#012 Selling Through Partnering, with Fred Copestake

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

IN THIS EPISODE

Do you tell your clients that you work in partnership?

What evidence do you have to reassure them that the statement is, in fact, true?

What are the qualities of a good partnership?

Does your team possess the skills required to forge strong win:win relationships, built on trust, transparency, transparency, comfort with change and interdependence and a focus on the future?

In this episode, I invite Fred Copestake, a sales consultant and trainer specialising in complex B2b sales environments, to get into this topic with me. He has spent the last 22 years travelling around the world to develop salespeople, in over 200 companies, to move from the transactional selling styles of yesteryear, into the collaborative selling styles of today and shaping the ‘business partners’ of the future.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

As you will by now know, here at Front&Centre we are big believers in fostering a ‘valued partner’ relationship with your most important customers/clients. Partnering with your clients should be more than just a statement, more than something you simply ‘say’ on your website. It should be lived in the values, attitudes, behaviours, and skills within your teams and consistently demonstrated in your most important customer relationships.

In my discussion with Fred, we dig into his concept of ‘PQ – Partnering intelligence’. (He has even written a book on it). We talk about what the concept is, and what qualities we should be developing and demonstrating in our key account relationships.

You will hear us talk through:

• The three biggest challenges that senior leaders will see when they look at their sales teams. As Fred describes - are your teams:

1. Displaying ‘busy busy busy’ behaviours where busyness is getting in the way of business?
2. Are they thinking in the ‘olde worlde’ ways and struggling to see new, and change, as a force for good and opportunity?
3. Do they have a ‘muddled mindset’ where the focus switches as we get closer to month-end and the targets take over?

• How we need to get comfortable with serving the customer whilst working together as equals - with mutual trust and respect.
• How do you feel about the notion that the customer isn’t, in fact, king (despite the old saying) and that we should see them as respected peers who are there to work with us to deliver mutually beneficial win:win growth?
• What the future of selling could look like in this fast-moving and ever-changing marketplace we work in.

KILLER QUESTIONS SEGMENT

In each episode we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success. In this episode we asked Fred to give us his killer question which was:

“Why would you NOT use partnering intelligence to build relationships with your most important

customers?”

There you have it. It's logical to just naturally want to build PQ into your sales skills toolkit – isn’t it?

Quick ref to a link we mention in our discussion:

Fred mentioned his PQ (Partnering Intelligence) Self Audit which you can take. Find out your Sales PQ now using this diagnostic tool.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: FRED COPESTAKE

Fred is the founder of Brindis, a sales training consultancy based in the UK. He is a Sales Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Author with a special focus on teaching selling through partnering skills.

He has worked with 10,000+ salespeople in 200+ companies across 36 countries. His work is concentrated on sales professionals working in complex B2B environments. Some of his projects have included: implementing a European sales academy for a leading beer brand; developing sales skills for global healthcare companies in the Middle East; and introducing account development and sales leadership models in Latin America and Europe for IT and engineering multinationals.

You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.