Solutions selling is more than

the key in the process is who is the person of contact that you are dealing with at any given prospect? who do you settle for? do your reps think the office manager or a department head or purchasing is the one who will be making any kind of decision that requires out of the box thinking? if you want to sell boxes, then settle for those who you've always dealt with. but in todays environment, where we are talking innovation, out of the box ideas, then if you are not talking to c-level contacts you are already heading down a path that will ultimately lead you to lower revenue, lower gp deals just as in the past. just my 2 cents worth

Right On Art & Neal!

Required reading must include...

Selling to VITO : the very important top officer, Parinello, Anthony.

He has a second book out now as well. Powerful!!

This suggestion is worth big money! I would be interested, as would others, in hearing success stories from members who have used the Selling to VITO method.

My first VITO inspired sale was when I was selling copiers four or five years ago and brand new to selling a software solution. All I really knew about software at that meeting was how to give a basic demo, that it managed paper and was cool. I was summoned into a large prospect's office, finally, along with three other manufacturers reps. I had been calling on the prospect for a couple of years with no results. I simply was not getting to the right guy, the DM.

The deal was for a couple B&W 65ppm copiers. I was the only rep to open my sales presentation with a scanning solution. The buyer stopped me cold, said to sit tight, got on the phone and called a VP who had been charged with finding an EPM solution. Spoke with the VP right there, was asked into his office, demonstrated Virtual Copier 1.x something and discussed the features of our hardware.

The VP was the DM and he awarded the sale to us, and a lot more...four 65 ppm digital connected scan enabled (scanning was a hardware upgrade back then) machines, a $25,000 color copier, a bunch of VC licenses, some printers and faxes and hardware & software service contracts. VITO pays! Seymore wastes time!

I bet there are members with far better stories than this.