How can I persuade you?

Another great post from Seth Godin recently that talks to the notion of persuasion - ie, how do you get your customers over the line?

Fairly timely methinks, given the availability of Windows Server 2008 & upcoming release of SBS 2008 & WEBS 2008. For me, a lot of this comes down to three distinct areas of focus - basically, how can you spot, sell & close a solution.

• Spot: What activities/processes do you have in place to enable you to see opportunities, to capture customer data, to mine your current database & generally get customers into the pipeline in the first place?
• Sell: What training have you completed on the latest products, how do they fit into what you're offering now, can you map out a solution & show the benefits?
• Close: How do you get from idea to invoice? Do you work with vendor offers, have a payment plan, ask for the business?

All of this is part of the persuasion process & is different for every customer. One thing that has helped a few partners (& I acknowledge that it's not for everyone) is the Small Business Technology Assessment Toolkit.  This has been designed with assistance from leading SBS partners & is a great way of getting started with customers.

Would love to get your feedback on whether it does/doesn't work for you, & what we can be doing to improve the resources available.

Robbie