| What's it about? |
Today's buyers aren't open-mouthed rubes who are just waiting for your salesperson to dazzle them with "features
and benefits." They are smart, sophisticated, in a hurry, and very, very knowledgeable. Half the time, they know
more about your product than your salesperson. But even if they didn't, they'd have the advantage - because they know
what they want.
What they want - and what they are really buying from you - are two types of experience: a buying experience and a
using experience. Before they even visit your website or talk to a salesperson, they have a vision - a "scenario" in
mind for these two experiences. How well your behavior (that of your website and that of your salesperson) matches
that scenario will determine if you make the sale - or not.
Kristin Zhivago coaches salespeople. Her experience listening to their calls has convinced her that salespeople waste
70% of each call on non-helpful conversation. "They chat and push and 'inform' the customer instead of listening
and responding. They don't answer the questions the customer asks. They often say things that make the customer decide,
'I will never do business with this guy!'" When this happens, does the customer let on? Nope. The customer lets
the salesperson think the sale is proceeding nicely - when he has absolutely no intention of buying. That same salesperson
will come back to the office boasting how he just made a sale, while the customer has gone back to his desk and is
contacting the competition.
Buyers don't tell salespeople what they're really thinking, in the typical sales call. But there is a way to find
out what buyers want - and how they want to buy it from you - before you send another salesperson to meet with customers.
There is a way to get in sync with their buying process, to the point where you make it easy for them to say yes.
Zhivago calls it "the guided buy," and will teach you how to do it. |
| About the instructor |
Kristin Zhivago began her career as the first woman to sell machine shop tools for
a Pratt & Whitney distributor in 1969. She’s been on the bleeding edge of the hottest markets ever since.
Zhivago founded Zhivago Marketing Partners, Inc. in Silicon Valley in 1979. Clients range from thriving young start-ups
to those in the Fortune 500, including Dow Jones, IBM, and Johnson & Johnson.
Kristin is an expert on the customer's buying process. Over the years, she has devised, tested, and perfected a marketing
and selling method that works in all industries, for all types of products. She helps her clients understand buyer needs,
and then meet those needs with their products, people, and processes. She teaches company owners and managers how to
answer all buyer questions in a way that will make it easy for the buyer to say "yes."
Zhivago speaks and teaches frequently. She has spoken repeatedly for the American Electronics Association, the Business
Marketing Association, and MarketingSherpa's BtoB Lead Generation Summit; she has also presented at the American Marketing
Association, the Colorado Marcom Association, the IntelliQuest Brand Tech Forum, San Jose State University, the Software
Entrepreneur’s Forum, The SoftLetter Software Marketing and e-Commerce summits, New Media Expo and The Best of
eMarketing conference.
Kristin is the editor of the Revenue Journal, a blog for company leaders. She published Marketing Technology, an ezine
for marketers, from 1991 to 2004. Her articles and monthly columns have appeared in numerous trade and business journals,
including MarketingSherpa's newsletters, BtoB magazine, Sales Advertising Marketing magazine, Business 2.0, SoftwareCEO.com,
BtoB, Adweek's Technology Marketing, and CMO magazine.
She is also the author of a business growth book, Rivers of Revenue. |