Here is one of my favourite stories. The philosophy behind it has helped me immensely in building up key accounts:

A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day this goose laid a golden egg, which provided a very comfortable income. Some days it laid more than one egg. On occassions it laid no eggs at all. The couple, however, had lived very comfortably from the golden eggs.

So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she had no golden eggs inside of her at all. That was the end of their daily golden eggs.

Look after your “golden” geese, nurture them, treat them with respect, and they will provide for you in ways you may never have imagined! If you do not yet have a “golden” goose then go looking for one!

I was talking to a business owner yesterday who was telling me how he had been in sales for 25 years and how he knew how to sell…..but….was struggling to sell his new service.

I asked him to describe what it is that he is selling and who his target audience is and he went through a lengthy explanation that left me baffled – and I am normally quick to see where the value is hidden, even when my clients do not.

Therein lies the problem that many business owners experience when trying to sell something clever and new. If their prospects cannot quickly ‘get’ how it could potentially benefit them…..then selling is always going to be a struggle.

I have yet to find a product or service that cannot be bottled down to a simple sentence of 15 words (or less) to explain the essence of the proposition. Finding those 15 words can sometimes take some digging but it’s worth the effort.

If you can spark some interest with a simple sales message then your prospect will have the motivation to listen to more detail. If you confuse them with your initial explanation then you will rarely get a second chance.

Anyway, I told this business owner that I specialise in helping clients generate more leads by simplifying their sales messages… and I am pleased to say we will be doing a workshop together shortly!

You are in an unfamiliar part of town. It’s cold, dark and the street lighting is next to useless. You know where you want to get to but you are finding it very difficult to find the right way forward……….

That’s often what it’s like selling to a larger company where it’s difficult to find out who is involved in making the decision and how best to influence them. The chances are that if it’s a larger sale then there are going to be different people involved in the decision making process – but who are they and what is their role? It sometimes feels like one is fumbling in the dark.

A simple but effective approach that top sales people use is to find people within the organisation who are not necessarily directly involved in the decision making process but can help shine a light on the situation. For example, who you need to speak to, who your competition are, buying motivations etc

PAs and introductions from friends are ideal for this until you have started working within the account. That is why it pays to treat PAs with respect.

Once you have enough light to see where you are going the journey is much easier – that goes for sales too!

For me the answer is both! Not only do you end up selling more but you have a much more enjoyable time doing so!

When I am coaching corporate sales people and business owners to increase sales with their existing clients I often come across one of two mistakes which get in the way of sales.

Firstly, the sales person only ever talks to the client when they want to sell something. For some reason the sales person gets a little puzzled as to why the client never seems to take their call unless they want to buy something.

The other mistake is that the sales person works very hard on the relationship and never mentions sales unless the client brings it up. The sales person gets very frustrated that despite all their effort in building the relationship they are not selling much.

I would suggest that we should be seeking a happy medium between the two. We need to have both relationship conversations and sales conversations and it is important not to mix the two. The client needs to understand that you are there to add value and that you will be coming to them from time to time with suggestions and new ideas that you believe will add even more value.

One of the key things to remember is that if you are engaged in a relationship conversation and a sales opportunity comes up, that you arrange a separate meeting to discuss the opportunity. In my experience a client is more likely to take your calls when you have demonstrated by your actions that you are a valuable resource to have around and not just a typical sales person. Ironically, the quality of the relationship will increase significantly and so will your sales!