"Sell Me, Please Do Not Tell Me!"

Present to me, don’t "pitch me". Connect with me, connect with my company mission. Address me by my name or my company name not by "you guys". Do your homework, ask questions as these are your answers to proceed. Care about my business and me as much as you care about your own business, about yourself and ultimately, please earn the right to ask me for the sale."

In sales we know we must always be relevant, knowledgeable, swift, engaging, entertaining and creative. All while we listen intently, all while seeking profitable sales success. After all, the purpose of a sales presentation is to open a partnership opportunity and close this union by outmuscling competition, by proving the forecast in your presentation will outdistance the forecast in your prospect's expectation. The purpose is to build and cement a valuable, lasting, and profitable quid quo pro union in business. Selling advantage of course comes in many forms, from brand to product to services to capital investments to the glue of personal relationships built on respect, time, and experience: all built on mutual success. The most advantaged, repeatable, and profitable results are derived through the august of professional sales leadership. The best sales results are founded on the principle of asking pertinent questions to formulate winning answers.

For decades I have promulgated, flapped my lips, mentored and proven with incredible team members through face to face selling engagements that you must earn the right to ask for an order. That selling is the core profitable construct of any business, any profession, any negotiation, any endeavor. Success is ventured and capitalized thru selling, not telling the virtues of your offer. I also humbly decree and say again, that in-order-to gain any closing vesture, you must first earn the right to close the sale, earn the right to ask for the order. Otherwise, your ability to close the sale will be just that… a suspectable ability, not the glorious reality of a signed sales order. Indeed brands in themselves are selling platforms if and only they have earned the right to umbrella your preference thru their products and services.

As I read intently through the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and other media outlets regarding manufacturers and/or retailers that have lost their brand luster, have receded shelf space to competition or have lost valued market share, the articles are consistently void of the words “sales and competitive viability.” The editors speak about the fiduciary losses, the loss of market share, overcapitalized cost structures, the two or three companies that have taken market share away, perhaps even a word or two on a lag in product or service performance. Never have I read that the reason for the loss, the reason for a brand and or product demise is weakness in the sales process, in sales capabilities, in sales' ability to out-fuel, out-present and outdistance competitors through their brand, products and market potential. In the sales profession we call such losses “the largest museum of failed products, failed brands… failed intentions.”

Nor have I ever read that market failure is tied directly to the brand’s inability to be creative and relevant through the sales process. It’s as if within these articles the art of selling has nothing to do with the success or failure of a company, its brand strength, its ability to make or take a market. Brands, products, services must all be in assiduous selling mode thru creativity and relevancy in-order-to earn the right to ask for the order, to close the sale physically or digitally. For those of us in sales roles, we stand steadfast in our determination to declare that a major success or failure factor for our company, our brand and or our products is based upon our ability or inability to sell. “We sell, we never tell” is the pro-sales leader’s oxygen, their fuel… their opportunity to succeed thru any rough and tumble business model.

(Peter Weedfald presenting Green Reign Leadership principles at Channel IQ in Chicago)

Indeed, we are selling B2B, B2C or even B2ME. Always, we are selling a consumer, an investor, an analyst, an editor and even our own team members. We even indirectly sell our competitors on just how good and strong our brand and products really are. The honest assessment is that all sales, marketing, communications, product management, services and executive leadership should be in sales mode 24 hours a day. Everyone must sell, everyone should sell, everyone should be given the dignity and vestment of professional sales training in-order-to ensure that the brand, products, and market potential are achieved; exceeded. Thru the report card of sales reality, some team members are selling legends, some are selling mediocre, while many pine to be professional, heralded sales leaders, it is not possible void of investments sales training and mentorship. To be clear, especially for 2023 ahead, the more compelling and creative your selling, of yourself or your company wares, the more opportunity you will be afforded across shrinking categories and more expensive brick-retail shelf space.

Loving, creating, and delivering formidable, highly relevant, and effective sales presentations that work is what market leadership is all about. The aggregation and market muscle of your brand promise through the threads of products, services, human capital, social capital, and competitive advantage lives through your ability to articulate and navigate your brand and product market story; to protract brand leadership bravado more effectively than your competition. This intense sobriety, this heavy focus on the front end of sales excellence determines the future of any brand, any company, any team member. After all, a brand is a promise. Therefore, sales needs-to mirror that promise as defined by personal selling actions, their ability to better present competitive product and value advantage, their ability to be a market maker, market winner in concert with channel partners. Sell me, please do not tell me why I should buy your products, value your brand promise. Sales training alone will not create a professional, highly effective salesperson. However, it will best fortify and viceroy any salesperson to be more effective in presenting your brand and product promised value.

Remember, in order-to throw the winning touchdown, to perform on a Broadway stage, to catch a great white at sea, to earn a hole in one or to ask for the sales order, you must first study, learn to earn the right through professional training, kinetic exercise and purposeful action. This small sample below of highly effective sales closes, much like a coach's playbook, have zero value unless the players on the field (the salesperson) is at peak competitive sales performance, engineered and disciplined through company aligned training, development and of course, have earned the right to ask for the order through their smart, compelling presentation. With 101 sales closes published, I offer you a sample of ten:

#17: The Affordable Close.

#54: The Alternative Choice Close.

#37: The Law of Averages Close.

#99: The Puppy Dog Close.

#48: The Line Logic Close.

#76: The Competitive Close.

#3: The Ben Franklin Close.

#1: The Trial Close.

#14: Questions Are The Answers Close.

#101: The Relevancy Close.

Peter Weedfald is the author of Green Reign Leadership, a book that focuses on ensuring market opportunity thru creative leadership advantage.