The Truth About Selling Steel: Beginning the Sales Process

I have mentioned in previous articles my experience as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman. In that instance, the process was scripted down to stopping at specific points in order to elicit positive reinforcement from the targeted couple. If the customer was not enthusiastically engaged in the process then a sale could not be guaranteed.

A buyer needs to be engaged for a transaction to come to fruition.

Moving back to the steel arena there are some basic steps which need to be understood in order to work toward becoming successful in the sales area.

1) An understanding of the product that you will be selling. What are its strengths and weaknesses, how is it used, what can be done to it to alter its physical shape (slitting, leveling, blanking, painting, etc.) and how does that affect its value, etc.

2) An understanding of your company’s strengths and weaknesses and how to “script” those in your mind so that when you speak to a customer you are able to carefully position the company strengths in order to compliment the needs of the customer to whom you are speaking. How does your company create “value” for their customer base?

3) You need to understand what your customer (or potential customers) does in order to make their products (or produce their services) and what steels are used. You need to look for areas of weakness in their manufacturing and inventory management process that can be reviewed and potentially become an opportunity for you and your company.

4) You need to have an understanding of the competition, be it regional, national or international in scope, and what their strengths or weakness in the relationship and servicing of the customer. I intentionally put the relationship first as every new customer already has a supplier(s) and that relationship needs to be evaluated and understood.

New sales or potential sales people within a company need to find a mentor who can work with them on a one-on-one basis. The key to a good mentor is someone who is comfortable enough within their own skin that they can share their “script” and are willing to talk and, maybe even more importantly, to listen to the new or prospective sales person.

You may have noticed that I did not mention “price” as being critically important as we begin to build a process or script which you can rehearse and eventually take into the market. If you don’t understand the four points referenced above, the only thing you have to offer is price and most price sellers have limited life spans within the industry.