New roads to competence

To conclude our series, in this article we give a view into our latest research on the roles and competencies required by salespeople to help their organisations differentiate from their competitors and stand out in a “sea of sameness”. The research will inform an upcoming book to be published as a follow-up to our 2017 publication, Value-Ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions.

Our research programme centred on in-depth interviews with C-level executives, sales and marketing leaders. We asked them to consider competitive advantage, the roles of sales and marketing in creating differentiation, and the personal competencies required to help an organisation stand out. In addition, we developed a survey questionnaire that we sent to a wider audience of sales and marketing professionals.

Here, we will take a look at three competencies that came out of the first cut analysis from the interviews.

B2B BUYERS DEMAND A NEW TYPE OF SALESPERSON A 2017 study by Forrester, The ways and means of B2B buyer journey maps, found that 68% of B2B buyers prefer to conduct their own research online as their primary source of information. Today’s B2B buyers are more sophisticated than ever. In our omnichannel world, customers can typically be 60% through the buying process before they contact a salesperson, according to research by CEB.

A B2B millennials report in 2018 by Merit found that about 73% of 20-35 year-olds are now involved in making decisions related to new products and services at their companies. These “digital natives” grew up with the internet, and first turn to their laptops and smartphones to conduct generic searches before homing

in on a particular brand. When, or if, they according to CSO Insights’ 2018-2019 Sales contact a salesperson for more information, they are Performance report, only 53% of sales reps are already well versed on their buying criteria, how meeting their quota. your product stacks up against your competition Take Robson, president of a global telco, who and how your current customers have rated their took the execution role beyond just “hitting the experience working with your organisation. While numbers” to being more aligned to the market your prospective buyers may have a pretty good goals of the company. The primary role of sales, he idea about what they want before they engage with said, “is to basically execute the go-to-market plan your company, Aberdeen Research Group found in in the field, simple as that. Sales is the execution 2019 that 48% of buyers are open to engaging early engine of the company to deliver the market plans with a sales rep who will challenge their thinking. that are set within marketing.”

Although being able to access high-quality Robson is clear that marketing sets the go-toinformation is certainly helpful, on the flip side B2B market plan and the sales team executes this plan, buying is reported as growing ever more complex. hopefully with some input from sales. Similarly, In a 2019 buyer enablement study Gartner found when we surveyed global sales and marketing that 77% of B2B buyers surveyed rated their leaders across various industries, 80% agreed that purchase decision as “extremely complex or “ability to execute” was a “very important” difficult” due to the vast competency for today’s amount of information “Sellers are contributing to an salespeople. available and the growing number of people involved in the buying already complex purchase, rather than helping it along... the sales From an execution standpoint, sales is seen to carry a joint committee. And Demand approach has to change” responsibility with Gen’s 2018 content marketing, as Siobhan, preferences report found that 51% of B2B buyers head of strategic marketing for a UK university admitted to feeling “overwhelmed” with the sheer put it, for “selling the whole scope of what the amount of content available. organisation has to offer”. This view was expanded

Now consider the feeling of information overload by other respondents who saw that sales had a joint coupled with what our previous research found responsibility in creating awareness of the offer and – that organisations are “swimming in a sea of its difference from competitors. The challenge for sameness” by communicating the same thing, using sales is setting the offer in the context of an the same words and promises to potential buyers. individual customer… or “connecting the dots”. Sellers are contributing to an already complex purchase, rather than helping it along. This suggests 2. Ability to connect the dots: Connecting that today’s buyers are demanding a different the dots means having a clear understanding of the experience, which means the sales approach has to problems your customers are facing, what their change to meet these demands. needs are, and being able to articulate how your

Our own research has revealed that business solution can uniquely solve their problems. An leaders are increasingly aware that, while being able overwhelming 88% of our survey respondents to articulate what makes their solution different to agreed that this is a “very important” competency prospective customers is “extremely important”, for sales professionals to develop. only 5% rate their organisation as “extremely As a salesperson, this means becoming an expert effective” at differentiating itself from competitors. in several distinct areas: your industry, your competition, your customer, your solutions. As HOW CAN SALESPEOPLE HELP THEIR James, a regional sales manager at a mid-size ORGANISATIONS STAND OUT? manufacturing company put it, his sales team The findings from our in-depth interviews and needs to display a balance of “technical training, survey suggest that there are certain competencies a competitor knowledge, application knowledge and, modern salesperson must develop to help their most importantly, good intuition on when to deploy organisations stand out from the competition. that knowledge”. Here we share three such competencies related to Connecting the dots involves a mix of the evolving role of sales: entrepreneurial and imaginative flair and this is achieved using a facilitative style early in the sales 1. It’s all about execution: Either to buy interaction, as David, who works in vehicle themselves time, or as an instant answer to the open technology solutions, explained: “I’ll have a question, “What are the top 3 responsibilities of a flipchart at the front of the room, and I want salesperson?”, some interviewees jumped to, “It’s all my customer to tell me everything they want, about hitting the numbers”. This might seem trite, everything they’ve seen in the past, anything they but we do live in a world where, right now, like. All the things they’ve perhaps moaned about

behind the scenes, I want to know all of that, all the On the broader point of being the customer bits they really like and then from that I will get champion for all their needs, it was interesting to see them to draw it all together… we’ll get the whole leaders like Kirk, an experienced VP for a thing connected.” technology product line, stressing balanced

One B2B buyers survey showed that a advocacy as a key facet of the sales role: “So, first prerequisite for “connecting the dots” is being able and foremost, there should be balanced advocacy to demonstrate knowledge of buyers and their for your company – I definitely see sales needs; 97% of respondents agreed that it is organisations and sales professionals who forget that important for sales reps to demonstrate a stronger they do get paid by their current company.” knowledge of their needs and 95% said that sales Kirk goes on to declare himself as a huge believer teams need to have more insights about their in customer experience, and as someone we have company and needs. This level of understanding worked with, we would certainly vouch for that. He can be one thing that sets winning vendors apart did go on to say: “Customers hold us accountable. from the others, and essential if a salesperson is to We should hold them accountable as part of the even begin to connect the dots. relationship as well.” 3. Balanced advocacy: We hear a lot about the communication between the supplier and the buyer role of the salesperson as the customer advocate. and an open-minded attitude to joint This can manifest in responsibilities. Both knowing what the “We are starting to see more sides need to take customer wants, advocating for that across the business, and taking emphasis being placed on developing a new set of sales responsibility for the welfare of the relationship. responsibility for customer competencies” The implication for satisfaction. sales competencies would

The customer satisfaction element was something seem to be the need to be able to achieve this that Joseph, a VP of marketing with a long track balanced advocacy. While sales and marketing have record in sales, called out: “You can’t be a successful to be the voice of the customer to prevent inside-out salesperson and ignore customer satisfaction. You’ve product obsession, this has to be tempered with got to sell them something that’s working and meets commercial realism. In their 2017 book, The 12 the customer’s needs. If something is not working, Powers of a Marketing Leader, Thomas Barta and you will often be the point person for helping the Patrick Barwise make a similar call for marketers to customer figure it out… what I’ve seen over and focus on issues that are important for customers and over again is that the best salespeople are great for their own business, in what they call the value customer advocates too.” creation zone or “V-Zone”. Kirk and other sales

Joseph recognised that the salesperson does run leaders seem to recognise that advocacy should be the risk of “getting in too deep” and there’s a line focused in a balanced zone where there is potential between advocacy and “wasting too much time” return for the customer and their own firm. away from the sales numbers. In an environment Successful collaborative working relies on candid where organisations are increasingly trying to gain STEPPING UP, STANDING OUT advantage by superior customer service, this can be Here, we have scratched the surface of the rich an increasing burden on salespeople, who will have insight coming out of the in-depth interviews with to balance the advocacy role with selling. We’re sure C-suite, sales and marketing leaders. We are starting this is familiar territory to many readers. to see more emphasis being placed on developing a new set of competencies that goes beyond the traditional sales competencies such as relationship building, presentation skills and closing. One thing is certain, as B2B buying behaviour continues to become more sophisticated, the sales approach must adapt. It is encouraging to see that CUSTOMER COMPANY some of the competencies leaders are talking about NEEDS GOALS call for closer cohesion with marketing, orchestrating other players in the broader organisation, and providing better and more balanced feedback to the organisation about what’s happening in the market. If these competencies are honed, they may help you stand out in a sea of sameness. ZONE OF BALANCED ADVOCACY If you’d like to contribute to our further research, please email simon.kelly@york.ac.uk

Stacey Danheiser, Simon Kelly and Paul Johnston are co-authors of Value-Ology: Aligning Sales and Marketing to Shape and Deliver Profitable Value Propositions, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017 and reviewed in Winning Edge No1 2018.

Stacey Danheiser is founder and president of Shake Marketing Group, a global B2B sales and marketing practice. Prior to starting her own consultancy, she spent 15 years as a marketing and sales enablement leader at large companies across the cable, telecommunications, financial services and banking sectors.

Simon Kelly (FISM) is a lecturer in sales and marketing at York University. He has 35 years’ experience in the ICT industry in customer service, sales and marketing. Now a “pracademic”, he has developed marketing and sales skills modules for Sheffield Business School, and he is chief cohesion officer at Shake.

Paul Johnston is a former lecturer at Sheffield Business School. His research specialism is B2B marketing management. Prior to this, he spent 20 years in the gambling and electronic games industry with board-level roles in competitive strategy, key account management, marketing research and product innovation.