elf from the competition and one's products from others on the market is the process of giving customers the reason to purchase from one organization rather than another. Key to recognizing this is that customers, again, are seeking solutions to their problems. Thus, a craftsman is not interested in quarter inch bits, but rather in quarter inch holes.
For most of my professional life, I have been associated with so-called high technology companies. Omnipoint, where I am currently employed, offers intelligent voice mail, stock quotes on demand, and business news services all over a wireless network. I am responsible for the recruiting, management and performance of 49 staff members, including territory managers, administrators and sales representatives. The sales force is geographically dispersed throughout the nation. Sales meetings are held twice annually, but the territory managers make regular visits to the sales representatives on at least a quarterly basis. Sales figures are published for the entire company (also on a quarterly basis), and there is friendly competition among the sales representatives to try to outperform each other with each set of figures.
Because of the nature of the product and customer, there is a high level of personal selling involved. The company supports its product with some advertising at trade shows and in trade publications, but the primary selling technique is to have the sales representatives call on buyers and engineers at small to mid-size Fortune 1000 customers and government accounts of all sizes (and at the federal, state and local levels). Because of the highly technical nature of the products, the sales representatives as a whole are well-educated, with most of the sales force possessing a college degree.
At Omnipoint, the most successful sales professionals do not focus on the product features (such as number of voice messages that can be stored, or a "laundry" list of the ty...