EVERYTHING IS NEW BUT NOTHING MUCH HAS CHANGED

I was listening to the radio the other day while driving around and heard an interesting statement made by a sports announcer. She said that although many things have changed during her 24 years of broadcasting, the fundamentals of journalism, who, what, why, when, and where have all remained constant.

When I was in collage I took a journalism course and the 5 “W’s” were taught to me, my 84 year old Mother-In-Law was a journalism major at the University of Georgia and I asked her if the 5 “W’s” were the fundamentals taught to her and she said absolutely.

As I searched for the origins of the 5 “W’s” I could trace them back to the 1^st Century BC. I guess the 5 “W’s” go further back than even my Mother-In-Law.

Like so many fundamentals, the 5 “W’s” have withstood the test of time, like so many of the basics do.

Sales is no different. I have read dozens of articles, written by some of the sales greats, talking about how sales have changed over the past 20 years. Everything from the introduction of the internet to environmental issues have affected sales in some way or another. The rising prices of energy and the breakthroughs in technology have affected sales. The cell phone and GPS systems have affected sales. About anything you can think of have in one way or another affected selling.

But through it all the basics, the fundamentals have remained the same. People still prefer to buy from people they like, the value of your product has to be there and service is what keeps customers happy.

I know that we are living in a world where instant information is available to just about everyone and customers are more informed today than ever before. However all this doesn’t eliminate the fact that the sales rep makes a difference. The sales rep still builds the trust that sales are based on and customers depend on their sales reps to help them through the electronic jungle that many companies have developed.

Building value, building a relationship, building rapport, building trust all lead to BUILDING SALES for any organization.

If you find yourself in the situation of sagging sales figures, try going back to the basics and using the fundamentals you were taught at the start of your career. Like sales, the basics of success haven’t changed, they have just been updated.

Lorin