What’s The Most Important Part of The Sale?

Posted by Jeff Carter
on December 12th, 2012

When you are out pitching your company to investors, or once you raise money pitching your company to customers, what’s the most important part of the sale?

Sales (Photo credit: Nils Geylen)

I might argue that it’s the appointment.

Many times it’s just hard to get in front of your target customer. They are busy doing their own thing. If you can’t get the appointment, you can’t sell. No sales, no revenue and you are out of business. That’s why elevator pitches are pretty critical. They tell what the company does, and set the hook so the target customer will accept an appointment with you to at least listen to your value proposition.

In digital companies, the web page or mobile app button is your point of sale. Bad user experience means that people won’t use the product. That’s one of the reasons I like One Design in Chicago. They make great UX. The start up digital company that fails to pay attention to a beautiful front end winds up on the trash heap with all the other digital companies out there. It’s crucial that you explore this deeply. If you follow FAKE GRIMLOCK at all on Twitter, you will see many of his tweets talk about design and user experience. ”IF SUCK NO ONE USE”, in Grimlockspeak.

Once you get the appointment, the ballgame is on. Then you have to sell the why. Figuring out a compelling way to sell the why is make or break for companies. Tap into a visceral reason for your customer to buy your product. Try and sell them an emotional connection, and the business becomes stickier. Very few companies are so differentiated, so transparent that the customer can pick up the product and sell the why to themselves. If you have a company like that, then it’s selling ice to eskimos and only poor execution will doom you.

In my first job, I sold abrasives, adhesives, coatings and sealers for 3M ($MMM). The products I sold were always more expensive than anything else on the market, so I had to sell the why. Sometimes the why was simply a side by side demo where the customer saw my product worked better-which is why we could charge a higher price. But, since it worked the customer knew they were saving money in the long run. If I was selling to a distributor, the why became what I would do to pull that product through distribution. No other company was supporting them like that. Sometimes the why had to do with the sheer uniqueness and innovation behind the product. A customer would reach out and grab it from you to see how it worked. Sometimes, customers had massive problems that you could solve with an inventive solution using an existing product.

A great salesperson plots all that out before the call, but in the midst of a sales call can listen to their customer and figure out their hot button and pivot to hit it. But of course, none of that happens without an appointment!

In the Daily Pennsylvanian, they talked about selling for start ups.

In particular, they stressed the importance of knowing how to sell and talk to others, as well as making good business relationships.

For example, Alan Levin described a colleague who would use a speech impediment to his advantage, and another who brought flowers to the secretaries who worked at companies he was meeting with.

No one gets a hit without an at bat. What’s the best method you have used to get the appointment?

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.