Increase Your Sales Footprint

Greg DicksonPosted by Greg Dickson on January 29th, 2010 | 0 Comments

I believe we are living in perhaps the most challenging business climate that any of us, collectively, will experience in our working lives. We are faced with day-to-day challenges that seem to be out of our control. And we are impacted, either directly or indirectly, by a sweeping tide of change, forcing us to analyze our resources and our courses of action in different ways.

Every day I am more aware of the pressure to improve the economies of scale within our firms, divisions, or departments, leading us to think of more creative ways of doing “more with less.” However, simply asking our people to do more is becoming less and less of an option, in light of the already seam-bursting workloads that most are carrying.

One area that surfaces as a treasure-trove of possibilities is our technical staffs. Technical experts, be they IT, financial or engineering, must now be in direct contact with clients and customers, often at the client site. Having worked in the IT industry for 15 years, I am aware that these interactions can be challenging – left-brainers are great at solving technical problems but may not be so great at communicating. I can only begin to imagine what might be possible if these technical experts were also capable communicators, acting as pre-sales agents, sales scouts, or as a sales triage.

From where I sit, the value added to our organizations would be tremendous, if the technical experts had the confidence and skill to engage with department managers, directors, or even VP level management. I picture technical staffs engaging with senior level managers as trusted advisers, able to describe unrealized issues or opportunities, and propose possible solutions. Or acting as a catalyst to bring the right people within our organizations together to discuss and resolve the issues that only they are aware of. By expanding the skill sets of our technical staffs, our organizations can expand their sales footprint without adding to the headcount of the organization.

Some areas of focus for our technical experts could be:

  1. Be aware of the audience’s level of expertise. Not everyone knows what you know. So, guide the rest of us to your level of knowledge.
  2. Use language that your audience understands and can relate to instead of technical jargon that causes people to tune out.
  3. Recognize that your audience might have discomfort with your knowledge/expertise, and therefore hesitate to approach you with questions. So, smile, be freindly and approachable.
  4. Relate your information to your audience’s world using examples and stories, don’t drone on and on with facts and statistics.
  5. Accept that questions don’t mean challenges – the audience is just trying to understand your message.

I am not suggesting that our technical experts fill the role of sales people. However, I am suggesting that with increased communication skills and confidence they could help our clients identify and solve problems. They would be highly valued by the client, and broaden the reach of our organization’s sales presence through effective communication – identifying and facilitating opportunities for the sales team. 

Image by :: Adek ::

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