Are you a transactional sales exec?

One of the biggest issues senior executives have with certain sales execs is that they only show up when a deal is on the table. In other words, they wait for a call from the client or they call to see if the client needs more product. They don’t add value between transactions. Obviously in certain sales environments where a client doesn’t have a need for your product on a continual basis, it’s OK to take a “transactional” approach to your sales territory. But in environments where deals are done several times a year, it has been my experience that transactional sales execs will ultimately lose out to a competitor who stays connected to the client regardless of whether a deal is on the table. There are three reasons for this.

1. It’s difficult to build trust, respect and loyalty with your clients when you only show up when there is business on the table.
2. If you are involved in your clients’ business throughout the entire year, you should be able to create or “manufacture” deals by fully understanding your clients’ business needs, budgets and pain points.
3. In competitive bid environments, staying close to clients will potentially allow you to influence the bid specifications in a way that gives you a competitive advantage.

As in life in general, people tend to want to associate with folks they like, respect and genuinely enjoy being around. A major component of this truth is that you sincerely care about the well-being of the folks you associate with. In other words, it’s not all about you! In professional sales, when a client feels this way about his or her sales exec, it stands to reason that the exec will be given every opportunity to win the business.
Additionally, when you are continually involved in your clients’ business, you develop relationships at many levels of the organization. These relationships help you craft proposals that are specific to your clients’ needs and therefore add more value than a more generic proposal that a transactional salesman would offer.

Looking back on my career, I can honestly say that I received last-minute calls from executives telling me that we are in jeopardy of losing a deal unless we make certain adjustments to our proposal. In other cases, the lower-level technical folks would offer guidance in terms of crafting a proposal that meets their needs.
These calls would never take place unless the client sincerely wants to do business with you. And clearly, a “transactional” salesman will never receive a call like this.
It goes without saying that it is not practical to invest an unreasonable amount of time in low-revenue accounts. It is, however, critically important for the professional sales exec to determine which clients will provide the highest return on your time investment. For these important accounts, don’t just show up when there is a deal on the table, or you run the risk of being labeled a “transactional sales exec.”