Several years ago, I started writing "The Sales Wiz". Or rather, I should say, it started writing me. I woke up bright and early one morning with the idea for this unorthodox sales novel bursting from my head. Rather than following the traditional publishing model, I've decided to publish it on my blog - in installments. I'll hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it. And no, it's not done quite yet. But I figure that if I start posting it online, it will force me to finish writing it. Enjoy, Jill
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The Selling Challenge
This is a story about the challenges facing the sales organization of Castleway, Inc. This company, like many others today, is dealing with numerous changes in their marketplace and their sales reps are struggling to adapt to the new world order.
Castleway designs, manufactures and sells creativity systems. These systems were first introduced nearly twenty years ago during a time when there were few competitors in the market. Castleway’s systems were state-of-the-art for many years, enabling the company to take a compelling lead over the competition. Less than five years ago, they dominated the market with a whopping 78% market share. But over time, the company became complacent with its success and rested on its laurels. Today its market share has dwindled to only 37%, although they’re still number one in their industry
Castleway’s initial creativity products were highly mechanical and came with their propriety SureFire! software imbedded in the system. In addition, they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sales were great as the early adapters in their market flocked to buy these new creativity systems. After Castleway saturated the early adapters, its salespeople had to relearn how to sell the system to the pragmatic buyers who required significant cost justifications for these high priced units. It took awhile for the sales force to catch on, but they did and continued to grow in market dominance.
Castleway’s second generation of products utilized new digital technology and an open architecture. The price of the systems dropped sharply. Software was sold separately and became a large revenue generator. When Castleway introduced monthly software updates as an additional service, its sales grew even faster.
But that was then, and this is now. Virtually every R&D department has a creativity system in place. And in today’s market, competition abounds. These creativity systems, which once were easily differentiated from each other, are now viewed as a commodity. When new leading-edge products are introduced, the window of opportunity is miniscule as competitors quickly rush in to replicate the new technology.
Distribution is also changing. Value-added resellers to R&D areas now include creativity systems as part of their offering. The internet has opened the door for new competitors to launch low priced, individual creativity packages which can easily be downloaded.
The Castleway sales organization is once again struggling. How can they compete in this changing world? What value do their products bring to the customer? How can they differentiate themselves? How can they grow their business with existing customers?
It’s at this point that our story begins. You’ll meet the salespeople in one of Castleberry’s regional offices and have a chance to follow Elizabeth Will, a veteran sales rep, who desperately needs to change her sales approach if she’s going to once again be a top performer.
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