The thrill is gone

Zig Ziglar says there are five obstacles to any sale. Today we investigate the fourth obstacle -- no desire.

You probably recognize "no desire" in the form of brush-offs, "we're happy with our current supplier," prospects gone AWOL, and price objections. Why? When prospects don't see the value of your product or service, they have no desire to do business with you - or buy your product at any price.

Julie Thomas, CEO of ValueVision Associates says that your challenge as a salesperson is to help prospects recognize the value of your product, so that your sales campaign ends up on their short list of must-have purchases. Only after you have identified the critical business issue, its underlying problems, and the value of solving these problems, are you in a position to help the prospect move your solution to the top of the list of must-have purchases.

Every problem and business issue has a cost or impact. The challenge is to help the customer see the value from his perspective, not yours. This means asking questions such as:

--How much time do you spend chasing inventory information?
--How much delay does that cause, and how does that translate to revenue production?
--How does this affect you? Are you impacted by this personally?

Once you've established value, you'll discover that "no desire" is no longer an obstacle.

This advice was excerpted from Top Dog Sales Secrets. Julie Thomas is president and CEO of ValueVision Associates.