DownSouth,
<< Managing expectations means, as any good sales geek knows, understanding your product, your company, your customers, and being clear to your clients (the market) about what can be expected immediately, in the near term, and in the long term. >>
As a "sales geek" myself, I am totally in agreement with you.
I would like to add one more element to the elements that any sales professional must understand, and that is the competition, their product and technology and their strengths and weaknesses.
This leads to a capability to be able to emphasize the end result benefits of your own product, technology, and company, without demeaning the competition. This leads to credibility, and credibility leads to sales today, followed by upgrade or replacement sales tomorrow.
<< It means clearly adjusting this communication with your client as factors change. It means acknowledging problems and prescribing how those problems are being addressed. It means being conservative in setting performance expectations so that almost all surprises are good ones. It means delivering consistent messages to the client from all parts of the organization. >>
All this defines the selling process.
It is easily translatable to the investment process, or, conversly, "Managing for Shareholder Value", which coincidentally is the subtitle of Geoffrey Moore's new book, "Living on the Fault Line".
The first sentence of the Introduction to "Living on the Fault Line" reads:
"In picking up this book, I sincerely hope you are more interested in its subtitle than its title."
Amen!
- Eric -
Sales Geek |
