If I believe sales is a good career, the next step is to gain a better understanding of my products and/or services and chart out the features, functions and benefits of what my company offers versus my competition. If we don't know what we are selling, how can we offer a solution to anyone?

I write down everything my company says it offers.  I then group these products and services into two groups.

Group 1:  Easier to sell.

Group 2.  Harder to sell.

Easier to sell products/services are the company's core products and services; for example, the products customers call in to request a quote for (commonly known as "bluebird" leads).  Other products or services may be in urgent demand or offer new benefits to the customer.  These products and services fall into Group 1.

Group 2 are more difficult.  The company's compensation structure often rewards this group with higher percentage commission.  A consultative sales process may be required to determine the needs of the customer and build the implication of the impact of a need with the customer to reach a conclusion that first, they need the product, second they want to buy it from you.

Next, I examine the strengths and weaknesses of each product and service against known competitors products and services.  I examine as many of my customer's potential issues as possible, including the following:

    Financial Savings - Price, Performance Enhancement

    Functionality:  Additional Capability, Gaining Competitive Edge

    Peace of Mind:  Quality - Better Product, Better Service (and proof of it)

    Save Time - Will Product Save Time?  Will They Be Able To Do More?

Many internet-driven companies are in a flurry to get to market quicker.  Can your product or service help them maintain their focus through outsourcing?  There are many different features, functions and benefits we can list and the first brainstorming session may not produce all of them.  By keeping our eyes and ears open on sales calls and in meetings with our company and reading about our competitors and our customers new ideas may pop into our head.  We can trust this intuition to be worth pursuing much of the time.  Also, by riding along with fellow employees, whether administrators or people in other divisions we can learn much more about our products and how they help our customers than we might sitting in our office thinking by ourselves.  When I'm stuck I go outside.  It always seems to help.

Gaining a good understanding of what we are selling is critical to Conceptual Selling.   Once we know what we are selling we can begin to set goals and build strategy.

Scott Andrews is CEO and Founder of AspireNow (www.AspireNow.com), a leading business productivity and personal development firm based in California. AspireNow helps organizations launch new products and services, train sales teams, and innovatively change businesses through  cutting-edge business models and techniques to improve success. For more information, contact Scott@AspireNow.com, or visit http://www.AspireNow.com.

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