#30 Do Great Products Sell Themselves? – Bill Stringer

Do great products sell themselves? Bill Stringer from Green Shoots Growth tells us they don't. Great products don't sell themselves. Bill Stringer found this out very early in his engineering career, and has dedicated himself to educating other engineers on how to take great engineering products to market. Engineers believe products sell them selves and that sales and marketing is a fluffy waste of time. Bill tells us how he overcomes that perception. There are a number of issues that generally need to be tackled, and Bill takes us through his approach to each one. Engineers generally get hung up on the features of the product rather than the benefits they give customers Work is needed to discover the value that customers will receive by using the product. Bill and his team undertake customer research, and he talks us through the techniques that can be very effective. The Sales process is ill defined, inconsistent and often doesn't work Bill tells us about using process mapping to identify issues and gaps in the sales process, and how he develops a sales and marketing process that is equally as robust as the engineering processes that develop and build the product. There isn't a professional sales team  Often the people responsible for selling aren't sales people, and Bill discusses how to recruit a new sales team, nurture it and give the support it needs to bring home great results. There is no sales management process. Sales people can't be left to their own devices. Bill talks about lead generation, measuring the whole sales pipeline, weekly reporting and weekly management calls. A good lead generation processes to avoid cold calling is very important. You need to understand the numbers and know how many leads it takes to generate one sale. Bill quotes an air conditioning company who need 100 leads to generate 10 sales visits; 5 quotes; leading to a single sale. A good CRM is important and must ensure follow up of the customers not ready to buy,  if not 100leads, then certaimly the 10 that resulted in visits. For more information you can contact Bill at www.greenshootsgrowth.co.uk or chat to him in the next 100 days Facebook group.