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I Simply Don’t Understand
Jul 19, 2005 Sales Related View Comments
The field of sales has remained static for centuries. Sure, we’ve been noticing that a buyer has needs and ways that they buy for about 20 years, starting with Linda Richardson and consultative sales. But even the current sales thinking – even when it includes the thinking about how customers buy that I began introducing into the market about 15 years ago – is still heavily based on the seller. The seller knowing how the buyer buys. The seller finding ways to approach the buyer and the marketing and the message. The seller’s ideas that the buyer needs to understand. The seller having the identity, the product, the niche, and the benefit.
Communication Assumptions
Jul 8, 2005 Random Thoughts View Comments
I always wonder why people assume that their assumptions are accurate – making others wrong? I wonder why they don’t assume that others are just thinking with different beliefs than theirs, and get curious.
Sales people are huge offenders of this, as are techies. Both assume that their maps of the world are accurate and pit the comments/beliefs/actions of others against their view of what’s ‘right’. I used to own a technology company and had 48 techies working for me; obviously I’m in the sales industry now. Unfortunately, one of the favorite descriptions of clients/users during times of annoyance is “they’re jerks”.
I wonder what needs to happen for people to just get curious, and truly wonder what makes people say and do what they’re saying and doing. Just maybe their beliefs are different and the sellers and techies would understand more and get into a position that would help them serve their clients better.
Just a thought.
-Sharon Drew
Helping Buyers Buy
Jun 27, 2005 Sales Related View Comments
I’ve been reading some articles lately that offer tips on how buyers buy. But that’s not the issue at all. Since sales has been about getting something sold, and is therefore a push technology, the accepted wisdom seems to be that if sellers understand how buyers buy, they’ll better know how to close.
Grof Transpersonal Training
Jun 20, 2005 Friends and Partners View Comments
Just back from holiday. Had a chance to experience a group of people at the Grof Transpersonal Training (GTT) center who carry forward the work of Stan Grof, the psychiatrist who created the holotropic breathing system. It’s a mix of breathing and music, meditation and healing, that brings participants through a journey towards wholeness.
I strongly recommend this for people who actively seek internal change. It’s a strong, humbling approach to serving yourself and others, while healing those places in us that sometimes effect others inadertently. This group is the very essence of serving: they’ve dedicated their lives to helping people become all they can be. And the journey we each take toward wholeness is often less than pretty – yet these dear folks hang in with great love and respect.
Since my own work is a model that supports healing interactions between sellers and buyers, I’ve found the Grof work to be a huge help in not only managing my own emotional center, but in helping my clients manage theirs. Check it out at http://www.holotropic.com/ The world is a better place with these folks in it.
- Sharon Drew
Soft Skills – the new trend?
Jun 3, 2005 Random Thoughts View Comments
For centuries, we’ve misused the function of sales. We’ve used sellers to push product, even though we’ve recognized that there is a 93% failure rate built into the job (so we’ve just hired a lot of sellers to do the job far fewer could do).
The way I see it, sales folks are the bridge between the outside (customer, market) and the inside (company). Imagine if sellers are equiped with the tools/skills to be able to be the brand ambassadors for the company, while bring the raw, real data of what customers truly desire back to the R&D function. Maybe then we’d develop products that people wanted/needed, rather than designing products that our R&D folks wanted. Or be the teachers for other functions in a company so they all can get behind true customer care.
We’ve relegated ’sales’ to the function of selling product. Imagine if sellers were the bridge for a company, and merely had to support buyers in designing their own solutions, with their company just responding.
Barter Bank
May 26, 2005 Friends and Partners View Comments
Have you ever heard of a Barter Bank? I hadn’t. Obviously I’ve been living a sheltered life.
There is a company I’ve just connected with called Capital Barter Bank (www.cbbank.co.uk). We bartered my Buying Facilitation in a Box. I hope to use my ‘money’ to get me a nice hotel room in Shanghai. It’s a neat idea – obviously a very old idea made new.
Have a look. I’m impressed with the people there and the business model.
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