Sales Trends — Page 3

A New Type Of Sales Approach For A New Type Of Customer

08.20.2019 by Jonathan Farrington //

I believe that the traditional customer call once seemed indispensable to the selling process – the time and expense involved were just a basic cost of doing business. In recent years, however, the business community has come to regard the sales call as an expenditure for which there are substitutes. For many companies telemarketing, video conferencing, and direct email have made the sales call a choice, not an inevitability. This is not surprising when various studies suggest that getting one sales person in front of one customer now costs $1500 – this cost has trebled in recent years. As a consequence, professional salespeople have to be more effective than ever to justify the investment in a face to face effort.

In essence, we can draw several conclusions. Taken together, these findings paint a picture of the current state of the sales environment.

The one term that really sets top performers apart – customer focus.

Outstanding sales results depend on:

The ability to think from the customer’s point of view
Understanding the customer’s agenda, buying cycle and best interests
Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, salespeople must gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate
At the heart of customer focus is the art of listening constructively – the best salespeople are masters at capturing information
Customer focus means taking the customer seriously – today, the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago is losing ground
As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors – customised to support specific goals
Another myth which can be exploded is that whilst customers value flexibility, being too flexible can undermine the sales relationship. On the whole, salespeople imagine that customers value a vendor’s responsiveness above all. However, recent research shows that their primary concern is reliability.

In summary, in order to maintain customer focus, the best salespeople become facilitators – creating a partnership that extends the selling relationship within the customer’s company. The motivation to achieve this should be strong – it costs fifteen times as much to attract and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one!

Rather than doggedly asking for the business, the very best sales people work to keep the relationship moving towards a sale. They realise the need to identify how to turn their company’s products into real solutions, which must meet specific needs.

Unfortunately, our surveys confirm that the average salesperson drags the customer over old ground as much as 52% of the time – they are unable to provide continuous stimulation and never know when to treat an existing customer like a new one.

Conversely, exceptional salespeople only make such ‘return calls’ for 10% of the time. Above all, earning the right to proceed requires gaining the customer’s trust – top salespeople work diligently to establish a climate in which the customer is willing to share information and feels comfortable doing so. The key here is integrity.

Customers are persuaded when they are part of the process – and not part of the audience.

Sales success today demands a radical shift from the ‘peddler’ mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a ‘flashy’ sales presentation alone alienates, rather than persuades.

The best salespeople regard the sales call as a two-way conversation – not a one-sided pitch. They have developed active listening skills. Average salespeople score fairly well in their ability to provide customers with facts and figures, but top performers dramatically outscore the rest when it comes to gathering information. In addition, how a salesperson collects information still distinguishes exceptional achievers from the rest of the pack – i.e. Top performers ask better questions and, as a result, gain much better information. Essentially, they aim to engage customers in the buying process with questions that require thoughtful answers, that stimulate curiosity and that reveal the customers underlying needs.

We should never forget that the right to do business has to be continually earned and never assumed!

Is Sales Technology Helping or Hindering Current Sales Achievement Levels?

08.06.2019 by Jonathan Farrington //

Here is the reality: Even companies that enjoy the luxury of clearly superior products realize that those products will not sell themselves. At a minimum, companies need a sales force comprised of skilled professionals who understand the application of the product range, have an in-depth knowledge of their customer base, market sector and, of course, the competition. But even all these elements together are not sufficient to ensure optimum performance levels and profitable sales.

So what exactly is a sales process? Put quite simply, it is a set of procedures which determine how a company wishes its sales team to operate – “The way we do things around here.”

The most successful organizations have implemented a process and an all-encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, reviewing, providing continual feedback on performance, as well as implementing efficient and relevant process tools.

Over the past few years, we have witnessed huge investment in new sales technology solutions and sales process tools. However, that investment does not guarantee an appropriate return in terms of increased and improved sales performance.

In fact, the results from Sandler Research Center’s inaugural survey confirmed the following …

Whilst 73% of respondents said that they have a formal sales process in place, only 50% said that it has been fully implemented and only 37% reported that the sales team follows that process.

53% told us that they have not received an appropriate return on the investment they have made in sales technology and most alarmingly, only 38% said that their organization was “More Effective” or “A Lot More Effective” as a result of sales technology implementation.

If you would like to read an abbreviated version of the Sandler Research Center report, “THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS FOR SUSTAINING OVERACHIEVING SALES PERFORMANCE” please download your copy here

“New Age” Selling Requires “New Age” Management

07.02.2019 by Jonathan Farrington //

Whatever label we choose to hang on our preferred style of selling, there are now considerable implications for sales management. It is my view that for companies to remain competitive now, their sales organization must be able to respond rapidly and positively to the numerous changing tides.

As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople, but ensuring that these new methods are widely practiced and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:

Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities – i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry – post economic meltdown – of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain.

To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision, but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

Creating Direction:

Sales managers with an intimate feel for the selling process succeed, because their staff regard them as part of the sales team. But coaching the team is as important as playing in it. In other words, sales managers must be prepared to provide training, feedback and support to every individual within the team.

Once committed to the training process, they must routinely reinforce new ways of behaving in real sales situations. They must provide a clear sense of direction on a daily basis, not just at the monthly sales meeting / quarterly review / annual appraisal.

The very best sales managers engage in frequent coaching and feedback, even when their sales people work in remote locations. While encouraging salespeople to air their problems openly and discuss their concerns, sales managers must be able to offer clear and specific feedback for improving sales performance.

Rewarding Change:

The sales manager is charged with translating the company’s reward system into specific improvements in sales performance. Both salespeople and corporate managers count on the sales manager to recognize and reward outstanding achievement – formally and informally.

The process of promoting new attitudes about the customer and the role of the salesperson can be frustrating and slow. Reverting back to recent research there is compelling evidence to suggest that companies will see results sooner if they recognize and reward salespeople – “you get more of the behavior and results that you reward”

The trend in sales compensation appears to be away from commission to guaranteed salary; from compensation based on orders to compensation based on delivery and sign-off.

Interestingly, some of our clients base their ‘salesperson of the year’ award on the basis of customer satisfaction or customer retention, rather than sheer volume of orders or activity.

Summary – And Now the Good News

It is now a given fact, in any sales-related seminar or conference you may attend, that traditional sales methods are being relegated to the annals of history. The new, more discerning customers of today have seen to that. They now wield greater bargaining power, demand more value for money and have become more knowledgeable and professional when it comes to decision-making.

Suppliers are now faced with rising customer expectations and the need to become more flexible to the requirements of each individual client.

Yet, the key to differentiation lies within these expectations since more complex buying decisions lead customers to value closer links with their suppliers.