Sales Mastery

I recently read Chuck Bauer's book on salesmanship, having mentioned some time ago that I had been looking for a reference on salesmanship that was worth the time to read. Too many books on the subject are clearly below-the-belt tactics for salesmen who approach their customers in the same way a con artist approaches a mark - and while this book strayed into that territory from time to time, it was generally good advice from a salesman who recognizes the value of a long-term relationship with a customer, which is a rare find.

Naturally, I'm not looking to get into the profession, but in designing user experiences in the context of a company that's looking to sell product, I've found that salesmanship is either absent (resulting in poor conversion rates) or done very poorly (resulting in a good conversion rate initially, but a customer who doesn't return when they need to repurchase or renew).

To my way of thinking, a long-term relationship doesn't begin with dirty tricks to get a prospect to make a purchase, and advice given on how to sell a product right away often neglects to consider the damage that using deceitful or subversive tactics does to the potential relationship.

The author's system for sales can be summed up in a few steps - which, after reading them, seem like so much common sense:

1. Market yourself aggressively to people who don't know you.
2. Listen carefully to the customer to learn their specific needs.
3. Demonstrate how your product serves those specific needs.
4. Address any lingering doubts or objections.
5. Close the deal.
6. Keep in contact so that they call you the next time they're in need (even if you miss this time).

There's a great deal more detail on each of these steps, which I don't feel the need to rehash here, but also a fair amount of information that seems to jeopardize your relationship with the customer in order to get an immediate sale out of them - which is likely a difficult balance to achieve.

I may need to look a bit further and do more reading to find an author who has an approach that I think is completely in line with the notion of customer relationship management - but for now, this one is as close as I've seen.