decide with their jobs. Whilst this may not be totally true, it helps us understand why trust is especially important when selling to corporates.

Having a trusted relationship will not guarantee the sale but without it you will be at a severe disadvantage when competing for work with corporates.

Trust can take years to build and seconds to lose. If you follow the 5 tips below, however, you will find trusted relationships quicker to win and easier to grow.
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Sometimes we can make things harder for ourselves without realising it. I prefer to take the easy path every time, especially when it comes to sales.

It took me a while to fully appreciate that there are some things that are easier to sell than others. But when I ‘got it’ I became really excited because in those days I hated selling and wanted to spend as many days as possible doing billable IT consulting work. I didn’t want to spend any more time on selling than was absolutely necessary. The more time I spent selling the less time I had to do billable work for myself and to support my consulting team.

So today I would like to share with you some insights that led to selling becoming a whole lot easier for me. And the easier it became, the more I began to enjoy it!

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Yesterday I was catching up on some recorded TV on my Sky+ player. One of the programs was a documentary on evolution and it was really focused on the vital role that the competition for food has played in how species evolve.

The food for business is profitable sales and just like the animal kingdom we too have to compete for our food in one way or another.

Inspired by the TV program and continuing with the analogy of competing for food, here are 9 strategies for winning more sales from your competitors. I have won business using all of these over the years!
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