Will Today’s Sales Techniques Remain Relevant?
Discovery:
A hot trend of online and digital buying is taking place in cyberspace. No matter how today’s salespeople may attempt to curb this growth, or deny that digital purchasing is compounding at a record pace, hardware and software is making it easier to buy each day.
Virtual Selling
vir·tu·al
1.being something in practice: being something in effect even if not in reality or not conforming to the generally accepted definition of the term
2.generated by computer: simulated by a computer for reasons of economics, convenience, or performance
We will see more and more apps that will serve as a virtual salesperson to move products and services going forward.
Since a real person intermediary is generally not needed in a digital transaction, where does that leave today’s salesperson? If this is truly a growing trend, what are these mammoth firms who are touting record salesperson recruiting trying to tell us? Is it status quo, naivety or sheer ignorance of the facts on their part?
What is the alternative? Where is this all headed?
Commitment:
If you are to continue to exist as a salesperson, the first commitment you should make is to be one of true “value added” to the buyer (more specifically…the decision maker). Otherwise, the ease of purchase vs. the hassle quotient will continue to drive the buyer back into space. Sales methodology will need to change.
Question: How can you continue to see digital apps (now 700,000 apps for the iPhone alone) compound in volume and sophistication and yet see sales practices and methods the same way they were 30-40-50 years ago?
(If I see another car commercial with two sales brothers shaking a fist full of dollar bills at the camera, I am going to eat my hardware and software. Just saying).
As a salesperson, are you committed to abandon old and benign sales methodology and willing to replace it with effective communication, “buy-in” before “buy-of,” and promoting the process of sound decision making?
Solution:
The obvious answer to this dilemma and latent opportunity is the admission that what worked dozens of years ago is no longer the “sacred cow.”
“The real solution rests with commercial, institutional and all other leaders, committed to moving more goods and services, re-define and re-design the transaction that is now called a sales transaction.”
Historically, this transaction included the buyer and the seller.
And, the objective of the transaction is for seller to sell something to the buyer for payment.
From this model, every conceivable method has been adopted to arm the seller to “close the sell.” Comparatively little has been developed that supports the buyer and the process that results in a transparent purchase through an informed decision versus a sale.
Action:
“Make a vow to yourself to reform your thinking and the activity that supports it.”
A growing number believe that “the sale” will become obsolete at some point. They believe that buyers will become increasingly sensitive and resistant to sales techniques, manipulations and pressures that aim for their vulnerabilities.
Considering all the new and instant information available to buyers, a transaction likely won’t take place if buyers sense that they are simply the object of a “sale.” Instead of being sold, buyers would rather understand the benefits they would gain from a purchase and on their own make a mature and educated decision.
An emphasis on “decisioning versus selling” has a good chance to emerge because of that predicament.
Individual Action: Become a Decisioning Specialist.
Reference:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2011/5721/new-x-factors-in-buying-and-selling
Having been in the field of selling most of my adult life, I am more firmly convinced than ever that we are on the brink of a transformation from the old school of selling.
If you are now a salesperson, or you are contemplating a career in this field, it would benefit you to invest some time analyzing the growing trends that may support this position.
Last point: Ask yourself logically, how can all this tsunami of new buying technology continue to match up with “closing the sale?”
As always…you decide.