FEATURE | SALES TRENDS
FIGHTING FOR FACE TIME GRANT LEBOFF says solution selling no longer works and salespeople must work smarter to get in front of buyers
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undamentally, salespeople add value when they influence or alter their prospect’s “criteria of purchase”. If potential customers know exactly what they want, however, and no conversation will alter their perception in any way, then it becomes almost impossible for a salesperson to add value. In fact, in this situation no actual selling takes place. Really, the salesperson here is just providing customer service. The conversation between the parties becomes a box-ticking exercise, whereby the customer ensures the salesperson’s offering can deliver everything they require. With this established, and nothing to differentiate the supplier from all the other providers that also meet the customer’s requirements, the salesperson gets hammered on price as this, inevitably, becomes the only point of difference. This scenario is increasingly occurring in business today. Customers, with access to a wealth of online information, are completing more of the purchase journey on their own before a salesperson ever gets involved. Salespeople, if they do get to meet a customer at all, merely become extensions of the customer service department, rather than influencing the customer’s criteria of purchase. The ready availability of information online is why salespeople are now finding it increasingly difficult to obtain face time with prospects and customers. Before the World Wide Web, it was relatively difficult for individuals to find out about products and services. They could, of course, read trade magazines, visit exhibitions and use libraries for research. However, in this environment, often the most efficient way of obtaining an understanding of a market was to call a few suppliers and have meetings with their salespeople.
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After three or four conversations, a prospect would have a much clearer idea of what was available. Today, it is often quicker and more efficient for potential purchasers to undertake research online for themselves. This can be done in their own time and convenience. With the perception that all the information that they require is available on the Internet, why would they invite salespeople into their office? In other words, salespeople need to ask themselves, “Why should a prospect give me any face time whatsoever?” Right now, there are too many salespeople who do not have a compelling answer to this question. The ramifications of this situation are that it is now essential for salespeople to undertake more of their prospecting on the Web. After all, salespeople have always needed to hang out in the same places as their prospects and customers. Today, this is increasingly on digital platforms. Building a reputation and presence online will not only enable a salesperson to get involved with a prospect’s purchase journey at the right time, it will also go some way to providing a reason why a prospect may want to meet them in person. BENEFIT SELLING To grasp the approach required from salespeople today, it is essential to understand how the sales process has evolved. We used to live in a product economy. That is, in the main, people simply bought products. There was very little service industry to speak of. In relative terms, we inhabited a world with limited choice in most sectors of the market. Moreover, people were tied into using local suppliers. For most, it was not easy to access products outside a local area, while sourcing them overseas was prohibitive in both time and money costs in all but the rarest of circumstances. ISMM.CO.UK
27/10/2016 11:33
