Home Search Speaker Request Speaker Corporate Event Planning For Ceo's Videos About Us Articles Links
Thomas Faranda Full Profile >> • Testimonials … • Contact Us … • FAQ … • Site Map …• Glossary …
Hit Teams
by Thomas Faranda

By focusing your sales efforts on a select, high-potential market segment, you can steal market share in a mature market place.

As stated in a basic Faranda maxim, “the only way to increase market share in a mature market place is to steal it form your competitors.”

A mature market is one that has stopped growing and has leveled off. In other words, the playing field is not getting any larger. To succeed at this level, the players have to play harder and smarter to increase sales. In these situations sales are only increased by stealing them from your competitors.

By itself, selling harder does no ensure an increase in sales. Selling harder requires more effort and incurs more expense of the company and the sales professional. “More calls does not mean more sales,” is the maxim I use to describe this situation.

Selling smart, combined with selling hard is the only guaranteed road to increased sales and profits Along with smart and hard selling, there are three principles to help guide you toward increasing sales in a mature marketplace.
  1. To achieve the greatest increase in sales and profits, efforts must be concentrated on selling harder and smarter to the 20 percent of the market that has the greatest potential for your firm. This means you must identify that specific market segment and isolate it from your existing, and potential customers, and focus all your sales efforts on this specific group. By doing this, you are using the concept of “focused” selling rather than “Scattered” selling. Through this method, you are attempting to get the greatest return for the effort and expense involved.

  2. Study this 20 percent, high-potential market segment in detail. You must know everything about it. You must know what they buy; who they buy from; how much they buy; who their customers are; what they do for their customers; who the key players are in the organization; and what are their strengths and weaknesses. You must know them as well as you know yourself. Learn their banking connections, their supplier connections and their market connections. Know their products, their services and their after-sales service systems. Become intimate with who this organization is, how they function and how you can help them reach their goals.

  3. Establish “Hit Teams.” A Hit Team is a separate sales team devoted to that specific 20 percent high potential market segment. They are a select team of three to five top performers with different, but complementary skills. Selling to large accounts involves different principles from selling to small accounts.

    The results of a 12-year study (based on 35,000 sales calls) revealed that “…landing a big account requires a completely different set of skills and strategies than does landing a small account.”

    A small account usually requires you to win over a manger or buyer. Thus, you are focusing basically on two people. Often, one person performs the function of manger and buyer, which means you only have to win over one person. This is not true in a large-account situation.

    A large account requires you to win over or neutralize an entire group of people – from the line manager and the buyer, to the finance director and sales manager, to the VP of sales and the VP of marketing. A large account requires you to sell to a team rather than an individual – a much more difficult selling situation.

    Hit Teams are designed to provide you knowledge and power in addressing the high-potential customer’s buying group. In a three-person hit team, you will have a sales professional, a technical professional and a service professional. The sales professional must be skilled at selling to large, high-potential accounts and should be a master at stealing customers from the competition. The technical professional must be skilled in finance, manufacturing, marketing or any specialty that is critical to the customers buying group. The service professional’s skills should be product or customer service.

    Once a three-person Hit Team is established, draw up a “hit list” and send your team out to sell to them. Once this has been accomplished, you might want to supplement the Hit Team with one or two additional team members who have special skills that will be valued by the buying group.

    Utilized properly, these three principles are the keys to increasing sales and profits. Master these principles and you will master your sales efforts and achieve great success.

    Thomas Faranda is a CEO, an entrepreneur and a speaker who was named one of the most exciting speakers in America by "Meetings & Conventions Magazine" due to his high- content, humorous programs with global examples, stories and ideas. As the former President of The Hospital Corporation of Chicago and the former National Accounts Sales Manager for Masonite Corporation, he has the credibility and experience audiences around the world respect and demand in a featured speaker. Mr. Faranda's business holdings have included hotels in America, a software corporation, a global consulting firm focused on growth and profit and additional global ventures. His clients include Intel, 3M, Ford Canada, IBM, GE, Siemens and firms from Asia to the Americas. His books include "UncommonSense Leadership" and he has published over one hundred business articles. Mr. Faranda has earned a BS, an MBA in International Business and a Doctorate in Education(abd).

    Copyright Thomas Faranda. All Rights Reserved.

    END
 
 
 
Home Search Speaker Request Speaker Corporate Event Planning For Ceo's Videos About Us Articles Links
• Testimonials … • Contact Us … • FAQ … • Site Map …• Glossary …
© Copyright @ 2004 Keynote Resource Inc. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for linking to web pages within Keynote Resource
To book a speaker call toll-free : 1-800-420-4155       e-mail: yvon@keynoteresource.com      Privacy Policy
Privacy Statement/Policy
Keynote Resource realizes that when you complete forms on our web site you are providing us with information that is of a private nature. We assure you that we will not share or sell this information to a third party for any purpose. We treat all information provided to us as strictly confidential.
About KeynoteResource.com:
Keynote Resource speakers bureau can help you find the ideal keynote speakers for your next event. We represent inspirational speakers, motivational speakers, corporate entertainment and more.

Keynote Resource speakers bureau will find the perfect keynote speaker for your upcoming event, whether you are looking for inspirational speakers with a message, motivational speakers to set the tone of your conference or a facilitator for your annual retreat.

Keynote Resource speakers bureau works closely with executives, meeting planners and training directors to create events that result in highly productive learning or are just plain fun. We can identify business speakers, inspirational speakers or motivational speakers that are well suited to your event, send you videos and press kits to help you with your speaker selection and we’ll work closely with the keynote speakers you hire to ensure they customize their presentations to meet the specific needs of your audience.

We have speakers in all areas including Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

We can book speakers for you worldwide, in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Ireland, England, France, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil and The Bahamas. Click Here to Search A Speaker

Disclaimer
Speaker fees are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. Fees may vary based on the speaker’s availability, supply and demand, program length and location of the event.

Each fee range listed on this website is intended to serve as a guideline only. In some cases, the actual price quote may be above or below the fee range stated. For the most current fee, please contact your representative directly.