RichardNolan
Posts 68
|
This post is following on from Nick de Cents recent post on the LinkedIn ModernSelling Group “Have you seen anything genuinely new from a sales trainer recently or is training now simply a commodity differentiated purely on price and service level?”
Clearly most sales leaders believe that nothing has really changed in the past 50 years, so there’s a HUGE opportunity for us all here!
Here’s an example of where I feel peoples mind sets are currently:
20 odd years ago one of the first fundamentals of sales that I was taught was that:
Results = Activity, Skills, Knowledge
I would have to agree that the above formula remains as relevant today as it was 20 or even 50 years ago, so WHY change? What has changed are the tools, techniques and strategies that enable the sales profession to really leapfrog their competitors, but how many sales leaders have done anything about this? One area that is having a dramatic impact is the internet and Sales 2.0 in particular.
What I would like to propose is an initial webinar on how the contributors to this post could work together to help bring the UK sales profession into the 21St Century by showing:
1. What’s happening with B2B Social Media?
1.a Most of us are familiar with LinkedIn (posting, answering questions etc), but how many of your customers are actually aware of the potential here (all the indications are 7% at best) Your customers know the basics of sales; they just need to be pointed in the right direction for the best use of social media.
1.b What are the other developments in this space; InsideView, Jigsaw etc?
2. Sales Trainers
2.a You know what your USP’s are; this is your opportunity to re-emphasise them and re-engage with your clients on the back of social media. As Adrian (Siemens) pointed out, there is an excellent opportunity for the sales training profession to demonstrate that they’re up with current practices.
3. List providers
3.a Are they integrating with the new breed of social media data providers?
3.b What are the implications of social media with data cleansing?
So yes, much of what’s being delivered is nothing new, but the WAY in which they are being delivered is completely new (the BBC recently described it as revolutionary). This process rejuvenates the whole sales team as in most cases their prospects will now engage with them and accept their phone calls!
And as Brian rightly pointed out, with all the Train to Gain incentives out there, why wouldn’t people be interested?
So I would be grateful for your comments below, or if you'd like to know more regarding free sales trainining, please contact virtualCONTACT today.
|
Nick de Cent
Posts 175
|
And as you're aware Richard, Neil and I have been invited to put across these ideas to the UK branch of the International Association of Microsoft Certified Partners at the Microsoft Customer Briefing Centre in Victoria, London on 9 March. It seems that some big players are taking this seriously, at least.... (As a newly accredited Microsoft partner, you'll be there, I imagine.)
We would also hope to deliver the same message to the Sales Training Association sometime in the not to distant future.
Plus, I'm also likely to be involved in helping produce and edit a whole supplement in The Times devoted to Sales and the world of selling. This is hopefully scheduled to run next month and will focus on this 'paradigm shift' in the world of sales as the theme of this publication.
Here's what we have come up with as a synopsis for our talk:
The changing sales landscape or... ‘In sales, it’s definitely not cool to be old-skool!’
In the technology industry, we’re used to change – after all, change is what we sell. But have the sales methodologies we employ kept pace with the realities of the marketplace?
In the old days, salespeople drove around in cars and knocked on doors. Then along came the telephone, computer databases, mobile phones, CRM, email and the web. Yet, despite all these aids, it can sometimes seem like nobody’s buying: decision-makers hide behind voicemail; receptionists won’t put you through unless you have a name... and they certainly won’t tell you who to speak to; procurement departments are more concerned with making the ‘right buying decision’ than buying the ‘best solution’; email open rates are down; consumers are signing onto the mailing and telephone preference services in their droves.
Technology is partly to blame: the web has changed buying habits; salespeople are too expensive to employ simply as ‘talking brochures’ for all but the most complex big-ticket items; for many, CRM has been an expensive failure, ‘shelfware’ designed to appeal to senior management and marketers rather than front-line salespeople; automated sales systems have alienated consumers; call centres have tried the patience of decision-makers with overly scripted, loosely targeted (cold) calls, poor technique and a focus on metrics alone.
But technology can also be part of the solution. As mud-at-the-wall, mass-marketing techniques continue to offer declining ROI, the focus is moving to Sales 2.0 and beyond. Sales 2.0 is not just about technology – it’s more a new methodology – but it couldn’t have happened without recent innovations.
Use of sophisticated database techniques, combined with market intelligence on tap, online business networking and prospect qualification software, all driven by a new generation of CRM – often delivered using SaaS/the cloud – allows B2B salespeople to devise, target and run micro-campaigns aimed at individual high-value prospects and customers. Throw into this heady mix a new generation of collaboration software, remote conferencing, presentation technology, webinars and online multimedia, and we are presented with a powerful battery of new tools and methodologies which are beginning to change the way the best organisations sell.
However, this new sales landscape won’t be without its problems, not least in terms of the lack of candidates with the calibre needed to fill such demanding, multi-media sales roles.
Sales 2.0 and the newest methodologies are, at long last, re-focusing the ‘science of selling’ on people, relationships and the art of communication.
|