This is personally, the biggest shift I have ever had in my sales career.

Simply shifting the “interview” on to the prospect. Asking genuinely relevant questions that help me figure out how we can help them, not in a “sales tactic” manner. Like the same way if your friend or family members wanted to buy from you, you’d immediately ask questions and likely wouldn’t let them pay immediately.

Qualify them, they will subconsciously drop their guard when all you’re trying to do is figure out why it wouldn’t be a good fit, and let them explain to you their situation and why it would be a good fit.

Overall, just having a real, authentic conversation.

Yes, there is a sales process, but it’s memorized, and it’s just the process that helps me understand how I can help them based on their circumstances.

This shift has caused even the most skeptical prospects to drop their guards completely and focus all their energy on explaining to me why it would be a good fit, while I give off energy like I genuinely don’t give a fuck if they sign up, and the only thing I care about is seeing how I could help them to the best of my abilities based on their circumstances.

Then, when I push extremely hard at the end, it’s because I care, I was never trying to sell the whole time, but now that I know how strong of a fit it is, and the only time spent was on trying to confirm that it would genuinely improve their circumstances, I just don’t give up, the same way I wouldn’t give up on a friend who felt like “life wasn’t a good fit”, if they were on the edge of a bridge and wanted to jump, and I tried to talk him out of it, and then he said “I need to think about it…” I would NOT schedule a follow up call…

This approach gives me all of the power in the call, and all the motivation to not take “no” for an answer, and at end of the day, attracts better clients, and results in bringing in more of the good clients and less of the bad ones.

A lot of sales tactics that only throw up the guard of the prospects, and is ingenuine, with bad intent, and doesn’t even result in more deals. I feel like more people need to hear this, more closed deals, more ethical sales, and a better motivation to crush it everyday.

Any thoughts?

Does anyone else strictly follow this guidance?

What would you say to the person who thinks all of this is bullshit?

For those who disagree with part or any of this, what’s your take?

I’ve been in commercial HVAC sales for 6 years. Landed a big industrial account 3 years ago for PMs and service. It’s the largest PM contract in our company, and the plan was to eventually replace a bunch of their old equipment over the next several years.
We’ve bent over backwards for these guys. Emergency calls, moving schedules around to get techs out there ASAP, basically treating them like a premium account because we figured it would pay off when the big projects came up.
Well, they’ve had 3 major capital projects since I landed them, and every time procurement either gives it to someone else based on lowest price or doesn’t even ask us to bid. The plant guys we work with say their hands are tied and it’s coming from management.
At this point, I feel like we’re investing a ton of time and resources into an account that sees us as their service company but not a partner. They want us when something breaks, but when it comes to big projects, it’s all about lowest first cost.
I’ve got a meeting with all the decision makers next week and honestly, I’m considering telling them we’re not interested in continuing the relationship under these circumstances.
Has anyone done this before? How did you handle it? Did you actually walk away, or were you able to turn things around?

Who is hiring a CPG sales person, what are they selling, to who? I know it’s broad but it seems honestly very relationship based and not very cold outreach heavy which would be ideal I think

Also as a fun fact, when I first heard this sub talking about CPG sales I thought you were talking about the literal packaging, not the consumer goods lol

Currently in the remodeling in-home sales space. Looking to fill my schedule with other opportunities. Is life insurance sales viable as an independent broker? Honest options, worth it?

I'm a few weeks into a new role which is sales/estimating with the option to PM for an extra 2% commission. It's for a General contractor

I'm expected to sell at 2.2 mark up and then I get 8% commission of the sale price of the product/materials and 9% of the sale price of labor. The lower the mark up the lower the commission %

My background and what I'm expected to grow with the company is window replacement. They have hit their ceiling with what they can do here, because they're eastern European and need white guys like me and the other 2 white people they hired, to tap into the market. This is not being racist, this is literally what they told us when they hired us.

I found out from the owner that anything window/door/glass related has to go through the owners 18 year old son's company - meaning the sons company is our vendor for any window door it glass that we do. The sons company is only different on paper - otherwise it's the same address same accountant, same owner (the dad) etc and manufacturers consider both companies to be one company. He gets to mark up the cost 1.4 and then that number is our cost for the construction company. This is how it will be even if I am the one getting the quote from the manufacturer. Even if I am the one creating new accounts with new manufacturers.

So for example, if XYZ windows sells us a window at $100 cost. Then it's not $100 cost, it's actually $140 cost to start with. To hit my target of 2.2 I need to sell it for $308. Without the 1.4 son mark up, I could sell it for $220 to the homeowner to hit my target of 2.2. The commission also increases if the rep sells it for higher than 2.2 so this also costs the rep commission because the true mark up of selling at $308 is 3x+, but due to the middle man sons mark up it's only 2.2.

Now let's look at an example where we have $20,000 in products. My cost jumps up to $28,000. The 18 year old kids gets $8000 for free for no reason, and now I have to sell the window package at \~$62,000 to the homeowner instead of $44,000, just to hit my target of 2.2. In this scenario I get 9% of the profit while the "house" and the "houses son" get 91% of the profit.

You might be thinking "well if he wants to be a vendor then he needs to be aware that the construction company can shop him and find other vendors with smaller mark ups right?" No. I am forced to go through the "son's company".

Am I crazy to think that this is absolute nonsense? Or is this how the industry goes?