Listen To The Dinosaur
David M. Fellman
dmf@dinosaurwisdom.com
www. dinosaurwisdom.com
Listen To The Dinosaur
A fundamental question:
What is selling?
Dinosaur Wisdom
The more complex the product
or service, the more likely it
requires a consultative sale!
Listen To The Dinosaur
A fundamental issue:
Customers & Not-Customers
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There are four kinds of people on the
buying side of most sales equations:
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Suspects
Prospects
Customers
Maximized Customers
Listen To The Dinosaur
Fully qualified prospects…

Buy exactly what you sell
 Buy enough of it to make
pursuing them worthwhile
 Show some real interest in
buying from you
Listen To The Dinosaur
A fundamental question:
What drives the
buying decision?
Listen To The Dinosaur
Value vs. Pain
If you can’t sell on price,
you have to sell on value!
Dinosaur Wisdom
Listen To The Dinosaur
According to my research, these are the
things that represent value to buyers…
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Advice
Familiarity
Absolute honesty
Price
Dependable quality
Listen To The Dinosaur
Here are a few more things that
represent value to buyers…
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Sensitivity
Additional services
Desire
Flexibility
Predictability
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Advice…
“I buy a wide variety of things that make our
company go, and I’m not as knowledgeable
about all of those things as I would like to be —
or as my boss probably thinks I am! A lot of,
quote-unquote, ‘my’ ideas have improved our
business, but I have to be honest with you, most
of those ideas came from my suppliers. I want to
buy from people who make me look good!”
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Familiarity…
“The more any supplier knows about our
business and the way we do business, the
better they’ll understand and be able to meet
our needs.”
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Absolute Honesty…
“Don’t hide bad news from me, and don’t ever
put me in a situation where it’s the last minute
and I don’t have any options. If you can’t do
something, tell me up front, or else the very
minute after you realize we’ve got a problem.”
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Price…
“You don’t have to have the lowest price,
although you do have to be competitive. The
more you give me in terms of value, the more
I’m willing to pay.”
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Dependable Quality…
“I want all of my orders to look just as good as
those samples you’ve shown me.”
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Sensitivity…
“You have to understand that I don’t set the
deadlines, they’re imposed on me by the
people I work for. I understand that I cause
problems for you, but you need to understand
that I’m really passing along a problem that’s
been dropped on me. If you can help me solve
my problem, I’ll love you.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Additional Services…
“When I find someone I like doing business
with, I want to do as much business with them
as I can. You can’t believe how excited I was
when I learned that my website guy can also
help me to design our catalogs.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Desire…
“You can see the difference in service when a
salesperson really wants you as a customer.
I’ve worked with some who never showed me
that, and that’s why I don’t work with them
anymore.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Flexibility…
“The only constant in my business is how fast
things change. I need suppliers who can keep
up with the change.”
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Predictability…
“I want to know what I’m getting, in terms of
quality, service, everything. If I can count on
that, I’m a very happy camper.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
According to my research, these are the
things that represent pain to buyers…
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Complicating my life
Unreliable/inconsistent service
Unreliable/inconsistent quality
Miscommunication/untimely
communication
 Order/acknowledgement problems
Listen To The Dinosaur
Here are a few more things that
represent pain to buyers…
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Untrained salespeople
Additional charges
Procedures violations
Lack of responsiveness
Lack of empathy
Listen To The Dinosaur
Complicating my life…
I have a million things going on on a good day,”
one buyer told me, “and the fact of the matter is
that I need help. I need suppliers who will
simplify my life, not make it more complicated.
I’m even willing to pay more for a helpful
supplier, but I won’t keep on using one who
makes things worse instead of better.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Unreliable/inconsistent service…
“I need to know that I can trust you to deliver
on time, and to keep me advised about any
problems so they don’t turn into bigger
problems.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Unreliable/inconsistent quality…
“Nothing makes me crazier than when one
order looks great and then the next one looks
awful. It is really that hard to produce
consistent quality?”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Miscommunication/untimely communication…
“It’s hard to trust a salesperson who tells you
one thing and then a completely different thing
happens. And why do they always wait until the
very last minute to tell you about a problem?”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Order/Acknowledgement Problems…
“I still don’t understand why they bounce so
many orders back to us, saying they need
more information. Aren’t they supposed to be
the experts? If we’re doing it wrong, teach us
how to do it right!”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Untrained salespeople…
“I think I know more about the products than
my salesperson does, and I probably know
more about selling too. She’s nice enough, I
guess, but she’s really not good for much more
than picking up orders and having someone
from her office call me back to answer my
questions.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Additional charges…
“I award the order based on the quoted price,
and then I find out that it’s a whole different
price. If you want to keep my business, you’d
better be able to tell me up front how much it’s
going to cost, and spell out all the possibilities
for additional charges so I can avoid them.”
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Procedures violations…
“We have proscribed ways of doing things —
requisitions, purchase orders, shipping
standards and a requirement for a packing list
with every delivery. All our suppliers know this,
but they still mess up our procedures most of
the time.”
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Lack of responsiveness…
“There generally are only two times when I’ll
call a salesperson — when I have something
(an order) for them or when I need something
from them. Either way, I want to hear back from
them quickly.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Lack of empathy…
“If my suppliers had to walk in my shoes for a
while, I think they’d understand why I’m a
‘demanding’ customer. I try to understand
their problems, but they have to understand
mine too.”
Listen To The Dinosaur
Value is in the eye of the
beholder!
Dinosaur Wisdom
Dinosaur Wisdom
Pain is a pivot point. It makes
people think about changing
suppliers!
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Prospecting in the 21st Century
Prospecting is an activity chain
which begins with the identification
of suspect companies and ends with
the first substantive conversation.
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Prospecting in the 21st Century
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

Identify suspects
Identify decision-makers
Make the first connection
Hold the first substantive conversation
Listen To The Dinosaur
Prospecting in the 21st Century

Identify suspects

Identify decision-makers
Make the first connection
Hold the first substantive conversation


Your next customer will probably
look a lot like a current customer
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Prospecting in the 21st Century

Identify suspects

Identify decision-makers


Make the first connection
Hold the first substantive conversation
You don’t sell to companies,
you sell to individuals!
Listen To The Dinosaur
Prospecting in the 21st Century
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
Identify suspects
Identify decision-makers

Make the first connection

Hold the first substantive conversation
The best selling strategy starts
at the end and works its way
back to the beginning
Listen To The Dinosaur
Prospecting in the 21st Century



Identify suspects
Identify decision-makers
Make the first connection

Hold the first substantive conversation
Listen To The Dinosaur
Early stage obstacles and objections
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I’m busy right now
I don’t need anything right now
We’re happy with our current supplier
I’m happy with my current supplier
Just send me some literature
Listen To The Dinosaur
The first substantive conversation…
The end of the prospecting stage…
The beginning of the convincing stage…
The heart of the opportunity stage…
It’s pretty easy to sell to a prospect.
It’s pretty much impossible to sell
to a non-prospect!
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Dealing with price objections
When a negotiation begins, there are
three things up for negotiation.
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
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Value
Cost
Price
Listen To The Dinosaur
Dealing with price objections
Negotiating value is all about telling
them why they should buy from you
anyway, even though your price is
higher than they want to pay.
Listen To The Dinosaur
Dealing with price objections
Negotiating cost is all about the
application of product knowledge;
in other words, an alternative proposal!
Listen To The Dinosaur
Dealing with price objections
Negotiating price is all about getting
something of value in return for
anything you give up.
Listen To The Dinosaur
You only have two ways to grow
your business…
 Gain new customers
 Sell more “stuff” to your current
customers
Which of those is likely to be easier?
Listen To The Dinosaur
Within the framework of selling more
“stuff” to your current customers, you
have only two ways to do that
 Sell them more of what they’ve
been buying from you
 Sell them new/different products
and/or services
Which of those is likely to be easier?
Listen To The Dinosaur
Every one of those current
customers provides you with
three distinct levels of value

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
The value of what they’re buying from you now
The value of what they could be buying from you
The value of influence
Listen To The Dinosaur
What’s important about the
1st Level Of Value is that you
protect it…
 Customer Service
 Customer Contact
Listen To The Dinosaur
What’s important about the
1st Level Of Value is that you
maximize it…
 Customer Contact
 Customer Education
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What’s important about the
1st Level Of Value is that you
capture more of it…
 By Asking!
 By Networking
Listen To
The Dinosaur
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