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Selling to Big Companies

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Selling to Big Companies

Kaplan Publishing,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

The first step to selling to a big corporation is getting a meeting with a real decision maker. Think value, persistence and precision.

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

This succinct, concise, pointed, clearly written guide will help anyone who aims to sell to big companies. Author Jill Konrath is practical, focused and no-nonsense. She includes few of the personal yarns that freckle most such manuals, but enough to let readers know that she writes from experience. Much of what she says is common sense and should be general knowledge. For example, it is hard to imagine that any salesperson would waste time on self-promotion when customers really need and want solutions to their own problems. Yet many sales guides - including this one - emphasize the need to ask questions and offer solutions, so the emphasis must be necessary. The author provides a straightforward how-to manual, with step-by-step guides. She is not afraid to tackle the most elementary matters, such as how to write a letter or how to script a call. getAbstract finds that this book deserves a place on the shelf of any sales manager or salesperson who is targeting big companies.

Summary

No Callbacks?

Arranging sales meetings with decision makers at big companies is very difficult. If you find this to be true, you’re not alone and you’re not imagining it. Moreover, it probably won’t get easier. Many market factors are coming together to make big companies even tougher to penetrate. They are globalizing, constantly reorganizing, restructuring and downsizing. Their people are trying to do more with less. They are dealing with constant change and are not eager to embrace any more of it. Technology has made information more widely available to decision makers, including the kind of inside product information that only sales reps used to provide. Moreover, competition is getting stiffer; even the best product attracts a host of competitors in no time at all. Corporate decision makers aren’t inhuman or superhuman. They’re ordinary Joes and Janes who work for giant corporations. They avoid self-serving, self-promoting salespeople. You must find a new way to get through to them. Remember:

  • Decision makers are under the gun. Don’t even think of wasting their time.
  • You compete with the status quo.
  • Nobody wants to hear your sales pitch.

About the Author

Jill Konrath teaches sales strategies, particularly selling to big companies, and consults with the trade media. She has been featured in Entrepreneur, Sales & Marketing Management and The Wall Street Journal’s Startup Journal, among others.


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    T. K. 10 years ago
    Very good summary. For advanced sales reps - reading the full book - directs you right to main topics worth of focus.

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