Start-Up Success: Sales Pros or Order Takers?
You can have the best product, terrific marketing materials and stellar sales training - and still fail. Why? Because you’ve hired order takers.
I ran into this in a past corporate life when we were launching a major new service product. I was given the list of the “creme de la creme” of our sales force, from across the nation. We spent a ton of money with an outside firm to craft a education program. Then, we got to the evaluation stage. Who-oh. Very few of the stars could even write a decent proposal much less make a good presentation. Most of the ones who did squeak through could never seem to put together a deal without calling me. After much discussion with the sales VPs, I realized the problem. We had a bunch of order takers, who had for the most part inherited their major accounts. Almost none of them knew how to think off the order sheet. If it was more complicated than checking a box, they got lost.
Don’t get bedazzled by account lists or the shine on their loafers. Some order takers can dress the part (right down to those gleaming Guccis) and talk a great game of sales catch phrases. When you’re ready to hire sales people, look for pros who can give you real-life examples of how they’ve built relationships, done high-margin deals and…can think on their feet (loafers optional!)
View the Blog Roll
November 14th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Love this post.
“Loafers optional!” That’s A-OK with me, I don’t wear loafers.
Recently I have had a couple of speaking engagements where I’ve been asked to address “how to build a sales culture”. I think this must be the new way of saying - we don’t know how to sell.
Always get some real good from reading your posts.
Keep creating,
Mike
November 15th, 2007 at 9:35 am
The worst is the order takers who think they’re salespeople. They’re the ones always looking for a price drop or a new campaign or something to keep them from having to actually sell.
Watching a real salesperson work though…that is truly interesting.
November 29th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Ahh, this hits home because in a former corporate life, I too realized I was more of an order taker than a true sales pro. It’s easy to be a salesperson, but you have to be truly unique and talented to be a sales pro. James Brausch also has interesting views on this.
I don’t have a link, but check out Alec Baldwin’s famous scene in “Glengarry Glen Ross” on YouTube. That just about sums up the difference between a sales pro and an order taker!
April 10th, 2008 at 8:08 am
[…] Posts: Start-Up Success: Sales Pros Or Order Takers? Selling: They’ve Got To Taste It First! Selling: ABC Is […]