I’m (sadly) old enough to remember the days of car shopping before the internet (gasp!). If you wanted information on a car (or other products/services) you either went to the library to do some research or talked to a sales person at the dealership.
In the days before the internet, the sales person was the gatekeeper of product information. “Prospects” (those of us interested in the product) really did need the sales person.
The classic “five stages of buying” hasn’t changed much pre-internet and post-internet.
Prospects need to:
· identify their problem
· gather information
· evaluate alternatives
· make purchase decision
· make post-purchase decision(s).
The most significant change the internet brought was around gathering information and evaluating alternatives. These activities no longer require a sales person. Too much data exists online.
Yet, many sales organizations hold onto rules and engagement strategies from the “good ol’days.” How many of us have reached out to a company to get pricing, only be forced to go through the “if I could wave a magic wand and make your problem disappear, how valuable would that be…” routine? Brutal.
So, what is the role of a sales person in today’s disintermediated environment?
What Selling Is Not
Let’s start with what selling isn’t. It’s not “convincing” someone to buy something they don’t want. When we say someone was “sold” on something, it’s usually a negative statement.
Forbes’ 2019 Most and Least Trusted professions came out and no surprise, car salespeople are near the bottom of the list (bailed out only by members of Congress. Ouch).
Why is that? I propose that it’s due to an outdated sales model many car dealerships still employ today; strategies from a long-gone era where the goal is to sell.
Wait. Isn’t that THE goal for all “sales” people? To sell? It used to be. But the world has changed. The internet changed how people go about discovering new products and services. We can buy with the click of a button. We can buy without ever talking to a sales person. The days of “Always Be Closing” are over.
So What Is Sales
I’m going to suggest something radical. Ready? The job of a sales person is to gently push a prospect to an answer: yes or no.
No, really! A yes OR a no!
We live in a world of non-commitment; a world with too many options, too little time and FOMO (fear of missing out). Ask yourself this: how many times does a prospect say “call me next quarter” or “send me some information.” As a sales person, we get excited “yes! They want information! Let’s move them to ‘qualified.’” The prospect did nothing but push you off. They gave you false hope at best. But in reality? They are wasting both of your respective time.
Our job in sales is to drive towards a commitment. It’s like online dating. Your online profile (i.e “marketing”) gets the date to show up; they’ve done their research and have some interest. Your job (as the sales person) is to figure out if there’s a connection, a reason to continue moving forward. A yes or no. It’s that simple. The faster you get to yes or no, the less time you each waste.
Do you know what the most valuable resource is in an organization? It’s time. There are thousands of prospects you’re ignoring when another prospect is stringing you along.
“But, I get paid commissions on a ‘yes’ not a ‘no.’” Again, I’m going to suggest something radical: I believe commission-based selling is an outdated paradigm that will eventually fade away.
Old vs New Paradigm
Commissions. No other role in an organization has this ‘benefit’ (or punishment) but sales. Does the product team who created the product get paid commissions for their work? No. Does marketing? Accounting? HR? Customer service? No, no, no…etc. So, how do we manage marketing teams if we don’t have commissions as leverage? By treating them like adults: setting cooperative, fair and attainable goals, offering opportunities to improve and growth within the organization and setting expectations. Management 101.
Why is it different within the sales organization? If you don’t believe a sales person will perform unless you offer commissions? You’re hiring the wrong people.
In today’s world, the buyers journey peaks at the sales person. They’ve gone through the web site, seen emails, read reviews online. Essentially, 80% (or more) of the buyer’s journey is complete by the time a sales person steps in. Why then is this individual (the sales person) rewarded or punished by a sale? A process that is 80% (or more) complete before they step in?
This belief that a sales person needs a carrot/stick reward in order to perform should be insulting to sales people everywhere. You have no control over the product features. No control over marketing materials (input and influence, maybe, but control? Doubtful). No control over online reviews. You control, at best, 20% of the entire buyer’s journey. Yet…the success or failure of the prospect’s conversion is 100% on you?
Bullshit.
An organization succeeds or fails together…unless you’re a sales person. Then you’re on an island. At least, that’s how it has been. Today, a modern sales person needs to be integrated within the product team, within the marketing team. A sales person should work with customer service and SMEs and provide valuable insights to those teams to enhance overall success. Sales people are intelligence gathering resources. Each yes and each no brings a wealth of information that the marketing and product team needs to enhance the offering.
So, let’s get back to my original premise about getting to an answer. A ‘no’ frees up our time to focus on those that might say yes. Wasting time on a prospect who pushes a commitment down the road time and time again is doing us no favors. They think they are saving us from rejection, but they are instead keeping us from serving customers who see value in our product or service. A ‘no’ provides us key insights and ways to improve.
A ’no’ isn’t a bad thing. A ‘no’ is freedom; permission, if you will, to pursue those that haven’t committed yet. A ‘no’ doesn’t mean keep selling. If we treat the entire sales process respectfully, we will only enhance how prospects view our organizations. If we stop talking and instead listen to the reasoning behind the ‘no’ we can gather incredibly valuable market data.
I’m sure there are alpha-sales people reading this thinking “this guy is a failed sales person or else he wouldn’t be saying this. We want our commissions, because then we can kick-ass and make bank!”
But let me ask this, whose interests are you looking out for? Sounds like yours. If your company paid you a fair wage, but no commissions, rather you were on the same bonus plan as those in marketing, HR, legal…etc…are you saying you wouldn’t work as hard? Would you look for another job? What does that say about you?
The world has changed. Prospects and buyers have changed. And they are telling us to change with it or get disintermediated.
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