Sales Is Broken

"We must take change by the hand or rest assuredly, change will take us by the throat."

-- Winston Churchill, Former British prime minister

The always "on" world of the web makes it vital that we, as business owners, take a hard look at how we go to market. Modern businesses recognize that buyers have access to real-time information on any product or service that interests them. They are thrilled to wait until they are "fully educated" before finally making a decision to reach out to a salesperson or company.

The web is an unlimited source of information about products, pricing, how to fix them, reviews, etc. - everything you need to know by just imputing some keywords or phrases.

So the more real time information (content) you make available to them, the more people you will be attracting to your website, social pages, etc., and the more likely they will be to trust you enough to contact you.

This is a marketing subject for another day but the topic of this article is - sales is broken. The way we set up our sales organizations, the sales processes we use, how we serve the prospect and customer may need to change radically, but most of us are selling like it is 2004.

In 2004 the salesperson had the power of position when they were the gate keepers of information. Think about the process of buying a car. You would be exposed to television and magazine ads, you could get a hardcopy of Consumer Reports and ask friends and relatives for advice, but to get the real information you had to go see a salesman who smugly had all of the information.

It is the same with any big purchase. Even today most companies still get their leads (many from their website) and give it directly to a salesperson who assumes her job is instigate "the sales process" and begin selling the prospect. If they determine they are not ready to buy in the next few weeks, that "lead", many times, ends up in the virtual void never to be contacted again.

In 2014 your sales people should assume they are the last place a buyer is going, not the first. They must assume very little of their knowledge is proprietary. They need to begin to facilitate the buying process at this point, not initiate the old selling process. They need to determine what pain or fear the buyer is looking to solve, where in the buying cycle (their search for information) the prospect is and supply the additional information the buyer needs to make his decision.

Think about buying a car again. How do you want the salesperson to interact with you today? Smugly, "I hold all the cards",  "I need to convince you today to buy this car", or assume you already have the information? No selling is needed, they just serve you by clearing up any questions you still have and supplying you with that last bit of information you need to make a buying decision.

For some companies the tradeshow demo or on-site demo is an important part of their sales process. Most of these today are conducted out of laziness on the salesperson's part. They practice the demos and spew out feature after feature and throw in a few benefits but lean on this technique to complete their old selling process.

What serious prospect has not gone on-line and seen several videotaped demos way before they talk to a sales person? Any conversations in today's world should begin with the assumption the buyer has the information, and they are at some stage of the buying process and we need to start the conversation determining their pain/fear and what solutions we have to solve it for them. That is the information they are seeking, that final sharing of information that will get them to trust you are the company for them.

As for those inquiries "leads" that come in and are handed to sales - they are just that and the fact that they some are not ready to buy today does not mean that they should be qualified and ignored. These suspects are just in the earlier stages of gathering information and we should put them in our database and send them information on a regular basis (with their permission) to add to their knowledge and nurture them along their buying process.

In short, you need to begin now to load your website with good relevant information (content) and give it away free with no signups. It will drive more people to your site and will create more contacts from interested prospects. You should get a TIPS blog going and send this out to all customers and prospects - good, short, relevant information (content) on a consistent basis. (Like I do with this article and my blog.)

Video, articles, industry statistics, maintenance, etc. - load up your website with it and send it out as you create it. Take the most frequently asked questions and go online, to your vendors and get short content - tips - to answer them.

Sales - rethink, with an objective mind, how you can change your sales process to become a buying process. How can you restructure your sales organization to more efficiently and effectively cover your market. Telesales - does it have a place in your company? Think about the last 6 months how many deals have you closed over the phone because the prospect called in armed with information and was ready to make a decision with a little more information that can be sent via email. If you have outside sales people how can you put them in position to have more conversations every day? Could teaming them with an inside sales coordinator who does all the follow up work and makes appointments for them make them 2-3 times more productive?

Sales is broken, it is up to you to take a look at what you are doing and make the changes to align with the new world of free information on everything in the world.

Ask yourself - How can I serve more customers and prospects, more efficiently and effectively, in the least amount of time? What is their buying cycle and where does marketing and sales fit into it?