What if I told you that you were your own profit center? I’ve said many times before that salespeople can, and should, be a self-contained profit generation machine. Salespeople who create profit for their employees and their customers never have to worry about their next appointment, their next sale, or even their next job – and they also don’t have to worry about being replaced by AI.
I’ll amplify – the ability to be a profit center is one of the most valuable qualities in business. The trouble is that most salespeople don’t understand how to create profit for their customers – or worse, they’re afraid to do it. This is because most salespeople think that they only way they can profit their customers is by the old “save them money” gimmick – which always results in chopping their price. That’s not necessarily the case, but to take the high road requires a lot of work. That’s okay, because we’re not afraid of work – right? Read on.
To be able to generate profit for your customers, you have to be willing to ask some tough questions. They’re tough for a couple of reasons:
First, these questions may require a high degree of trust from your customers, to get them to answer.
Second, the answers to the questions may reveal problems with what you’re doing. You have to be willing to change if that’s the case.
Basically, you have to understand a few key things about your customers. They are:
You have to understand how your customer generates profit. The obvious answer is “They sell their products.” But that’s no more true for them than it is for you. You need to know what your customer considers good, profitable business. You also need to understand how the customer produces its product or service, and the ways that it generates efficiencies. On the flip side, you should also know how unnecessary costs get into the customer’s production/marketing/sales system. Yes, this is scary stuff. If you’re an “unnecessary cost,” you’d better figure out how to generate return on investment for them. If you know how your customer generates profit, you can help them in a multitude of ways, some of which have little to do with your actual product or service.
You have to understand how your product or service fits into their overall profit picture. Now that you know how your customer makes money, you can start working to generate return on investment for your product or service. What would be the cost of not using you or your products? What are the alternatives? More importantly, are they underutilizing your product, and you can help them maximize the investment? Don’t be afraid to get involved.
You have to understand how your contact is rewarded. Assuming that you have a relationship with your contact (and if you don’t, get cracking and build one), it’s time to understand his/her personal and professional needs. When your contact is rewarded based on something you’ve done, you have generated “profit” for your contact. This is where most salespeople will drop to the old “price cutter” model, but you need not go there. Instead, work to make sure that your product and your time is being used efficiently, and contribute your expertise as is appropriate. If you can connect your contact with other resources that can help, do it.
It’s worth pointing out that I’ve had this philosophy of salespeople being profit centers for over 20 years – and it’s more important now than ever. As younger buyers come into positions of power, they don’t care how much fun you are to have a beer with, or how you golf. They care about whether or not you can help them improve their business, and their lives. And if you aren’t prepared to do those things, you’re going to lose out to salespeople who will.
After you’ve taken action, quantify the results in a quality business review, and you’ve generated profit – and proven your worth. By the way, if you don’t quantify the results of your work, your competitors will. Want to guess what light you’ll be painted in?
