Great post and I will be back.

After working with our President for almost 5 years now, I have learned a very important lesson demonstrated by success… it takes both kinds of mentalities – those that are transactionally based and those that are focused on the long-term take downs.

We have been in the process of seeding in software sales to help more with a solutions mentality, but have been frustrated at the ups and downs in the cycle.

We, our company, has to stay focused on the fact that printers were not easy when we started that transition 8 or 9 years ago – well ahead of everyone else and before HP even started thinking about MFP’s…

I suppose solution sales approach is about the same as what I have found to be true in traditional IT: There are all manner of personalities and skill levels and IT has gotten a bad name for a reason; there are some stars but mostly upstarts, just like – you say – in any industry.

All solutions start at the beginning…(duh). My point – Prospecting is matching what you do with what they need. Simple, eh?

The difficult part is getting “sales” people to weed out the “suspects” from the “opportunities”. Old school tells us that EVERYONE is a prospect and that the real selling starts when the Prospect says NO.

The problem on the provider side is the ability to let go of the box moving mentality. There are very good examples of companies possessing a good Solution Sales talk track, but at the end of the month/quarter/year management is breathing down the necks of “Professional Solution Sellers” asking “what can I do to help you close these 4 boxes this week”.

I know for certain this occurs every month during sales meetings in the copier industry. But I am sure this ailment permeates every industry that sells.

You are spot on in terms of “Sales being a numbers game” – this has, and will always be a fact. Just like “activity breeds activity”.

good read…I look forward to more