Myopia is the word optometrist’s use for “shortsightedness.” You can see up close but the big, far away picture is a blur. Metaphorically, many sales professionals suffer from this myopia when developing solutions for their hard fought prospects and customers.
You cold call. You network. You follow-up leads. You attend trade shows. You advertise. You prospect. These activities fill your day in the hopes of finding another new account. Then you talk about problems and solutions. You make presentations. You handle objections. You buy lunch. You get engineers involved. You fend off competing solutions. You negotiate pricing, delivery and support. Finally, you get an order!
Needless to say, there is a lot of work on the path between prospect and order. So, when you finally get the order you want to make it a big as possible. What if you could add 10% or 15% to every order you close? That is a relatively small percentage but it can add up over the course of a year or a career. That extra revenue per sale could be just enough to get you on the Top Performer list, to get you that Hawaii trip or even to put you into the next tax bracket.
Think about how much work goes into getting a sale. So, once you are “in the door” you have to ask yourself, “How can I broaden the solution to get the maximum amount of this customer’s budget in my order book?” Adding Network Access to your design is an often overlooked revenue enhancer that is simple, quick and solution neutral.
The prospect may be adding nodes, tightening security, enhancing monitoring or upgrading technology. They are focusing on the initial application for which the budget was approved. This is where the savvy sales pro has an opportunity to create extra value, strengthen the solution, create competitive barriers and increase the size of the order.
Taps and Network Access products are necessary elements to implement many IT projects. However, they are often not given much thought in the design process. By discussing taps and access devices early, and adding them into the design, you can differentiate your proposal while increasing your revenue opportunity. Taps are broadly used so you can add them into a wide variety of applications. Once familiar with their use, you will find these products to be a simple and lucrative addition to your product portfolio. While taps are likely not what the prospect is initially asking for, there is a good chance that, if you bring it up, you will find that they will be needed somewhere in the project design.
Spending a little time with a tap vendor like Network Critical can help you increase your sales revenue and strengthen your position as a valuable consultant to your customers. You can learn more about taps and network access devices at http://www.networkcritical.com.
Being short sighted about solution development is a sales trap that is easy to fix. Look beyond the requested application and offer a complete solution. Sharpen your network access vision and you can grow revenue with every sale.
