RSSWhy Sales Are Faltering In This Economy, And What To Do About It
Oct 5, 2009 Sales Related
IS IT TIME TO TRULY HELP BUYERS BUY?
There are actually two major things a buyer must do prior to making a purchasing decision. Of course they must ultimately choose a supplier and a solution (that’s the role of sales). But they also must manage all of the off-line, behind-the scenes change issues that must take place internally so they can get buy-in to bring aboard something new (i.e. a solution). And this idiosyncratic, off-the-cuff buying decision activity is not addressed by the sales model – and yet it takes up 2/3 of the time it takes a buyer to do all they have to do before they buy.
We cannot be a direct part of this process. We are not there: we are outsiders, the conversations happen between colleagues, and we are not a part of the buyer’s team. Sure, we know (and learn) how to be professionals, and care, and understand. Yet the time it takes buyers to come up with their own answers – not the ones we want them to have but answers based on the idiosyncratic needs of the internal system – is the length of the sales cycle.
One of the problems we’re having selling now is not about a buyer’s need, or our solution: it’s the internal, behind-the-scenes issues buyers are having difficulty managing internally. And these issues are now very politically motivated and economy-driven.
Because sales only manages the solution/product placement end of the buying decision, it offers us no tool kit to help buyers manage the conversations that go on off-line, between departments, with old vendors, etc. And because it focuses on the very last thing buyers do – choosing a solution – and not the nitty-gritty issues that cause buyers to buy (or not), we are basically out of control.
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Tags: buy, buying decision team, economy, helping buyers buy, sales cycle, sales model, sell
Dynamic Growth: Help In Today’s Economy
Aug 11, 2009 Friends and Partners
Paul McCord can help you sell. He’s got interesting ideas about how to be successful, without giving up your values and integrity.
He’s got lots to offer on his site, but this was my favorite page: Articles
He’s written bunches of articles that will hit home for the typical sales problem. And he takes such a clean approach to working with clients. On his site, Paul writes that he’s ”a master at developing simple, straightforward, extremely effective processes to enhance sales and the management of the sales function.”
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Tags: economy, growth, paul mccord, sales problem
Who Do You Choose To Trust On The Net?
Aug 4, 2009 Book Reviews
Chris Brogan is to be trusted. But how do we know?
Indeed, Chris asks the big questions that we all should be asking:
“We’ve moved from asking our neighbors to believing advertising to asking people we’ve never met what they think about an issue. How does this work? And if you represent a business, how can you be sure that YOU are trusted?”
Chris and Julien Smith wrote this cool book, coming out August 24, called: Trust Agents: using the web to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust. This is actually the first book I’ve seen that deals with such an important topic.
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Tags: Chris Brogan, economy, inbound marketing bootcamp, inbound marketing summit, influence, Julien Smith, new marketing labs, online marketing, social software, Trust Agents
It’s Not The Economy: It’s Your Selling Patterns
Jul 20, 2009 Decisioning & Change Management
Buyers buy using their own buying patterns. Unfortunately, sellers lose a lot of business by using their own selling patterns: if the seller’s selling patterns don’t match the buyer’s buying patterns, there will be no sale, regardless of the proximity of the seller’s solution to the buyer’s need.
With so much confusion and risk management slowing down sales, maybe it’s time to stop doing what we’re comfortable with.
Consider telemarketing. The products sold are perfectly fine products. But we’ve always hated the selling patterns: phone calls on Sunday mornings, late at night, during dinner.
If you think about it, what they are doing is not too different from a typical selling pattern: introduce product, pitch, ask for a sale.
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Tags: Buying Facilitation®, buying patterns, Decision Facilitation, economy, selling patterns, telemarketing
How Sales Must Shift In This Uncertain Economy
Feb 6, 2009 Sales Related
Until now, you’ve had a rather specific definition of sales: uncover need, define how a solution fits, and place a product where there is a match between your product and the need. But given that the ‘need’ is no longer the buyer’s focus, you can use this time to help them see the entire elephant – the full range of issues and elements they need to address in an uncertain economy – and decide how to move forward while waiting for the economy to turn itself around.
How do you know you’re listening to your clients in the most effective way?
Feb 4, 2009 Sales Related
Listening is circular, and ends with the originating speaker receiving a message they need to respond to. There is a speaker and a listener, a message maker and a message receiver. And without a Sender and a Receiver, there is no message. Indeed, the definition of a communication includes having a sender and a receiver. In my humble opinion, listening is the most important part of a communication, because if we don’t hear what is being said, there are no grounds for communication.
Tags: communication, economy, listening, sales
