Impress or Annoy Buyers

Here’s another insight I gained this week.  I don’t know who this person is, but he was name-checked in a presentation I saw to fairly good affect.  A chap called Jim Morgan from ‘Purchasing’ back in 96 and the tantalisingly entitled “the best sales reps will take on their bosses for you”. It seems he’d conducted research showing what buyers liked and disliked from a rep.  Here are the findings:

% of what impresses buyers	% of what annoys buyers
77 willingness to fight for customer	63 lack of preparation
75 thoroughness/follow-through	58 lack of follow through
46 market knowledge	55 lack of knowledge of customer operation
38 product line knowledge	54 lack of interest or purpose
23 diplomacy in dealing with end users	49 failure to make/keep appointments
21 imagination	43 lack of product knowledge
20 preparation for sales calls	28 over-aggressiveness, arrogance
18 technical education	26 lack of candour
	23 taking customers for granted
	22 failure to keep promises
	17 lack of creativity
	15 failure to listen