Four Keys To Selling Strategically

As we covered before, there are four keys to selling strategically.

• First is specialization.
• Second is differentiation.
• Third is segmentation.
• Fourth is concentration.

The more and better you think in terms of the big four, the better and better you will sell and the faster you will sell.

Specialization refers to the unique application or use of your product or service. What has it been designed to do for your customer? Remember, customers, do not buy products or services. They buy solutions to their problems. Ways to satisfy their desires and methods to achieve their goals. Your product or service has been designed to satisfy a specific need to solve a specific problem or to achieve a specific goal for your customer.

In selling amateurs, talk about features of what the product or service is. While professionals talk about benefits, and what the product or service does. Amateurs talk about what the product is all the time. But professionals; they can talk only about what the product does specifically for the customer. Think through the area of specialization for your product, and then think through your specific individual areas of specialization. You have personal abilities that make you special different from other salespeople. How can you best apply your special talents and abilities? This sells the special features and benefits of your product or service.

The second part of strategic selling differentiation is the determinant of the sale. It is the key to great sales success. All top sales professionals are excellent at differentiating their products or service from those of their competitors. Your ability to differentiate what you sell to show your customer that your product or service is better, superior, and different in some way from those of all your competitors is the key to more sales at higher prices. If you cannot differentiate what you\’re selling from what your competitors are selling, you will always have to sell on the basis of price. So what is the unique selling proposition of your product or service? If you had to select one special feature or benefit that makes your product different from and better than any other product on the market today, what would it be?

What is your area of competitive advantage? What is your area of excellence? What is it that your customers say that your product or service offers that no other product or service offers in exactly the same way? Your ability to identify your differential advantage and then to overwhelmingly convince your prospect that he or she will enjoy this special benefit from buying from you is the key to your success in professional selling. By the way, one of the ways to differentiate your product or service is through the uniqueness or special nature of your character and personality. No other product or service for sale in the market comes with you as a part of the package. Be sure that you emphasize that when a customer buys from you, he or she gets you as part of the deal. This can often be the deciding factor.

The third part of strategic selling is segmentation. Look over your territory and your marketing. Ask yourself who are the prospects who can most benefit from the special qualities of my product or service and my competitive advantage or area of excellence? Ideal prospects are those who are the easiest to sell to those who can most benefit most rapidly from the special benefits of your product or service. So who are they? All success in selling today comes from segmentation, from defining those prospects in markets that can most rapidly benefit from the special features, benefits, and qualities that you have to offer. All customers are not the same. Some customers are more valuable than others. Some customers can make a buying decision far faster and easier than others. This is your chosen customer segment. This is the group of prospective customers that you must identify and pinpoint to be in the top 10 percent of your field.

The fourth key to strategic selling is concentration. This refers to your ability to focus your efforts on your highest probability prospects and to sell only to them. Remember, all prospects for your product or service are not necessarily your prospects. There are some people to whom you can sell much easier than others. For example, if you are inexperienced, you should not be attempting to sell to highly sophisticated buyers in major corporations. You should focus your selling efforts on customers with whom you are more comfortable. One of the rules for sales success is to always sell at your own level. Always sell to the kind of people who are similar to you in attitudes. Background, education, experience, and income As you grow as a professional salesperson or business owner, you can raise the level of quality and sophistication of your customers.

> Rule. One of the rules for sales success is to always sell at your own level.

Always sell to the kind of people who are similar to you in attitudes. Background, education, experience, and income As you grow as a professional salesperson or business owner, you can raise the level of quality and sophistication of your customers.

With regard to concentration, you should divide your prospects into three groups. A Prospects B prospects and C prospects. A prospects are those in the top 20 percent of prospects who can represent fully 80 percent of your sales. B prospects are medium prospects who, if they buy, will be medium customers. The C prospects are also important, but they\’re not as important as a or B prospects. Once you have segmented your market, you must dedicate yourself to spending more time with better prospects. You must exhaust your population of prospects before you spend time with B or C prospects. You must discipline yourself to focus your efforts where you have the greatest possibilities of high sales and rewards to sell strategically. You must plan every day, every hour in advance. You must plan your weeks, the week or weekend before. You must plan your months the month before. You must plan your year like a military strategy, thinking through and determining exactly where and how you will get the sales that will generate the income and profits that you desire for that year. The more carefully you plan, and the better you execute your plans, the more time you will spend with better prospects and the higher and better sales you will achieve. When you sell strategically, you won\’t soon move into the top 10 percent in your field.

What is your most valuable? Financial asset and asset can be defined as something that yields a predictable stream of cash flow over time. Using this definition, what is your most valuable financial asset in your own personal world? The answer is simple. Your most valuable asset is your earning ability. It is your ability to generate cash flow by applying your brains and your talents to selling your products and services. Put it another way; your earning ability is your ability to get results of any kind and especially sales results. You could lose your house, your car, your bank account, your job, and everything you have, but as long as you keep your earning ability intact, you could walk out tomorrow and begin generating tens of thousands of dollars per year of income by applying your brainpower to the opportunities in the marketplace around you. It\’s very easy to take your earning ability for granted, but remember, it has taken all of your education, effort, and experience to cultivate and develop your earning ability to the high level that it is at today. You must be constantly aware of the value and importance of this asset and do everything possible overtime to maintain and increase its value and potential cash flow. So here\’s another question. What is your most precious resource? Answer your most precious resource. The one resource in your life that is essential and irreplaceable is your time.

If you lose everything, but you still have enough time, you can make it all back again. Your entire life today, materially, emotionally, and physically is a reflection of how well you have traded your time your life over the years. Are you happy with the results of your trading activities? If not, you can begin immediately today to trade your time better to achieve greater results and rewards in the months and years ahead.