Effective Selling Today
As the Director of Research for PI Worldwide since 2002, I have had the opportunity to work with over one-hundred different sales organizations, covering a wide variety of industries, company sizes and even countries. In the past seven years, I have seen the world of sales change dramatically, for small medical device companies in New Jersey, medium-sized retailers here in Massachusetts, or global banking giants with operations in India. While these changes are almost too numerous to mention, my discussions with sales leaders and sales representatives themselves indicate that the four factors below have the most profound impact on what constitutes effective selling today, and which companies are positioned to compete and excel in today’s sales environment.
The Sales Pitch is Dead. Long Live the Sales Pitch.
In simple terms, customers and prospects want to be talked with, not at. The days of a sales representative showing up at a prospect’s door with a canned presentation listing product or service features and benefits may be coming to an end. The sales organizations that I work with are increasingly shifting learning and development efforts, both across the enterprise and at the individual sales representative level, to focus on creating more meaningful sales conversations with prospects, and truly understanding those prospects’ key business drivers. Now more than ever, sales representatives that exceed annual quotas present their company’s offerings to prospects in their own terms, and view the world through the prospect’s personal lens, not their own. In the words of one SVP of Sales of a large software company, it’s time to “ditch the pitch.”
Are You Selling Products, Solutions, or Strategic Partnerships?
How do your customers and prospects view you? The vast majority of senior sales executives that I work with see their particular companies, as well as the field as a whole, migrating away from a product focus toward a solution focus, with an ultimate goal of being seen as a true strategic partner. In a product-focused sales environment, stable and well-defined products and services are sold to a static customer set with relatively few, pre-determined requirements, and are typically “shopping” based on price and convenience. In a solution-focused sales environment, multiple customized products and services are sold to customers who are seeking advice and counsel to solve pressing business problems. In a strategic partnership sales environment, efforts are made to enter into a high-level, sustainable relationship with a customer who wants to leverage all of the core capabilities of your organization to help them fulfill their ongoing business objectives. Research in this area highlights two key points: (1) there is a wide gap in perceptions of what “level” a particular company is operating at, with many companies assuming that they are viewed as solution providers or strategic partners, when in reality the majority of their customers simply view them as selling a product, and (2) in those rare instances in which a company is legitimately viewed as a strategic partner, superior performance on standard sales metrics such as quota attainment, customer retention, etc typically follows.
Heightened Expectations, but an Inability to Meet Them
Buyers around the world are more demanding than ever before. In the U.S., expectations that began to heighten in the early 2000’s when solution-based selling gained traction have remained high, and buyers abroad now seem to be catching up to their U.S. peers with regard to expectation levels. Truly understanding a customer’s business, actively listening and providing sound, rational advice, and creating a “win-win” situation in which both the sales representative and the buyer feel good about the transaction are all imperative. A buyer of internet security systems that I spoke with recently encapsulated this new environment perfectly when she said “I now expect the sales reps that I interact with to know more about my company than I do.”
So have companies and their sales representatives “raised their game” to meet these heightened demands? The answer to this question is not encouraging, with the majority of people responsible for purchasing decisions feeling that overall sales expertise is not improving, and in some cases, may actually be declining, with many sales representatives hired today lacking the personality traits and core sales skills (or both) that sustained sales success is predicated upon.
Technology on the March
The pace of technological change in the world at large is dizzying, and the field of sales is no different. A sales force’s ability to identify, select, implement and leverage technology effectively is becoming a key competitive differentiator, whether that technology focuses on traditional CRM and sales force automation systems or “new media” such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or many others. For example, 35% of respondents recently surveyed by the research firm ESR indicated that LinkedIn has helped them close sales, and a major airline uses Twitter to respond to passenger comments in real-time while they are at the airport or even on the plane. Some sales organizations are now specifically assessing sales candidates’ comfort with technology. Rapid advances in functionality, security, and usability should ensure that the bond between sales and technology will only strengthen over time.