Do you like to sell? Do you know how to sell?

We come into contact with the sales process every day. Each of us is constantly buying something. If it is buying a product from the shelf (eg shopping in local shops) or accepting a service with a current price list (eg purchase of electricity, gas, telecommunications services), the role of the seller is basically limited to calculating the cost, issuing a receipt or invoice and cash acceptance.

This is the case in B2C relations. And how is it in B2B? Is sales really just as simple? Industry competition is something beautiful. On the one hand, it requires that the products and services we offer are attractive, complementary, interesting, supporting business, and on the other hand requires sales skills so that the buyer chooses our product and service, not the ones offered by the competition.

Is that really so? Yes and no. It is good that business is a continuous dialogue and exchange of arguments. It is good that the products and services based on the margin system are able to make certain moves related to the final price, but this is not always the case. Sometimes the role of the seller is to convince the buyer that the product or service that is offered is worth the price. Do you have similar feelings? Do you think that prices for your products and services are at the right level? Can you argue it well? Do you know the cost structure of your products and services at such a level that you can show why they cost as much as they cost? And on the other hand, do you really know the client you want to sell your product or service to?

Seemingly simple questions, but they do not always give simple answers. Every day I meet people who want to sell me something. The vast majority of them do not know my organization at all. They just have something they have to sell. Already after the first few sentences, it can be concluded that they do not know what actual or potential needs are associated with the product or service they offer. The apogee of such situations takes place every year at the time when we are preparing for the Outsourcing Stars Gala. But I will not write about it in here.

Are you a seller, or maybe a sales representative or, as in some companies, a Key Account (yes, I know this term has many uses nowadays and is sometimes totally away from the sales area)? If you are, how do you realize your sales? Do you know your product, service, can you make an objective SWOT in your head what you have in your offer? Do you know who your client is and what this customer really needs? Where do you start the conversation? How do you make sales contacts - do you call, write, go to business events, or do you act by responding to recommendations? As Andrzej Twarowski says - do you know the pain of the client? And on the other hand, as Wojciech Herra says, do you have a model of value argumentation for products and services offered by your competitors?

These are two very important questions, and at least on one of them we will try to answer during The BSS Forum on January 24th, 2019, which Forum we already organize for the third time. This time in the City of Lodz. I may not be the best seller, but what I managed to master quite well, is to listen to people and what they say about their needs. In the last year, one of the topics that quite often were voiced by managers in the world of outsourcing and modern business services was "Sales." On the one hand, in the context of searching for new customers, and on the other, breaking the offer in the thicket of competition. On the one hand, in direct relations, on the other with the use of social media. There was much more.

At Pro Progressio, we assumed that The BSS Forum is not to be a conference that is one of many, to be different and is primarily to meet the needs that you communicate to us throughout the year.

This post is about Sales, and not about other topics you've been talking to us about, so I'll make sales here. We have several Gurus in Poland who teach about selling and teach to sell, who can draw attention to essential elements, give food for thought and inspire to action, who can give tips, teach and give a sense that we know what to do when it comes to sales processes. One of the leading people on the list in Poland is Wojciech Herra - an excellent expert in the sales world, who is listened to in full focus, and the time spent during his lectures and workshops definitely should be considered as very well spent.

Adding two to two, the needs of the industry and Wojtek Herra, we get a ready solution, or Herra's Sales Workshop at The BSS Forum in Lodz. If you want to participate in it, register on http://www.bssforum.com/forum/rejestracja and you will have the opportunity to start the year 2019 well.

I will finish the post with a borrowed quote from Wojtek:

"Sharing is caring - the value multiplies when you share it".

Is it worth to appear at The BSS Forum? See for yourself how it was during the previous edition - https://youtu.be/mfYd4mhHww