Has Sales Changed in Thirty Years?
To give you a little background the first time I won a sales contest my incentive was a Farrah Fawcett poster that I proudly hung on my bedroom wall. The Herald Examiner paid me to deliver papers everyday after school and they had a promotion to gain the most new subscribers. For those of you not around during the seventies this was a big win for me!
They sent a territory rep out to go door to door and sell new subscriptions. She called my parents house and explained to me that I should be dressed well, look clean and neat and be prepared to go over my route with her on the day she scheduled.
When she arrived she explained that I was to stand right next to her on the porch and she would indiscreetly hold the back of my hair and give me signals that she told me beforehand. A pull to the hair straight-down if I did not look the customer straight in the eye. A pull to the left to look over at her. A pull to the right to hand them a sample of the days paper.
The best part of that paragraph was the fact that my hair was long enough for her to pull without anyone seeing her do that. If you’ve looked at my LinkedIn profile you might be shocked to learn that my hair was extremely thick and flowed to the middle of my back. But I digress.
Today I pour over social media sights, answer copious emails from customers, colleagues, and a slew of other sales professionals trying to get me to buy their newest whatever it may be. My bosses, be they the CEO, CFO, COO, Senior VP or whomever still try and influence how I make my pitch, and my customers are usually not interested until I find out where they truly have a need.
I will never forget the first newspaper subscriber I sold. This guy was eating dinner as I proudly rang his doorbell. Still chewing his food and halfway pissed that I bothered him he asked if the Herald Examiner was the paper that had the “Funny Papers” and specifically Beatle Bailey? We did and I answered him and instantly he said “sign me up”. Wow this is easy right?
That was after forty unanswered doors, twenty “I’m not interested”, four or five door slams, at least ten “we get the Daily Breeze Paper” and one get off my lawn! Let me answer my own question now. Is sales any different today then it was in 1976? Not really. The tools have changed dramatically. I have more information available to me then ever before, so do my customers.
I still knock on doors, mostly through email, social media, and my iPhone, and occasionally I literally knock on a door. I still get the occasional “get off my lawn” comment phrased in a variety of different ways. I Google information instead of going to the library and my old Thomas Guide that had every Los Angeles street neatly spiral bound in five hundred pages is housed in a variety of apps that I use on my phone or in my vehicles GPS system.
Sales is still a relational business and I believe people like dealing with people. So much has changed, but so much remains the same. I would love to hear your comments.
Dennis is a retired Certified Master Marketing Consultant and founder of Dott Digital Marketing.
10 年Hello Mark, Interesting question. I believe that people have become even more hardened to sales over the years. In fact, we don't even call it sales, we call it Business Development. I believe this is morphing again to be social marketing. The fact is, nobody wants to be sold anything. If you even begin to come off as a salesperson, the defenses go up. Problem solving is, IMHO, the only way to really create relationships that generate revenue. Cold Calling is considered akin to telemarketing and puts a salesperson and customer on the defensive instantly. Has sales changed since the 70s? Yes, it is harder, more competitive and people are totally fed up with people trying to sell them. On the other hand, people are hungry for integrity, passion, and information that will make them money, improve their lives and gain them loyal customers. Referrals still remain the best tool and being social is the best way to stimulate referrals. NEVER COLD CALL AGAIN! No need for a good offering to be trashed before it is understood. Get Social and get Known. And yea, I had a pony tail until 1977. Hard to prove now!
Excellent in research, analysis, and providing solutions.
10 年Great article Mark. It's ironic that through all of societies shifts in how to attract customers, much less retain them, it always comes back to relationships. Competition is everywhere and knocking on doors the same way. At the end of the day it boils down to how we make our customers feel. I will need proof, however, of the pony tail.