Despite every company has one or more departments focused on the success of customers and their projects (Customer Success, Account Management, Post-Sales etc.), I’ve always been convinced that a salesperson should never lose touch with those who trusted her.

In other words, a salesperson should never lose sight of the project, how the customer evaluates the solution according to his specific case, whether it’s solving his problems and above all, his degree of satisfaction.

If you’ve been following the site for a while, you know that it’s not the first time I write about future state and expectations: in chronological order, the last topic I explored was visualization, in my opinion a key element of every sale.

In the article I focused on its emotional power and the reason for its strength: I’m talking about the ability to make prospects/customers experience in advance the positive feelings associated to the use of your solution.

Last week I wrote about a controversial and quite discussed topic in the world of sales training: I’m talking about why ask for permission before asking a question is, in most cases, the wisest and most effective choice.

In the article I focused on the reasons why (in my opinion) many trainers and consequently many salespeople have abandoned this old habit in favour of a more control-oriented type of commercial conversation: in case you haven’t read it, I invite you to do so.

In recent years, one of the most interesting aspects of the sales training revolution we’re living has certainly been the increase of available resources: the possibility of self-producing books and resources has generated a much faster and wider exchange of knowledge compared to the previous years.

Moreover and due to the shift of selling from a purely tactical function to a strategic one, many universities and organisations have become interested in the topic by dedicating specific courses and scientific papers on it.

With both my colleagues and students I often discuss about the best ways to help prospects/customers focus not only on the present (so the current needs and problems) but also on the future state.

In other words, we often talk about how important is to help the buyer to visualise what will happen after the purchase – so how he, she or her company will benefit from the decision made.

If you’ve been following this site for a while you know that it’s not the first time I write about Sales Methodology – I’ve talked about it two times already, approaching the subject from two different points of view.

Most recently I wrote about why a Sales Methodology is necessary (especially nowadays) focusing on two aspects: the ability to capture variability and the ability to perceive differences from the perfect case and to act accordingly.

The first time I wrote about the main problem you face when introducing a new Sales Methodology, and today I’ll refer to this.

One of the topics I love to talk about is the importance of commercial experience for sales success: I usually discuss it with my friends and colleagues and we come up with interesting ideas.

What surprises me the most are the different points of view and how they link to the solutions that everyone offers: these positions can be imagined as a 3-step scale that I’d like to share with you.

A few weeks ago I wrote about one of the most one of the most substantial changes in our profession: I’m talking about the shift from Selling to Evangelizing.

In the above mentioned article I focused on the lead qualification topic and why the ‘Interested/Not Interested’ criteria are no longer useful to qualify or disqualify: nowadays the salesperson doesn’t have to catch the interest but she has to create it over time, through an ongoing conversation.

In the past weeks I’ve already written twice about the Risk of Inaction, the first time by introducing it and the second time by suggesting a method to calculate its cost – the Cost of Inaction.

The reason for my interest is quite simple: by heping your prospect or customer to see the Risk of Inaction and by quantifying it you allow them to quickly solve their problems and (at the same time) you speed up your selling cycle.

One of the topics I am most interested about is Sales Methodologies and their importance for the success of a sales team: I like to focus on their educational and cultural nature because I believe that the commercial shape and culture of a company are also built on the basis of the methodology selected.

A few months ago, I wrote an article about the difficulties of introducing a new Sales Methodology: I suggested considering it as an innovation and mange it like that.