21st century sales 3 big ideas

21st Century Sales:

3 BIG Ideas

The traditional B2B sales process is dead…

Offer…. Respond…. Fulfil….

Salesperson or marketing

department seeks out new

customers by advertising details

and features of a product or service

Once a buying signal is

given the sales person

“sells” the benefits of

the product to the buyer

The buyer

negotiates

a price, the

contract is

signed and

the order is

fulfilled…

…a new era for sales and the sales person

The buyer delays their conversation

with a sales person… they control the

channel of engagement, they research

the product, potential suppliers and

the market in great depth

Sales use content and context to advise

buyers (it’s not about campaigns). The

buyer is often more educated than the

seller on the product…

Sales guide buyers through a

process, the buyer relies on

customer feedback and

endorsements to reduce risk. The

seller should expect constant re-

evaluation and challenge.

60%

of the

Process

is here

NEED MATCH ENGAGE

“What got

you here

won’t get

you there”Marshall Goldsmith

a new era requires a new approach…

3 BIG Ideas…

2

Putting

the ‘C’

back in

CRM

Putting

the ‘C’

back in

CRM

• Sales need active strategies for online networking; making professional connections and

sharing great content can give you exponential leverage

• 67% of 2nd degree LinkedIn referrals will result in a prospect meeting (whereas only 3% of cold

calls will)

• Content must engage and differentiate, you must provide it with no expectation of receiving

anything in return – talk context not product, serve the ‘non stop customer’ and let them find

your business digitally

• TRUST is the most valuable currency you have in sales, when people do research using Social

Media they are essentially looking to see if they can trust you and your organisation

Putting

the ‘C’

back in

CRM

• Customer Experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differential

by 2020

• You have to innovate the customer experience – transform operational processes

through digital technologies; the experience must be simple, available across

multiple channels and personal

• B2B customers are behaving like B2C – customer service is influencing the sales

cycle, create a fan base with customers and use it to differentiate with prospects

• Let customers build the product roadmap - use data to make products and

services relevant, customers are the “new” business advisors

Putting

the ‘C’

back in

CRM

• Sales leaders need to focus on the 70% of middle performers (the frozen middle)

and less on the top 20% and the bottom 10%

• The new era of sales is more a science than an art… you can train the behaviours

and strategies that can unlock the potential among your 70% (sales people are

born AND made)

• Tie customer experience to your sales compensation scheme – sales (and repeat

business) is more about successful conversations and satisfaction and less about

products and services

• 7/10 people will become disengaged if they are not held accountable for their

performance – make sure the reward you offer is influencing outcomes

NEED

MATCH

ENGAGE

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