I instantly liked my friend’s job & wished I had such a job too.
My friend & I studied Mechanical Engineering together in college. We used to do ‘Joint Study’ often during college. He often made everything look easy & simple. I thoroughly enjoyed studying with him.
We graduated. We parted ways. He was fortunate to start his career in Mechanical Engineering. Years passed. He had by then moved on to his second job. I was still at my first job in Sales in IT. He was working at Pune with an Engg Major. We met at Chennai after a long time. We had dinner together.
The next day, he asked me if I would like to join him for a Sales call after my office hours. I jumped at the opportunity.
Prior to the call, he briefed me on the agenda. He was going to introduce himself as a consultant without disclosing his true identity or his employer & I would be introduced as his colleague. We were meeting another independent consultant who was in a decision making role with a client.
During the call he talked about technology in general. My friend’s employer was an Engg Major & they were in the business of heating & cooling. For factories, they had solutions to address the heat generated. My friend was explaining how not to waste the heat generated but to use it efficiently. In between, he probed the buyer to understand what he thinks of various technologies that are there in the market. He thoroughly understood the mind-set of the client, their business plans, their strategies, their preferences, their nightmares, their issues & even their budgets.
After the call, my friend explained how they devised this strategy to get information from the market and to generate leads. It was simply amazing. For me to get this information from a client, I might have to slog for months together after bringing value to the client in every interaction. I must give first to receive later. That used to be my style of functioning. I was not worried about competition taking away my business. I know my clients. I work for clients who value me and my contribution. I never gave up. I was an entrepreneur even when I was employed. I looked at long term relationship. I was not in the rat race ever. And I never let any client down, come what may.
Here, I got a new strategy that worked. But not many companies have people on such roles. I am not tagging him in this post nor am I letting you know the name of his company for obvious reasons.
I am passionate about all things “Sales” & “Marketing”. This was one of the things that left me speechless.
After spending many years in hard core Engineering, my friend switched to an IT Career [all roads lead to rome!]. He joined as a Sales Professional with an ERP Solutions Product Company [Indian Company] first. Then, he joined the Big Blue in Sales. Currently he serves in Sales with a partner of the Big Blue in the Middle East.
Take the strategy, if you think it is going to work for you.
We should try a number of things and keep ones that work and drop the rest.
Let me know in comments, if you have any such Sales Strategies.
Happy Selling!
#b2bsales #salesstrategy #kkrocks
