Recently, a customer of ours used a term that I really liked. We were talking about the process of selling, and he said something along the lines of how salespeople need to avoid becoming “Bag Divers.” I’d like to talk about this concept a bit more.

When you make your first visit to a potential customer, do you make sure you’ve learned everything you can about their business before you arrive?

Is your presentation tailored to them, or is it the same one you give to every customer on a first visit? If you are doing a demonstration, is it a general exposition of your solution, or is it a focused presentation on how your solution can help your customer reach their goals?

Remember, in most solution-style sales situations, you are there to help the customer identify their specific pain, and show them exactly how your company and product can help them.

If you arrive, hand out literature (by “diving into the bag”), and show a standard presentation, you are following a basic process and relying on your company brand to make the sale. If this is the case, you were likely hired to be an opportunity hunter and strong closer. This can work for some companies, but eventually a competitor will offer a solution that helps the customer more, unseating you and your market share in the process.

Consider this: when a brand new potential customer calls (an untapped goldmine for any salesperson), what do you do?

In many industries, if a brand new name calls, it’s usually because the caller wants product information and a price. With the Internet, potential buyers can even arm themselves with this type of information, and are capable of being further along in their buying process than ever before. When taking such a call, the “Bag Diver” would be keen to give the caller a price, and set up a convenient time for a demo. The reality is, the Bag Diver may not be giving any more information to the caller than can already be gleaned from the company website, and with that kind of canned response, the Bag Diver is almost certainly losing the opportunity to make a positive impression on the caller.

So what should you do?

Learn about your potential customer’s specific pains, and suggest how your company and product can help. It’s this type of approach that will keep you, and your solution, ahead of the pack in the eyes of your customers.