Many sales professionals are convinced the sales game has changed substantially over the last few years. The hard work we had to do in the old days, like cold-calling, they say, is no longer necessary, as we can build relationships through social media platforms and leverage those connections to make sales.
In reality, sales has changed on the edges and the fringe. The core has not changed as much as many would like to pretend.
The techniques of getting our message out may have changed, but the core value of what a good sales person does hasn't.
The big changes have primarily taken place in the outer and second circles. Mostly changes having to do with tools and their impact on sales people, and, to a lesser degree, buyers. But what drives the whole thing is the "why" people buy. When asked, most sales people respond that they buy in response to some form of "pain" or "need" – a reaction. No doubt that describes part of the market, but in reality, a small part of any market. There are many more decisions taken to achieve forward-looking objectives. While that is a different discussion, the point is that the reasons why have been relatively consistent and unchanged since Adam and Eve.
Still, the discussion around change in sales remains stuck in the two outer circles, and rarely addresses the inner circle, the core component.
Buyers buy to make a positive impact on their business, a proactive action, while many sellers still think they are participants in a beauty contest. Many sellers point to the new tools as proof of the change. These tools tend to be targeted at buyers already looking for a solution, but do little to help sellers communicate the business impact they deliver. Most sellers can articulate how fast or "bad" their product is, but struggle to articulate the specific impact they have had on clients' businesses. It is one thing to say you are 30 per cent faster, it's another to link it to specific business objectives. For example:
• How can you directly support their goals?
• Can you help resolve their biggest issue?
• Can you help them reduce risk?
• Can you add value to their services?
• Can you enhance their reputation?
• Can you reduce their cost of doing business?
Rather than addressing the above, many of the "new ways" of selling offer more ways to find buyers, or help them find you.
One of the challenges with the new tools that claim to have changed sales is that they are geared towards capturing demand. Meaning, they will help sellers identify buyers who have entered the market on their own, thus capturing inherent demand, but do little "generate" or "create" new buyers or new demand. Take inbound and social selling tools, often examples of the "change" in B2B selling. Both have changed the "how" but any incremental gain in "how" is nullified by the lack of attention to the "why."
Recently a local provider of inbound social marketing and lead generation services admitted that he can only speak to someone already actively listening or ready to listen. If someone is removed from the process of "consuming content" created to drive the inbound mechanism, then nothing has changed.
Tibor Shanto is a principal at Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. He can be reached at tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca. His column appears once a month on the Report on Small Business website.