Guilt is not a sales technique

 

… or is it?

If your business goes down in an account, do you mention it to the buyer? And if so, how? Do you whine, say the bills piling up and that things are tough and you need their help? Or do you say, in a constructive and straightforward way, that you’ve noticed the line trending the wrong way lately and what can we do to help address this?

How you bring up this subject matters, and that’s the point.

Guilt is not an effective overt sales technique, and it’s just bad form to boot. Don’t attach your personal life to the sales you earn from your accounts. It’s not the customer’s job to buy more cases of wine just because you whine.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t hesitate to let them know when you see the sales numbers slipping downhill. It is your job to show numbers, examine trends and directions, come up with new ideas, and make goals that you and the customer can reach together.

It’s all in how you say it.

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For those of you that live in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota: I’m organizing and conducting a free sales seminar on selling the wines of Portugal on Monday August 14th from 3pm to 4:30pm. We’ll be covering sales techniques and ideas, geography and geology of Portugal, how to talk about the specific regions and varieties, ideas for selling to restaurants and retailers, ways both on and off premise can highlight and benefit from Portuguese attention, and much more. If you’re in the trade you can register here. This is part of a larger week of events call Wine Geek Week, which you can learn more about here.
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