Selling Doesn't Work.... Like it used to

Monday, November 1, 2010.

Selling Doesn't Work.... Like it used to.

 This is from a guy whose company has, since the 40's, been coaching and training salespeople as part of their offering.

The role of sales has changed.  You're thinking, 'no kidding'.  I remember when our world was stable and all a company had to do was add a better person to the team to make more calls and see more people.  The result was increased sales.  Nothing much is stable anymore and thinking from old sales assumptions just does not work like it did. 

Today, salespeople feel overworked, underpaid and under appreciated and their work environment can be more abusive and tense than it used to be.  In fact, over the last 5 - 7 years, the entire sales profession has gone through a transformation.  It used to be that the only way prospects learned about a company's products and services was to have a sales person call on them.  They were info rmation-providers for product specs and service offerings.  The focus of the salesperson was to close leads that marketing created.  They had to convince a prospect to buy by having a great sales presentation, interviewing skills, and communicating the features and benefits of their product or service.

Things have changed.

1. Customers/prospects can now perform extensive internet research on their own.  It used to be the salesperson's job to prove the product was good.  Now, blogs and consumer websites are abundant and the information they provide go beyond what most sales professionals can or, in some cases, want to provide.

2. Today's customers want simple solutions.  They do not like having products pushed on them.  They want quarterbacks who connect with everyone involved and pull the pieces together.  Sales professionals today need to be business advisers rather than information providers.  They need to uncover the client's real needs.  Business has become so complex due to the constant changing of markets needs, the global structure of business, and the incredible access to information that it can boggle the mind of any business person.  As a result, most prospects do not know their needs because they are too caught up in the details of the business to see what is really going on.  Many buyers have narrowed down their solutions in a simplistic way, rather than see how all the parts effect the whole.  If sales pros just let the buyer dominate the actions or sales process, both the buyer and the salesperson could lose.  You can no longer assume that prospects even know what their problems are.  They know their businesses should be better, but don't quite know how to change it.  The business adviser's wisdom becomes the springboard for a continual relationship.

The old paradigm of selling was biased toward your product's features and benefits.  The new model is about habitually using tools  that get at the real problems of your prospects and presenting offerings that solve these problems while matching the buyer's motives.

3. The sales reps need to be impactful in all their interactions because a prospect's  time is limited.  Sales professionals have less time to prove themselves.  New sales people have to perform quickly.  To succeed quickly salespeople need:

·  To be fearless

·  To be open to coaching and training.

·  To use analytical tools to uncover the customers real problems.

·  To be a sector expert by reading and studying daily.

·  To know their market, their customer and all aspects of a customers
   business.

·  To be clear as to what to say to C- level executives.  If they are not
   clear, they probably won't make the call.

·  To give a unique or at least adequate sales proposition quickly that
   closely matches a prospects motives and needs.

·  To profile what a good qualified prospect looks like so they can hunt
   down  opportunities and qualify more effectively.

4. Sales managers and business owners need to be serious about using business advisory sales training and coaching rather than trying to hire rainmakers who bring their client list with them.  Many companies still do this because they don't support their people enough. Sales managers need to go over their new hires time management to ensure they are in activities that uncover qualified prospect's needs.  Also, they need to spend time going over their salespeople's proposals and deals to ensure their potential client wins. They don't want to compete by just price cutting.  They should hire outside coaches and trainers to help people deal with reality and develop the habits and skills required. If coaches and trainers start with abstract concepts, dump them quickly. It's tough out there.  We need to be real and practical.  In the past, sales training was conceptual and it worked.  Today sales training companies are forced to teach how to uncover the genuine problems, finding opportunities and presenting offerings that match the markets and customers motives.

Management needs to play a bigger role in the sales process. Only management can create new offerings that match the market's motivation to buy by studying customer's buying motives. If the sales process is not based on this kind of sound strategic thinking, making more calls will make very little difference.

In summary, the sales force needs to be a strategic weapon in the company's arsenal.  Sales professionals need and deserve highly specialized training and sales management that teaches and coaches them to provide winning solutions to their prospects and customers that expose the competition's weaknesses and allow them to take sales away from them. Managers need to be market-centric and ensure that the organization's offering matches buyer's motives.

Actions:

Assess the following:

1) Do you have a unique, compelling sales proposition on your website or is it just a bunch of features and benefits of your company and/or products?

2) How well do your sales people understand their prospects, clients, and competition?  Do they have the skills to uncover the real problems and needs of their prospects?  Can they package their offering to match the customer's motive to buy?

3) Are you investing money to train and coach your strategic sales team?  What training can you give them that will bring out their potential?

As always, if you want more help with any of the above, give me a call or email me your questions.

Have a great week.