This is coming from someone who had an account manager pitch to him to sell. I took an onboarding call with a vendor who has been working with my company to provide analytics software.
Think through your existing product mix and what makes sense for client – prioritise it for them. Knowledge to the specific client is important. The account manager laid out where they had previously worked with my company, and
Dont push, just offer, especially when you have an ongoing relationship with the client. Your job is not just to sell, but also to meet the client’s needs.
I have also sat through a terrible sales pitch – driven by a new account manager appointed by a vendor we had a number of interactions with. After the usual pleasantries, the first question was “What does your company do?” My immediate impression is that he had done zero research – so I asked him to explain what he knew about my company. Unfortunately, he proved my impressions right.
He then continually espoused his company’s data collection capabilities – though he had no materials nor displayed in-depth knowledge about these capabilities. It was a very high-level discussion, where he mentioned the tools that his company uses but not enough for me to understand the value-add.
Yet, the data was secondary to our aims, though he didn’t seem to catch our explanations of this. I was willing to give him one last chance – we needed some distribution channels and were hoping his company might have warm contacts. As such, I gave him a softball: To explain his company’s offerings. All he said was that he could send over some more materials next week.
By then, I was done – I smiled, thanked him for his time, and we ended the call. What a waste of my time and I swore to never spend another second with this guy again.
I’m privileged to have this perspective; to see how enterprise sales should and should not be done. It was eye-opening and I thoroughly urge you to seize any similar chances you may have in the workplace.
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