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Kraftwerk posted:That makes me feel a lot better. My co-workers seem to be pretty supportive too. Is it just me or do other sales people seem to have some kind of weird industry camaraderie amongst themselves? When I'm out at events and meeting ppl the fellow sales people always wanna trade stories or help out the young ones. Just don't ever gently caress up my sale or try to steal from me and we can all be friends. Salespeople are the best until they aren't.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:37
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I've got a 3rd round sales interview today with the director of sales. It's for a position I really don't want. I initially wanted an account mgmt position, but was pushed into a sales interview track. I've literally expressed at every stage in this interview that I'm more interested in the relationship between sales and account mgmt than pure sales, but they keep pushing me along. In person interview literally felt like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8afqoDL3Qsk . Pros: Young enviorment, less toxic than current workplace, all sorts of perks/free stuff Cons: Not the job I want to be doing, unclear if growth in position is quick, cold calling  , only person in position (no former people in this position).Not sure how I'm going to go about this if I get the offer. I also will reject it if they don't meet my salary expectations which I set purposely high.
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Aug 12, 2015 17:21
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Don't take a job you don't want to do.
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Aug 12, 2015 18:33
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Kraftwerk posted:That makes me feel a lot better. My co-workers seem to be pretty supportive too. Is it just me or do other sales people seem to have some kind of weird industry camaraderie amongst themselves? When I'm out at events and meeting ppl the fellow sales people always wanna trade stories or help out the young ones. Yes, because we all do the same thing. I sell B2B into c-suites, and if I can't prospect into the office I need to, I'll call into sales. More effective than it should be, really. That being said, I'm only calling into companies sub-250m, so your mileage may vary with large and enterprise. e: Also, Lelerox, if you are looking for a more account-management type sales position, and willing to relocate, send a PM or shoot me an email at naflipwich AT gmail DOT com to talk further. yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan lazercunt fucked around with this message at 14:27 on Aug 15, 2015 |
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Aug 15, 2015 14:23
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lazercunt posted:Yes, because we all do the same thing. I sell B2B into c-suites, and if I can't prospect into the office I need to, I'll call into sales. More effective than it should be, really. I sell packaging but the challenge lies in convincing my territory that we aren't just a product oriented seller of wood based packaging. There's tons of tiny garages all over town that run small runs of corrugate or wood packaging based on the RFQs lazy buyers toss out on a daily basis. The challenge behind my job is getting them to think different and not go straight to RFQ. Shot for shot my company will always be more expensive if your purchasing decision is based on RFQs. I have to choose my customers so that they want my company to be a partner in their logistics operation. Basically project oriented custom packaging sales and stuff. So I'd walk into a company like Airbus and be all like "Well I see you ship aerostructures to your plant in China and 3 out of 5 seem to need touchups from transport damage before it goes into production costing you money and disrupting your delivery schedule". At which point if they don't outright hang up on me I'd be like "Lets schedule an appointment and I'll bring some of my packaging engineers in to have a look and take some measurements. We'll come back to you with a design that will mitigate that damage and provide you with a reusable solution so you're not losing money on your operation." So after that I basically run a year long project where the final goal is to sell them some custom fixture to move an unconventional product from Plant A to Plant B. The customers just don't loving get it. In some cases they even get us to basically design a fancy solution and then they take our engineering drawings, copy the design details and take out our copyrights and company labels and farm it out to someone else who will produce it according to the blueprint for cheaper. It's hosed. I think where I'm most frustrated is I am well aware of many situations (especially with my old employer) where my company will literally save them money if they go with us. But not one of my contacts is willing to engage me in a dialogue about it. Everyone just sends you to voicemail and ignores you e-mails. It's extremely frustrating especially since I am the ONLY sales guy for my area. It's my responsibility to get my company a brand new book of business from scratch. You KNOW you have what your prospects need, you KNOW the business case makes sense, but no matter what you say they just don't want to talk about it with you. I usually get a lot of fake appointments booked and they flake out on me when I follow up. Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Aug 16, 2015 |
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Aug 16, 2015 21:58
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Kraftwerk posted:I think where I'm most frustrated is I am well aware of many situations (especially with my old employer) where my company will literally save them money if they go with us. But not one of my contacts is willing to engage me in a dialogue about it. Everyone just sends you to voicemail and ignores you e-mails. It's extremely frustrating especially since I am the ONLY sales guy for my area. It's my responsibility to get my company a brand new book of business from scratch. You KNOW you have what your prospects need, you KNOW the business case makes sense, but no matter what you say they just don't want to talk about it with you. I usually get a lot of fake appointments booked and they flake out on me when I follow up. Have you thought about the way you frame those introductions? The way I'd sell the airbus call, if I was calling into my prospect, Don: "Don, I was researching your organization and read with great interest that Airbus touches up 60% of its parts due to shipment issues, and I'm reaching out for more direction. I work with companies like yours every day to improve packaging. Who in your engineering leadership team is the best person to speak to about our solutions?" I wouldn't give him my name, I wouldn't introduce myself, or give him a chance to speak. Prospecting is a drive-by shooting. Get in, get a referral, and get out. In many cases, they'll self-refer, and you'll get your meeting set. If they refer elsewhere, you call the person up and namedrop your referral. When it comes to the actual meeting, make sure you get their vision of a solution. Build up the problem as they see it, then figure out what their solution is, and sell them your product as it fits that idea. yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Aug 16, 2015 23:34
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lazercunt posted:Have you thought about the way you frame those introductions? The way I'd sell the airbus call, if I was calling into my prospect, Don: Wow that's amazing! I could totally pull that off. And your move to personalize the solution according to their vision is really clever, I like that. Yeah normally I introduce myself from where I'm calling and who I am and I think it probably comes across too much as a telemarketing call. I haven't had much in the way of training for sales soft skills and I told them during the interviews that this is where I needed work. So they're currently hunting for a good training program in my area to pay for so I can get up to speed in that area. I used to work for an aerospace OEM and I've been stonewalled by literally everyone who can make a decision about my project ideas. I know how to navigate the inside of the company but I can't get to anyone who matters to even START a conversation about what I have in mind. Like one of my strategies was to try and find a champion for my idea. So I went after the director of unit cost reduction. Except every time I called this guy he'd tell me he's in a call and can't talk to me right now. I believed it the first time but the second time I realized he was just trying to get me off the phone.
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Aug 17, 2015 00:02
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Kraftwerk posted:The customers just don't loving get it. In some cases they even get us to basically design a fancy solution and then they take our engineering drawings, copy the design details and take out our copyrights and company labels and farm it out to someone else who will produce it according to the blueprint for cheaper. It's hosed. And then the Chinese suppliers who can't read or think send you back your own drawings with the title blocks covered up to ask for a quote.
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Aug 17, 2015 01:25
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Kraftwerk posted:Wow that's amazing! I could totally pull that off. And your move to personalize the solution according to their vision is really clever, I like that. What you need to do is help just 3 people a week with their problems, that your company/product can solve obviously. Frame the call as exploritory when they reject you for "reason" ask if they have any problms you could help with or take some work off their plate. Snatch Duster fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Aug 17, 2015 |
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Aug 17, 2015 02:34
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Not an experienced sales person but an experienced sales person I've been learning from had me read this book and they talk a lot about that "dry run" problem: http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Complex-Sale-Compete-Stakes/dp/0470533110
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Aug 17, 2015 22:21
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Kraftwerk posted:Wow that's amazing! I could totally pull that off. And your move to personalize the solution according to their vision is really clever, I like that. What you probably want is the ValueSelling Framework, which aligns pretty well with SPIN Selling. The issue with SPIN is that it lends to selling on a Discovery call, where you really should just be building their vision of problem and solution. yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Aug 18, 2015 01:17
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Im not strictly sales anymore, I moved into project management, but we got a new vp of sales and I still hang in the bullpen sometimes and hile started a meeting last week with this The Joy of a Salesman - Ep. 1: http://youtu.be/cVLAvix-dX0
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Aug 18, 2015 02:18
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Some great sales tips and recommendations, especially in the last few posts. Does anyone have any good book recommendations regarding more the networking side of sales and business (for example Never Eat Alone)? Looking to really improve and grow my network since I'm going to be switching careers/fields and was looking for some advice and tips.
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Aug 26, 2015 14:57
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Alfalfa posted:Some great sales tips and recommendations, especially in the last few posts. I'm interested in this as well but I'm not super sure how useful it will end up being for me because we don't have territories. It is hard to network when you're all over the place and you can't attend local industry events.
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Aug 26, 2015 15:09
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https://autopilotforlinkedin.com/?try=5091 Been using this for NBD, works great. My process is crawl peoples profiles, when they view my profile I email them, and send a connection request stating I sent an email. I then use YesWare to notify me when they open the email, then I call and start the sales process. Pretty neat little app imo. Snatch Duster fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Sep 3, 2015 |
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Aug 26, 2015 21:30
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What are you guys selling? I'm always interested learning what everyone does and all the different fields people work in since sales is everywhere.
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Aug 27, 2015 13:33
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I work for a multinational that sells customized and standard industrial packaging. What I didn't take into account was how expensive we were compared to the tiny outfits springing up everywhere. Pretty much all my leads care about is price. Hard to get them to see value in our product.
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Aug 28, 2015 13:36
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Same with pharma sales. Our product is great, but it is a bit pricey, so we're doing a copy card this summer and the reception is crazy good so far. Dolla dolla bills yall.
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Aug 28, 2015 14:15
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Right but your product is actually something that serves a more lasting purpose. Packaging is something necessary but always a thing you can cut corners on. You use it and throw it out so unless your poo poo is super sensitive to transportd damage, no one invests in it. To give you an example a client bought pallets from a competitor and was willing to accept deviations in its length despite their warehouse rules saying the pallet can't be shorter than the box on top of it. I tried to upsell them on our own which I know are built superior but they wouldn't have it. "Too expensive" and it was end of discussion after that. I get RFQs for cool projects on a daily basis and I always lose the business because Joe Blow's garage discount crates n skids undercuts our manufacturing cost let alone any margins we might get...
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Aug 28, 2015 15:27
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I work for a company that has the most expensive product on the market but we win most of the time based on our quality and safety record, plus it's usually paid for by tax dollars. Everybody wins!
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Aug 29, 2015 00:40
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Alfalfa posted:What are you guys selling? Injection Molding Machines and automation equipment.
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Aug 29, 2015 00:46
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Technology - servers, networking, security, etc.
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Aug 29, 2015 02:44
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Software that makes your software better, as technical sales. All the fun and interesting conversation, none of the paperwork.
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Aug 29, 2015 19:24
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Digital marketing. Solid track record of growing brands and focus on revenue-centric strategy makes selling easy once I am in door.
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Aug 29, 2015 21:39
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Propane and propane accessories. I actually sell Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), basically a very specialized ERP for laboratories to manage their samples/test results and other related laboratory data. We sell to any industry so long as they have an analytical laboratory but the big money is typically with pharma.
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Aug 29, 2015 22:42
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Laserfiche VAR, and office equipment. Everything from computers, laptops, displays, servers to copiers and printers with some IT support sprinkled in
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Aug 30, 2015 01:15
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Third Party Logistics, so I sell customers on our ability to move their freight and my previous role in the same company was selling our carriers on the freight we needed picked up.
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Aug 30, 2015 01:51
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sell sponsorship (exhibitions spots / speaking opportunities / private functions) at B2B conferences. hate it.
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Aug 30, 2015 11:29
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IT research services, specifically with smaller vendors of technology. Also a lot to digital marketing firms these days.
yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Aug 30, 2015 12:54
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Kraftwerk posted:Right but your product is actually something that serves a more lasting purpose. Packaging is something necessary but always a thing you can cut corners on. You use it and throw it out so unless your poo poo is super sensitive to transportd damage, no one invests in it. I would kill my mother for good skids, sadly we aren't allowed to buy any till we use of the warehouse of crap we have.
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Sep 8, 2015 18:04
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I just started a new job in a small company, biomass/forestry industry. Sales is one of my main responsibilities. My previous job experience was in international logistics and as an insurance lawyer (gently caress my life). The first task my new boss has given me is to try to close an export business in the UK, at the moment I have few leads. There’s one serious obstacle and it’s that the government has set a huge financial aid scheme for the end consumers, but they will lose said aid if they buy fuel from non-authorized suppliers (aka all non-UK suppliers). I think this will prevent us to get to the final customers. So, the solution probably is to deal with the authorized suppliers and try to sell them the raw materials for them to transform into fuel, they are gathered in a few associations. Would you try to talk with the associations first to get some more qualified leads or would approach each supplier individually? I’m trying to be very careful about not competing with them, but I have the impression they are protectionist bastards and we could get burned. Any advice on how to approach this situation?
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Sep 15, 2015 11:40
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Angry Lobster posted:I just started a new job in a small company, biomass/forestry industry. Sales is one of my main responsibilities. My previous job experience was in international logistics and as an insurance lawyer (gently caress my life). Pick up the phone and call the people who have power to make purchasing decisions about your products, and waste no time on anyone else. Create some more opportunities and network, but what would you ask the association? For a list of their constituents? yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Sep 20, 2015 20:55
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I've been trying to get into technology sales in the San Francisco Bay Area for months now, and have applied to hundreds of postings on LinkedIn. The only interviews I've gotten were for obvious scam companies or jobs that would halve my current salary and probably not lead anywhere else in tech. I have a college degree (in Graphic Design, however), I've been in food service forever and am really good at it, got promoted to manager at my current place, have had help getting a decent resume together, and have friends in the industry that have faith that I'd do well, but what the hell else can I do to get a foot in the door? I want to make this work, but I'm starting to run out of ways to maintain hope.
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Sep 27, 2015 04:54
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KittenofDoom posted:I've been trying to get into technology sales in the San Francisco Bay Area for months now, and have applied to hundreds of postings on LinkedIn. The only interviews I've gotten were for obvious scam companies or jobs that would halve my current salary and probably not lead anywhere else in tech. Are you trying to get into sales exec roles, or things like a business/sales development representative (pursue incoming leads, qualify for sales exec) role? Been to meetups to network?
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Sep 27, 2015 06:12
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I've been applying mostly to entry-level positions like Sales Development Representative roles. Even the ones that don't require experience have only given me a handful of phone interviews. Where would I find out about meetups? I would love to network, but don't know where to start with that. I'm happy to do tradeshows or whatever else might help. If I were to attend one, what kind of business card would I make up? "Waiter" isn't a very impressive job title.
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Sep 27, 2015 09:56
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KittenofDoom posted:I've been applying mostly to entry-level positions like Sales Development Representative roles. Even the ones that don't require experience have only given me a handful of phone interviews. Meetup.com. Reach out to sales recruiters that work at companies you'd like to be employed by. If you have friends in the industry, get them to review your resume and be references. I wouldn't bother with generating a business card - get an e-mail address or business card from the person you engage with, even if you whip out your phone and e-mail them right then and there.
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Sep 27, 2015 10:05
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You should also consider getting any sales job that isn't a scam. Companies are going to be more likely to higher someone with proven sales experience.
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Sep 27, 2015 15:42
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Is it possible to migrate into a tech sales job if you sold something unrelated before? Like my industry requires me to be really familiar with all kinds of manufactured equipment including things like solar panel inverters so I can best match the right kind of solution for the product. I figured that means having a mind that can learn quick and catch onto technical concepts and understand them well. If I can do that in my current job I'm sure tech sales wouldn't be too hard to get into.
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Sep 27, 2015 17:10
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Kraftwerk posted:Is it possible to migrate into a tech sales job if you sold something unrelated before? Like my industry requires me to be really familiar with all kinds of manufactured equipment including things like solar panel inverters so I can best match the right kind of solution for the product. I figured that means having a mind that can learn quick and catch onto technical concepts and understand them well. If I can do that in my current job I'm sure tech sales wouldn't be too hard to get into. Anecdotally, yes. I have a friend that moved from mattress sales to tech.
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Sep 27, 2015 21:51
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Kraftwerk posted:Is it possible to migrate into a tech sales job if you sold something unrelated before? Like my industry requires me to be really familiar with all kinds of manufactured equipment including things like solar panel inverters so I can best match the right kind of solution for the product. I figured that means having a mind that can learn quick and catch onto technical concepts and understand them well. If I can do that in my current job I'm sure tech sales wouldn't be too hard to get into. Software sales is pretty easy to move into which is what I assume he is talking about based on being located in San Francisco. Particularly if you start in an entry level position setting up appointments/qualifying leads.
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Sep 27, 2015 23:20
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