The 4 Principles of Selling
Introducing the 4 Principles of Selling... What Tangent Strategies believes to be the lifeblood of every business.
Sales Growth with Dignity
Dignity, sophistication, respect and admiration are hardly words one would associate with selling and yet every day of every week more salespeople are earning these accolades by applying Tangent's 21st century selling principles and disciplines. TIME PRODUCTIVITY: knowing that time is a finite, a non-renewable resource to be spent with those prepared to buy [...]
A Hunter/Prey Sport
... as quoted to me, while networking, by a male salesperson in his early thirties. “Selling is a hunter/prey sport.” A HUNTER/PREY SPORT? You would be surprised how many business people throughout North America share this salesman's 1950's image of selling. Sellers who perpetuate selling metaphorically as a hunter/prey sport tend to be 35+ males. They will [...]
Are You a First-Responder or JUST a Salesperson?
Examine your motivations. Why would you accept a job offer from a company seeking to hire a salesperson? Is it salary, commission, benefits, travel, prestige, perks, the adrenaline-rush of closing a sale, is it about satisfying your innate ‘hunter’ instinct, the challenge of meeting and exceeding quotas, or is it a sense of duty and loyalty [...]
Be Wary Of The ‘commission-only’ Employer
Companies with proven products or services, with established territories consisting of satisfied customers often remunerate their salespeople on a commission-only basis. These companies value their sales staff and know that commissions from repeat sales will adequately reward them as they prospect for new clients and increased sales from existing clients. Make no mistake, the candidates chosen for [...]
Overcome Objections & Vampires
The phrase ‘overcoming objections’ out-clichés most other jargon in the misunderstood profession of selling. ‘Objections’ are, supposedly, the roadblocks … the counterpoints that prospects use as protection during their struggle not to become customers. In vampire lore garlic, holy water and the crucifix are equivalent to sales objections. Traditional salespeople have, down through history and to this very day, been cast as hunters and [...]
REBRANDING the Salesman
The brand of the traditional salesperson has, is, and continues to be an outright disappointment. Currently, North America views salespeople (male or female) as: intrusive, persistent, biased, manipulative, not entirely truthful, invasive, unintellectual, self-centred, aggressive and potentially unscrupulous. Most salespeople do not deserve these labels, they do not deserve their bad press. Wait, allow me to correct that. [...]
Saleman vs Ally/Trusted Advisor
Bob, a 50+ salesperson at a Nissan dealership assured me several times within the span of our 2-hour negotiation for a Nissan Versa, that he’d get paid whether I bought a car or not. I guess he wanted me to know that ‘commission’ was not his motivation for closing a sale. As often happens in [...]
You’re FIRED!
If the salesperson I’ve hired is not generating sales, not meeting quota, not living up to my projections the fault is mine. I didn’t do my homework and as a result hired someone unqualified for the job. I refused so see that my products or services were no longer competitive. I believed salepeople should either sink or [...]
Don’t Just Differentiate … Make a Difference
Marketing firms will tell their customers how important it is to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but to truly be seen by their target markets today, differentiation is not enough. They need to make a difference. This Christmas Kildonan Place, one of Winnipeg’s major shopping malls, made a difference. Like its competitors Kildonan Place featured [...]