The Key to Small Business Growth? Buyer Alignment

Unfortunately for all buyers, each selling organization and their individual sales professionals are unique and often require immense amounts of energy to build a relationship with. This keeps buyers guessing, which in turn keeps the sales organization guessing. It's a constant game being played out across offices across the country.

To help both sides, it may be prudent to go back to root cause of these ambiguity. The only common denominator across all sales organizations and all buying organizations is the dollar sign. Surprise! Buyers and sellers are concerned about the same thing! The buying organization wants more revenue through decreased revenue; the selling organization wants more revenue through sales. The bottom line-- we all want more revenue.

The item that keeps most C-level executives up at night is how to engage in the global marketplace to increase revenue or reduce costs-that's it. All decisions being made today, whether it's compliance to new laws, expansion into new markets, or whether to lay anyone off, can be traced back to these two sides of the dollar sign. The key for many companies is to focus on aligning marketing, sales, and customer service functions to that common dollar sign--but this is easier said than done. What many companies fail to do is to align these systems to the buying organization and their actual buying processes instead of forcing their process onto the buying organization.

This approach can be summarized as:

(1) Know your customer,

(2) Know your product,

(3) Be ready for the customer to buy, and

(4) Stay engaged with the customer after the sale.

Many organizations train their sales professionals, marketing departments, and customer service representatives on their product, but stop there. As a result, they have spent millions of dollars on training with little results. The problem with this approach is quite simple; they have not first asked "what is the process the buying organization uses in relation to these four phases?"

Believe it or not, the occupation that must understand this question absolutely and definitively is the sales profession. This is because the sales profession has the responsibility for converting market demand into revenue for the selling organization by understanding the desire to increase revenue in the selling organization. Sales professionals fill a critical position in any company by spanning boundaries from one organization to the other. The sales organization (sale professionals, and all supporting infrastructure) must build relationships, understand the customer, and articulate how bring value to the lives of their buyers. This in turn helps the subsequent customer. Sound confusing? Try doing it with a CFO of a telecom firm in the morning, a VP of Marketing in an IT software firm at lunch, and a CEO of a fortune 1000 at night!

The question is not "how do project our sales process onto the buyer?" The real question is "how do we facilitate the customer experience?"

As an example, how would your organization sell to the federal government? Would it be easy to do so if your organization had never done it before? The reason why it is difficult to sell to the federal government lies in difficulty of understanding how the federal government procures their goods and services. By understanding how the government buys obviously helps companies understand how to sell. This needs to happen in every industry, with every buying customer. Unfortunately, this crucial understanding is often overlooked, at the expense of driving lop-line growth.

Brian is the Chairman and Founder of the the United Professional Sales Association (UPSA). UPSA is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington DC that has addressed the concerns and challenges of individual sales professionals. Brian has authored the world's first universal selling standards and open-source selling framework for free distribution. This 'Compendium of Professional Selling' containing the commonly accepted and universally functional knowledge that all sales professionals possess. The open-source selling standards have been downloaded in 16 countries by over 300 people. Over 30 people have made contributions.

Because UPSA is not owned by one person or any company, it is a member organization and guardian of the global standard of entry into the sales profession.

Find out about the membership organization and understand the processes and framework of professional selling at the UPSA Website at http://www.upsa-intl.org. Find out more about Brian at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Brian _Lambert

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


Arent Small Businesses Lucky?

Why? Because they have access to world class public relations... Read More

The Perilous Franchise Agreement: What Did You Sign?

Purchasing a franchise has become one of the most popular... Read More

Data Loss - Can Your Company Survive? (Most Do Not)

Data. Most people think it is a term relegated to... Read More

Asphalt Paving: Striping Your Parking Lot

As you may already know, asphalt paved parking lots do... Read More

Learning and Growing

As you reflect on this year and prepare for next... Read More

Low Cost or Highly Funded Start Up

Many new ventures are preoccupied with all the money they... Read More

Top Ten Blunders Business Owners Make

In today's marketplace the words 'job security' have become an... Read More

Success Tips for Small Business Owners

Running a small business requires many skills. However, to do... Read More

Everything I Need to Know About Business I Learned From My Nametag

So there I was ? sitting in the audience of... Read More

Entrepreneurs and Franchisors Watch Out

New Franchisors and Entrepreneurs need to watch out as they... Read More

Too Many Lawyers in Franchising Today

Attorneys and Lawyers are ruining the franchise industry. It is... Read More

Franchising in The Middle East There Will Bring Significant Opportunity for US Based Franchisors

As stability emerges in the Middle East there will be... Read More

Most Franchises Are Small Home Businesses

Many of our nations 400,000 franchisees run their businesses out... Read More

Australian Workplace Agreements - How They Work For You

The employer / employee relations environment has been constantly evolving... Read More

Small Business Strategies - Four Critical Success Factors

Scenario OneDuring a recent presentation, a business owner was given... Read More

SBIR - A Nice Add-on Business

If you are a small business and qualify to participate... Read More

Who Makes the BEST Alliance

What types of companies do you want to align yourself... Read More

Franchising and Royalty Payments

If you are thinking of turning your current into a... Read More

Choosing A Business Thats Right For You

Q: I really want to start my own business, but... Read More

But This Is Just My Opinion

Hi, Charles...here, Your Cap and t-shirt guy From Texas. How... Read More

Deciding Which State To Incorporate Your Small Business In

Once you've decided to incorporate your small business the next... Read More

11 Things Small Business Owners Can Learn From Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

1. Everyone Makes A Difference ? Despite not letting him... Read More

How to Profit from Business Consulting Opportunities

Business consulting opportunities might be just what your are looking... Read More

Excuses Franchisees Make; When They Violate Exclusive Territory Agreements

One of the biggest excuses franchisees of home based and... Read More

Business Success - The 42 Greatest Business Tips

What does it take to grow a business and run... Read More

The Key to a Successful Business

Where would a business be without a business plan? A... Read More

Using Holidays to Put Some Extra Cheer in Your Cash Box

No matter your age or station in life, we all... Read More

Do You Make These 7 Deadly Cash Flow Mistakes?

Managing cash flow is every small business owner's most important... Read More

Employee Relations Manual Sample Outline

Most smart entrepreneurs and all large corporations have Employee Relations... Read More

How to Become Successful in the Field of Financial Consultants

Financial Consultants are one of the fastest growing industries today.... Read More

Choose Your Own Guru

What is a guru?A guru is a teacher. A mentor.... Read More

Practical Money-Saving Tips For Small Businesses

One of the primary concerns all small businesses have is... Read More

Smart PR Tactics for Small Businesses

Small businesses need Public Relations, possibly more than large corporations,... Read More