Christmas Party Games

[Article placed on website: January 2003]

One of the most popular party games in our family at Christmas time is 'Charades'.

One by one, a family member stands up and tries to communicate with the assembled party-goers, without the benefit of being able to speak. Is it the title of a play, a book, a movie or a musical? How many words? Which word are we doing now? How many syllables?

There are conventional signals for these initial (standard) items of information. But after that, the 'communicator' is very much on his or her own. Touching your ear means 'Sounds like ...', waggling your hands means 'Mmm ... getting close, try something similar ...', and touching your nose and pointing means 'You got it!'. But everything else has to be made up.

Wow!, I thought. Isn't this just like selling somebody else's product? That is, selling somebody else's product when you haven't been given the words?

Selling without words

Imagine the frustration of the salesperson. There he or she is, trying desperately to communicate with prospective customers. Some items of information are standard: What type of product are we talking about? How big/fast is it? How many components? Which component are we doing now? How many features? And of course ... What's the price?

But after that, the 'communicator' (salesperson) is very much on his or her own. Folding your arms and nodding sagely means 'Yes, this product can do something like that ...', sucking in breath and shaking your head ever so slightly means 'Mmm ... that's a good requirement: this product can do something similar which is much better ...', and holding up a finger and pointing means 'You can have it for 10% discount if you order today'. But everything else has to be made up.

That is, of course, unless you have provided the salesperson with the words.

Selling at a distance

Selling somebody else's product is not like selling your own company's products. You don't have the built-in understanding that comes from being part of the organisation that creates the product. You don't have the opportunity to pick up vital snippets of information around the coffee machine or in the restaurant. You can't easily drop by and talk to the engineers and the marketing people. And to make matters worse, you probably have dozens if not hundreds of other people's products to sell. How can you be expected to be an expert, to 'know the words' for each product in your portfolio?

You need help. And where better to get that help than from the company that is supplying the product?

Providing the right information

So, do companies provide this help to their distributors' salespeople?

The answer is, in general: No, they don't. They often provide product literature: descriptions, lists of features, pricing information, competitive comparisons. But very often this is precisely the same literature they give to their own (direct) salespeople or that gets handed out at exhibitions.

Salespeople selling other companies' products:need more help than this. They need documentation that tells them:

• what's happening in the target market
• what type of customer they should be selling to
• what are the key business issues for these customers?
• how the product can help address those issues
• what are the key features of the product that make it stand out from the competition?
• how can the salesperson direct the conversation to bring out these key benefits for the customer?

In other words, they need a document that tells them how to communicate with prospect customers, using a language (the language of business) that the customer will understand.

And if you give them this information, in a format that they like and can use, they will love you for it. They will appreciate having a document that has been written just for them, that helps them to be successful. So they will like selling your product, they will be good at doing it, and you will finally reap the benefits of having a motivated, effective distribution channel.

If you don't provide this information to your distributors' salespeople, then their attempts at selling your product will be little more than a charade!

Strategic Sales Program

Providing the information your distributors need in a tried-and-tested format that has been proven to work is something we can help you with. To find out more click here.

Partnering Points on how to make distribution channels successful

• Don't simply provide your distributors with your existing product literature. Think about what it must be like to sell your product as a third party. Give distributors' salespeople the extra information they need to fully appreciate your product's benefits in the context of the customer's business.
• Training can help, but salespeople need a permanent reminder that they can carry around with them or which can easily be accessed via the web.
• Seriously consider getting outside help. Very often an external person can ask the searching questions about your product that someone within your company, or a distributor's organisation, just wouldn't be able or be prepared to raise. Also, an external viewpoint can often recognise or bring to the surface key benefits that had not previously been captured in your sales support documents.
• If you do decide to produce something new, at the very least look at best practice and find out what works and what doesn't. Remember you are writing for salespeople, and what you, or your marketing staff, or the product engineers may think is important may be of no use in making a salesperson more effective at selling your product.

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