Black Sales Journal

Don’t be confused.  The most effective move to get business preference and stronger relationships is to be the customers expert regarding a subject, discipline, product, or territory!  Experts generate ideas, create confidence, and build interdependence.  Read this, and make a decision on what will make you indispensable to your customer.  If you are not the customers expert…someone else is!

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In our continuing quest to gaining a business edge I want to discuss the advantages of being an expert. In this case we are talking about being either a product expert, or an industry expert, or both. This tactic can not be taken lightly. These can be a game changer!

These tactics for increasing customer and employer confidence are extremely effective. They can be used separately, or together, and either way are powerful. If used together they can reduce the effects caused by both preference andperception.  They don’t change or negate the prejudice that lies deep down in individual, nothing does. But combined, these two items create a “preference” of their own. The preference is real when you have something that others don’t have.

I’m going to touch on both of these for you.

The Power of the Product Expert

Your customers need a product expert. I’m not talking about just having product knowledge; I am speaking of you being a true product expert. The following scenarios note a true product expert.

What a product expert does:

• Is continuously sought out by customers and your own coworkers for advice, opinions, and interpretations
• Knows more than product features and benefits, he or she knows every nuance of the product’s attributes and functionality
• Is knowledgeable about competitor’s products and the competitive landscape
• Is prepared to admit competitor’s strengths and his/her product’s weaknesses when they are well defined
• Researches, researches, researches, then shares the knowledge with deserving parties, even if there is a little self-promotion in the process
• Gets designations, certifications, and degrees if necessary to show the expertise

Product experts are as important to the organization that they work for as they are to the customer.

The Power of the Industry Expert

Attaining status as an industry expert is an equally powerful position.  It involves not being just familiar with the industry (banking, insurance, automotive parts, hospital products, healthcare, telecommunication, etc.), it involves having a recognized ‘database’ of information, ideas, and suggestions built around your prospect, industry, and product.  How do you get there?  You get there by study, research, maintaining logs and notes, participating and hard work.

What an industry expert does:

• Studies the competitive landsccape and knows each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses
• Knows how your product helps the industry, including the niches which fare best with your product
• Knows the economics and financials of the industry
• Is up to date on the legislative environment and any developments
• Is sought out by others for their industry knowledge

A Word of Advice

The most important thing to realize is that most buyers in need of expertise don’t care what color you are if you can help him/her gain a competitive advantage when no one else can. He or she may or may not develop loyalty to you, but will do business with you.  Your job will be to cultivate that loyalty during the course of your relationship to win the buyer over.

You potentially can reduce the effects of two of the racial preference, gender preference, and even discrimination with these two essentials.  Being an expert does not alter racial preference, but can get you a sale. Experts get a line on new relationships with buyers and create a sound footing that can result in deep enduring relationships.

I am looking  forward to hearing your thoughts on this issue.

As we begin to close out Black History week, I wanted to give you a chance, once again to see what it was like for a true sales pioneer.  His ability to deal with racial preference, racial discrimination, and acts of racial prejudice are legendary.  We cannot avoid giving kudos to International Business Machines (IBM) in their effort to promote diversity.

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Amazingly enough, it is still not too late to be the first! Being the first is an important role in American society.  It is equally important in business.

I am going to use cite one iconic American company as an example. As a matter of fact, it is more than symbolic, because this organization took a leadership role.  This is a brief study in how an organization handles diversity.

A Leader in More Ways than One

In 1946 International Business Machines, also known as IBM, hired its first black sales representative. It was an individual named Tom (T.J.) Laster. This was well before the Civil Rights Act of 1963.  This act was also well before the Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier inprofessional baseball.  This was not a beauty products company, or someone selling durable goods products to the Black community, this was a business products company that was on the technical leading edge, and selling their product to basic ‘white’ America’s businesses.

The audience that Laster was something to was decidedly in the majority. If we think we see racial prejudice and racial preference, we need to recognize that we see nothing like this gentleman was faced with during his tenure as a sales professional.  A couple of years later, Laster joined the 100% Club, an honor for reaching his sales quota.  This was affirmation to many that this individual was a qualified and accomplished sales professional.

The 40s, 50s, and 60s were decidedly difficult time even dream of being “the first” in B2B sales, but someone had to do it.  Soon after Laster, IBM hired their first Black marketing representative (Lionel Fultz) in 1951, their first Black engineer in 1952 (Harry Cochraine), and their first Black engineering manager, (Calvin Waite) in 1956.  Lionel Fultz also was named branch manager in 1964.

This made IBM a leader in both business machines as well as employment diversity.  It also made Tom Laster a pioneer in the sales diversity situation.  He was willing, and obviously began destroying the racial perceptions that Blacks, or Negros as we were referred to in that time, could not handle the technical nature and business relationship issues related to B2B sales to a white business populace.  I would believe that partially as a result, many others Black professionals followed through the doors that were opened.

There was no greater a threshold in business sales as this one!  This was certainly important.  Although you probably won’t read books about it there is no doubt as to the impact.

Following this, IBM, assuming the leadership role again, penned and enacted its Equal Opportunity Policy through the Thomas Watson’s (the president of IBM) letter to his organization termed as Policy Letter # Four.  This September 21, 1953 letter directed his managers to “…hire people regardless of race, color, or creed.”  We wish it was as easy this declaration, but this was a start.

This is Significant, But Why is it Important?

I hope you see the significance in the story of Laster. He is truly a pioneer, and really knows what it feels like to be the first.  What is equally important is that you still can be the first Black sales professional in many organizations.

By the same token, you still can be that individual the changes everyone’s ideas about the abilities and work ethic of black professionals.  It would be nice not to worry about that, but it is significant.

I was not the first Black sale professional in the organization that I came up in. I was actually the third. I was the first Black sales manager, and the first Black vice president, senior vice president, and executive vice president.  I had some interesting experiences, which I try to share in this ‘journal’, but I am certain that many of these assertions would have paled in comparison to the stories that Laster could tell.

Be the Best

There are many small and medium sized organizations that have avoided, for whatever reason, employment diversity.  They could have avoided it because of their small size, or because they purposely have not hired Black sales professionals.  They may have other Blacks and minorities working for the company.  It does not matter what the reason might be, embrace that opportunity to work for and to change those organizations.  Show your stuff!

Your only requirement is to do be best that you can be at what you do.  By being the best, you increase your opportunities for success, as well as destroy ridiculous and erroneous racial perceptions.  Your success will be rewarded with a high compensation rate, but also in the pride you have in being the first!

Be the Best!  Your comments are appreciated.