Internal Selling Can Be the Hardest Sale

By John Bradley Jackson

You beat the competition. You secured commitment from the customer. And you got the order. Congratulations, but the selling is not over. The next step is to go back and sell to your own company and it may be the hardest sales call you make.

To fulfill your commitments to your customer will require that all departments at your firm understand their job and accept responsibility for the agreement that you just secured with the customer. Depending on the industry you are in and the nature of the product, this could mean manufacturing, customer service, legal, finance, customer support functions, operations, and others. For a successful customer relationship, each of these departments needs to understand what they need to do and how their work relates to customer satisfaction.

Here a few basic tips for selling internally:
- Accept the fact that you need to sell internally and that it is your job to do it; no one else will do it for you.- You need to communicate the big picture of what this customer relationship means to each individual. Why is this customer important?- You need to explain the unique attributes of the new customer agreement; don’t expect people to seek out the details about the new agreement. Be specific.- Expect resistance. People naturally resist change and increase in workload. Be patient with these initial reactions.- Don’t personalize initial errors or mistakes.
Properly servicing a new customer is a learning experience which may take some trial and error.- Bring the customer on site to help the support staff understand the customer and commit to servicing them properly.- Say thanks. Do this a lot. Be sincere, because without the internal staff the job won’t get done.

Have you noticed anything here? The internal sales cycle almost directly mirrors the steps you needed to take to get the business in the first place. It’s all about understanding your role in the process and communicating to everyone about everything.

Look at any internal resistance as the need more information about what needs to be done and why. Sometimes your internal support people become inflexible (just like a prospect gets used to saying “no”) and requires special handling to move things forward. Your goal is to make this a “win/win situation”, which it will be if you take the time and effort to be courteous, professional and sincere to your “internal” customers.

John Bradley Jackson brings street-savvy sales and marketing experience from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. His resume also includes entrepreneur, angel investor, corporate trainer, philanthropist, and consultant. His book is called “First, Best, or Different: What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing”.

Check out his website at: http://www.firstbestordifferent.com or his blog at http://www.firstbestordifferent.com/blog

John Bradley Jackson © Copyright 2006 All rights reserved