Will You Survive as a Sales Professional?

Written by: Bill Lee

If you don’t change your approach to selling in 2018, this year could very well be your last chance for survival.

I realize this kind of statement deserves some explanation, so if you’ll continue reading, I’ll try to explain why I believe this.

Beginning in 2008, our industry has lost hundreds of independent building supply businesses and branch yards belonging to the national chains…. and thousands of salespeople. I’m talking about family businesses that have been around for several generations and salespeople who just a few years ago were among the top earners in their respective communities.

Then almost without warning, salespeople who were earning into the high six figures in commission income were forced to begin devouring their retirement accounts just to survive financially as their incomes plummeted.

Then came 2013 and like the mythical phoenix the housing industry began trying to regenerate itself from its own ashes. For the first time in five years I began seeing salespeople walking around with a little swagger. Now that 2014 appears to be an even stronger year for housing than 2013, I am seeing the tendency among our industry’s salespeople to fall back into their old habits.

Let’s face it, there are a lot fewer custom homebuilders out there and the competition for the larger production builders is fierce, so salespeople who expect to survive this smaller ever changing housing market must offer prospects something their competition doesn’t.

Authors Bob Burg and John David Mann in their book Go-Givers Sell More say, ” Selling us giving: giving time, attention, counsel, education, empathy and value. In fact, the word sell comes from the Old English word sellan, which means – you guessed it – to give.”

It’s not about you it’s about the customer. One of the primary ways decision makers are attracted to you is because of what you are able to give them in ways other than product and price. It’s called creating value and if there’s a guaranteed way to create value it’s to do what you do as a salesperson in such a way that the customer perceives it to be over and above the call of duty.

Back when I had a day job, I spent five years as a commodities buyer. I had a parade of salespeople calling on me every week. The salespeople who had nothing more to offer than a quality product and a fair price almost invariably lost out to those who brought value to my organization and to me personally.

Related: What Happens If Everyone Is Held Accountable for Sales Success

Value is the key word.

Value is what sets salespeople apart.

Ask yourselves these questions and please take your answers seriously because your answers will tell you a lot about your long term ability to survive as a professional salesperson in the construction supply industry.

(THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ARE TODAY’S MONDAY MORNING DRILL QUESTIONS)

  • What can my company and I do for my customers and prospects that my competitors cannot? This is a critical question.
  • Do I know as much about the business side of home building as I do the construction side?
  • Looking at me through my customers’ and prospects’ eyes, what value do they perceive in me they do not perceive in my competitors?
  • When I make service claims, am I able to substantiate them with facts and figures?
  • Name three reasons a customer or prospect should do business with my company and me that my competitors and their salespeople cannot duplicate.
  • How many books, sales seminars, DVD or CD programs have I participated in over the last 12 months?
  • To survive our customers and prospects must perceive that we are growing professionally to the extent we can add more value than can our competitors.