Selling naked?

I ran across the Selling to Big Companies blog by Jill Konrath. She wrote the book Selling to Big Companies, and has just written another one titled Snap Selling. Her latest entry caught my eye. Sales Classics: Why You Must Go Into Sales Calls Totally, Stark-Raving Naked I bet it got your attention too. We've all heard the stories about people working from home in their pajamas, so it should be no surprise that . . .

Actually, it turns out that salespeople are learning that when they go into presentations "naked," that is without powerpoint presentations or flip charts something odd happens.

Without the brochure, they were forced to focus on the prospect's business. They asked questions about how it was going. They explored the challenges and the issues the prospect was concerned about. They discussed the prospect's goals, ideas and expectations.

That sounds like what should happen in a sales call, but it is actually pretty profound. Most sales calls are not very different than the show and tell presentations children give in elementary school, and the focus of the salesperson is usually on the product or the company or even how cool the salesperson is. I once had a salesperson call on me. It seemed that every conversation started with, "I'm in the airport, and I'm calling you on my cell phone." I think I was supposed to be impressed.

So what happened? Did the sales reps get the sale? How did they manage the call without the slick brochures and clever marketing pieces?

The prospects loved it. They felt valued and understood. They felt like the reps cared and were concerned. They asked for the rep's advice and even wanted specific recommendations.


Despite this final temptation to pull out a brochure, these reps suggested a second meeting as the next step. They got it - and shortly thereafter ended up with bigger contracts than even they could have imagined at the beginning.

I'm not surprised. When I was in sales I learned that customers want to buy solutions. Good sales people work at learning customers' wants and needs and then go about figuring out how to help their customers' accomplish their goals.

Jill Konrath put it well in her post. Check it out.