Sales Dialogues

Do you ever think about how many forms of communication take place in a sales that spans a period of 6-9 months? Literally THOUSANDS!

Email, web, phone, voice mail, traditional letters (yes, the ones housed in envelopes with stamps on them), fax, social networks, text messages and the like.

These communications take place between and amongst buyers, sellers, and third parties to name three categories. Within each category however each party may speak a different language particular to their role in the organization.

A CEO/CFO speaks and listens for Return on Assest (ROA) when ldetermining the viability of an initiative or project (and wether to free up the resources for the same). Infrastructure stakeholders (IT and HR) think in terms of TCO while operation stakeholders look for efficiency, effectiveness and cycle time gains. If they do not see the proposal/business case in their language they are left to interpretation. What to do?

Just like with human language, a translator is needed to bridge the gaps in these dialogues short of learning all three languages. By taking a look at your current communication mechanisms (collateral, web site, email's etc) and asking yourself, "Which category of executive would my message resonate with most and which executives would have glassy eyes?", you will begin the first step to improving results. That first step is the AWARENESS phase of a six step buyer/seller roadmap. Stay tuned for phase two- ANALYSIS!