Darwin is regarded as never before in the direct sales.
Also in the Commerce evolution taking place slowly and unobtrusive. The seller pur sang, the generalist, delft in the evolution of the commercial world lose.
A few days ago, I had an interesting conversation with the owner of a marketing agency that deals with marketing in a new way. The essence of that conversation was that the traditional sales funnel is based on the internal sales process and not on the customer journey or the buying process. This in itself mean anything. It's just a perspective with which the market is accessed. But who is deeper about it and looks at how the world of sales and purchases has changed, to surprising conclusions.
MANAGING A FUNNEL WHILE THE CUSTOMER RUNS INTO ROUNDS
For The past twenty years my companion Martijn Rich and I have been selling. Direct sales in a B2B environment to be precise. We have done This as a seller, account manager and as managerial. In All these years, funnel thinking has become second nature. Logical because if you as a commercial animal want to manage yourself and your team, Kpis based on that sales funnel are indispensable.
But What if those sales funnel are no longer relevant? What If the buying customer goes through a completely different process than the internal sales process? This would mean that sales-oriented organisations were totally wrong in managing themselves. It would also mean that everything we have learned as sellers is no longer of this time and mean that we are becoming less effective by the day in our approach to the market. Let the latter become more and more clear to many now.
The sellers of 30 years and older are trained with the well known methods as Kenneth Smith, PSS and Miller Heiman to name but a few. All top.
What Do they teach us? Know your customer, know the need, know your DMU, determine your strategy and walk through the sales process. This remains relevant, however, they are no longer relevant to managing a sales process, but to help the customer in the buying experience. And that experience does not stop if you as a salesman leave the table to complete the next step in the sales funnel until the next call. The customer is continuously working on his/her buying process. As a seller you must be constantly present and relevant in this process.
As a seller we had to listen to the customer then the task of knowledge and information. In the mix of products available to us were we offered to what's best with the needs of the customer. But that is no more. Purchase has no need to sell more solutions to problems. That can purchase fine out yourself. The information is widely available and the extent to which procurement is professionalized means that the internal business case is already created before sales at all get a chance. So before purchase Commerce invites at the table is actually already known how a solution largely should look like. These are the specific things that can make the difference. But there can be a seller does not provide. A seller is a generalist, not a specialist. The added value we have the sales engineer or sales consultant needed. For sale rest the acquisition and guiding the administrative and contractual process.
WE ARE REPRESENTATIVES, SO REPRESENT!
The difference is therefore no longer made by the seller. What then remains? Unique products no longer exist. The quality of each product is good enough to meet the demands of the market and the legislator. Price then? That is exactly the reality of the day. A seller can compete little more than on price.
Would you survive if sales then you as sales make a choice. Specialize or make sure you become part of the customer journey. In the latter case, there is an important task. We used to be called representatives. Thanks to the inflation of the job title have the sellers now entire exciting titles but in the new world is representing your company and representing yourself is more important than ever before. And that representation belongs in the purchase experience of the customer.
The customer wants a conversation, not a presentation. The Buyer wants a partner. The customer wants the supplier to bear also risk. The customer wants to travel to that solution together with the supplier. The customer wants a specialist. A specialist in understanding the customer. That journey begins long before the customer realizes that he/she needs you.
ADAPT OR DIE
The reality is that the customer determines the process and thus the pace. Sales must adapt to that reality. That means quite a bit. To survive, sales need a whole new set Of competences. Yes, the old skills continue to be important. It is not enough.
It is necessary to be taught at all times to be relevant. How the (online) network should be deployed and maintained. Where the information is to be retrieved and how you get value from it to be relevant where necessary. Sales must learn to create and share content in a proper way.
Networking skills have never been more important. But networking is now also online, so social media skills are indispensable. Sellers should learn that this networking and conversing with the customer should be the basis of the commercial activity. That they should go ahead on the basis of a good plan.
Only then will the seller and the sales organization survive.
This article was written by Marco Diks and is published on www.marcodiks.nl
