Translating Market Strategy into Profitable Results – Jeff Thull, Prime Resource Group

Jeff Thull began his presentation with a summary of his company and background.  He describes his organization as a strategy performance consulting firm.  He has worked with many well known companies such as Sun Microsystems, IBM, Citicorp, GE, Georgia Pacific, Philips Electronics and Raymond James.

Jeff explained that a customer must trust the company before that company can make a sale.  Three points to consider for a company to establish are professionalism, trust and optimum communication.  A company who represents a high level of professionalism is competent in knowledge and process.  This company employs highly skilled professionals who inspire trust in experience with the customer.

A trusted company instills a sense of mutual trust and respect for the customer.  The customer should feel that the company is understanding and has their interest at heart.  Communication is important to instill trust as well.  The company representatives should not have to pretend to have all of the answers or display behavior that differs from expectations of the customer.  Companies who employ representatives who listen to the customer and ask questions rather than just talking and pushing, will make more sales.

Jeff listed some trust breakers such as certainty, superiority, closed minded individuals, and indifference.  He said that some proven trust builders included learning posture, mutual respect, open minded alternatives, and empathy.

There were four levels of value that Jeff said could be part of a sales pitch:

• Level 1 – Negative - customer’s time wasted on conversation unrelated to teir business concerns.
• Level 2 – Confirming – conversation confirms what the customer already knows.
• Level 3 – Additive – conversation adds information or fills in gaps.
• Level 4 – informative – conversation brings information the customer hasn’t considered and didn’t know existed.

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