DISRUPTION DRILLS TONY HUGHES explains how agile selling is the key to succeeding in a new disruptive landscape
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gility in business has become a buzzword in recent years. Increased disruption – driven by technology, stronger competition and cost cutting – is fuelling the need for organisations to become agile in all areas. Against this backdrop, agility in sales may seem like a new, trendy concept. In reality, effective sales professionals have always been agile, not least when it comes to winning complex sales. Why? Fundamentally, because no two customers are alike. Customers’ needs are wide and varied, influenced by their own goals and those of their colleagues in the decision-making unit (DMU) and the organisation at large. And the product or service requirements a customer started out with can change as they progress through the buying cycle. To be persuasive and engaging from customer to customer, to be able to create and articulate value – not just for the person in front of you but for everyone involved in the DMU – while always keeping tabs on shifting ground, requires agility. Here are the key skills you need, and drills to adopt, to stay agile. Active listening Every customer’s perception of what agile looks like can be different. Finding this out is essential if the salesperson is to respond effectively. It’s not something that can be asked. And it’s not something most customers would think about in depth either, so may find hard to explain. The salesperson has to work it out. The first essential skill in sales agility is therefore listening. It means really digesting the words the customer uses and how they choose to communicate their thoughts. Years ago, a not-for-profit organisation had problems with its fundraising team. It talked about having poor performers, average performers and “primadonnas”, using a pejorative term to describe the high performers. It became clear that the charity had no culture
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of working with commercially successful people, so had difficulty communicating with its own high performers. That one piece of active listening, and the insight it gave, was all it took to find the right solution. Flexible verbal behaviour As well as deeply understanding how the customer is using language, skilled salespeople are equally careful when choosing the words they use. It’s often unconscious. Many effective salespeople can’t tell you what it is that makes them successful or they ascribe their success to something that, on closer inspection, isn’t actually what they do. It’s what we call the perception gap or unconscious competence. Research shows us that perception gaps are much narrower for skilled salespeople, as they are fully aware of the language they use. The good news is you can train people to ISMPROFESSIONAL.COM
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