So how did it go? Last week I suggested that you learn the customer’s needs, predict what might be required, and make sure your company’s response will be instant, complete, and fully professional over the sparse staffing seasonal exodus. I sincerely hope that the ideas became profitable for you and that you did celebrate some very happy holidays!
Welcome to the sales outlook for 2011. What is selling now and what might be selling mid-year? If you have a definitive answer to that, please e-mail me secretly and we’ll share it between just us! If, however, you are like the rest of us, you can’t guarantee that your current offerings will show value over the next four quarters. The forecast has no bright sunny glow right now, even if the newspapers say the recession is over.
How about selling something else, or in a different way? I have had met folks who made wonderful careers out of explaining products, making commitments, and keeping them. My friend Arden did just that for 60 years. He moved from hawking faucets and showerheads in the 50’s, to automotive and aircraft seating products, to top level industrial metals trading. He plied his trade for dozens of companies along the way. He loved to talk, promise and deliver.
Arden once said that “a professional salesperson could learn and sell anything”. The key is the learning part, continuously. BE that reliable liaison between production and consumer and know the unique details applicable to focused buyers.
Ok, so how about you? What about developing a finer focus on what you know now? What about a niche portion of that? When I searched “Hot Niche Markets” I found the site proproductsourcing.com, predicting 5 products that will make money in 2011. Try: Heart Rate Monitors, Plus Size Shoes, Plus Size Maternity Wear, Military Insignia Collectibles, and Antique Clocks. That’s not exactly where I was going with this.
I am not suggesting you abandon what you know well, but sift through your experience and skills to target a specialized niche reputation. For instance:
- Selling Vehicles? My brother does that! He established himself as “the truck guy”. Local businesses, police, fire departments, and contractors know to ask for him. Booms? Tool backs? Rescue vehicle conversions? He’s the guy to say “Specialty trucks are our specialty”, and still manages to sell normal cars in-between.
- Selling Metal Products? You should know by now what the special or long lead items are. Polish your supply connections. Forecast future needs and where to get products quickly. Become “the easy to get guy for the hard to get products”!
- Selling office supplies and paper? When maintain a customer base doing this, you surely have records of the buying trends. Work to smooth the customer’s purchasing fluctuations. Predict and prepare typical seasonal orders to just “click on”. Know your customers and become “The gal who always seems to know what we need next”!
The examples are endless. Think about your customers, THEIR trends, special needs, unique JIT requirements and pinpoint a strategy to become the one they call when a need has to be filled, by YOU!
K.B. Elliott is a Detroit area contributing writer for Nexxt. Having worked seats on both sides of the sales table for over 30 years gives unique perspective to the sales process and the varieties of successes to be had.
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