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Jack was new to selling pavement maintenance but was young, excited, and becoming very knowledgeable about sealing products. Because he wanted to make a great first impression Jack doubled up on his study hours reviewing all the features about the sealing product that his company used in 90%-95% of their projects.

After Jack's first 45 days in the field calling on prospective customers he had exactly zero sales. The only thing Jack thought might be his problem was that he still wasn't knowledgeable enough about the sealing material, the process used by his firm's crews to apply the material, and the amount of preparation and follow-up had to be administered. Thirty days later, still no sales.

Jack is actually guilty of the same mistake that many less experienced sales professionals make when breaking into the sales process. In the desire to really "know their stuff" many sales folks will try to learn all the technical details of their product and processes. While knowing your products and processes are critical, it is the sales professional's role to translate the technical aspects of pavement maintenance so the customer can have a more "user friendly" understanding of what they are purchasing.

There is a technique in selling that I have used personally for more than 25 years to very good results. It is based on three components. Let me first share what the components are and then demonstrate how they fit together. The three components are:
Feature: Features, or facts, represent what the actual characteristics are. Features might represent the chemical make-up of sealing material, the rock size used in asphalt, or perhaps even the multiple-step process followed by a work crew.