Why the oldest profession will never die!
Have you wondered why your telemarketing team never provides you market intelligence? They provide orders, good repeat business, but you never seem to be ahead of the competition? Do you find yourself competing at the commodity level, and not at the premium level?
There is a theory about business development and innovation. It’s called the blue water theory. The premise of this theory is that a shark can swim in blue water, find as many fish as he needs to eat. He can take good mighty bites of his dinner picking and choosing what looks good for him. When all the good fish have been bitten and nibbled on they move on to the next area of blue water. The area where he first started eating turns to red water from all the blood the shark created during dinner. That attracts all the other scavengers because they know there is food in the area. Thus they jump in that area fighting over the bits and pieces of fish that the shark left behind.
How does this relate to your business? A true business development sales person, looks where others are not. They are looking at dissimilar products and industries, and pushing the envelope on ideas trying to incorporate their products in services in new areas. They aren’t just trying to sell more of something, they look to open markets.
Your sales and business development people are your channel to those markets. They need to be outside, watching and listening. They need to identify problems and determine if the capabilities of your products and services are a possible solution. They aren’t just lower cost, they provide value.
As your team is outside watching and listening (note I didn’t say talking), they are in observation mode. God gave us 2 eyes, 2 ears, and 1 mouth … they need to be used in that proportion. This is the reason why the world’s oldest profession will never end. We need people outside, looking and listening to the problems, so they can then offer your products as solutions in this blue water! Let the scavengers come by and eat what you’ve left behind! It’s time to start picking and choosing your dinners!
Pinnacle Sales offers sales training to business development professionals. We believe in a process for all products in services, and it starts in blue water! Let’s get together and discuss where you have been swimming!
As a reminder, we are promoting the new Ziglar Legacy Training opportunity called Live to Win! As a certified Ziglar trainer, I have also developed a Live to Win for Sales Professionals! Live a balance life AND improve your selling process along with way! If you are interested, contact us via phone or email!