Don't get me wrong; brochures are wonderful. When new products are announced in our organization the where are the glossies cry can be heard from the sales area. I usually lead the chorus. Brochures help us as a reference during parts of the sales process to emphasize important things and provide a reference for our customers.

Brochures provide the perfect temptation and lure to get us talking about our agenda, our company, our product(s), our services, etc. Be careful. What we need to be doing is asking questions to find out about the customer's agenda.

Our customers do no buy our products and services. They buy customized solutions to meet their needs.

As sales people we are brokers. Our job is to effectively broker our resources to our customers. We stand between our customers and a great closet full of potential power such as multiple products, services, pricing, exclusive technology, alliances, terms, training, and delivery to name a few. Sometimes in our enthusiasm we have a tendency to pull everything out of the closet and show it to our customer or prospect. When we do this early in the sales process perhaps hoping something will excite the customer, we operate at a disadvantage. First, we can't attach our resources to a specific customer-stated need (we haven't asked yet), and secondly, we can confuse our customer with information that is not important to him or her.

Keep the brochure in the briefcase. Replace it with a clean sheet of paper and ask questions to fill in the customer's agenda such as industry, company, history, goals, strategies, needs (operational and personal), expectations, timing, etc. It is the only agenda that is important. Understanding it completely allows you to take from your closet of resources those that specifically meet the customer's needs. Now you can pull out your brochures and other marketing information and customize your attention and commitments to those things that have value to the customer.