From Gibberish to Genuine Connection: The Crucial Role of Communication in Sales.
Ian J Lowe
My purpose is to break down the barriers between buyers and sellers so we can truly connect and together build a better world.
"Prisencolinensinainciusol" is the unlikely title of a song from Italian singer Adriano Celentano. Despite the strange title, it became a huge hit across Europe in the early 70's. Adriano was inspired by American culture, music, and slang, and wanted to create a song with that vibe. But instead of using real English, he filled the song with made-up words - essentially gibberish. His goal wasn’t just to be playful; he had a deeper message. He wanted to show how people struggle to communicate with each other. In an interview with NPR, he said:
"I sang it with an angry tone because the theme was important. It was an anger born out of resignation. I brought to light the fact that people don't communicate."
This idea connects to a six-year study of 2,800 experienced salespeople who were observed as they conducted 1,700 in-person meetings with senior B2B buyers. After each interaction, the researchers interviewed both sides. The salespeople shared feedback like they were confident the meeting went well, that they did a good job, that the customer loved their solution, and they were in a strong position to win the business. However, more than 70% of the time the customers in those same meetings shared variations of:
"That meeting was a waste of my time"
Why such different views? Could it be that just like in Celentano’s song, we're failing to communicate! Clearly, these sellers thought they're communicating effectively, but from the customer’s perspective, they may as well have been talking gibberish!
领英推荐
Unfortunately the researchers concluded this wasn't an outlier, it was in fact an accurate representation of what most customers experience every day in their calls and meetings with salespeople. Indeed, other studies highlight how widespread this problem is, with similar findings from organizations like Gartner and 光辉国际 indicating that an increasing number of B2B buyers are seeing little in the way of value from their interactions and would prefer not to talk with salespeople.
As concerning as this challenge may be, it presents an immense opportunity for all of us in the field of sales enablement - this post is a call to action! Human beings are biologically wired for connection; it's not only essential for survival but for thriving, especially in today’s increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous sales and business environment. Salespeople have a crucial role in guiding their customers through the fog of complexity, and fostering meaningful conversations is key to building these vital connections.
So, how can you enhance your approach to ensure the salespeople and sales leaders you enable are communicating and connecting effectively?
#salesenablement #leadership #purpose
Global Principal Executive Coach and Trainer
4 个月Ian, you have done it again! Great post on such an important topic!! Well done! Thank you for reminding us all of the importance of clear communication.
It all comes back to how sales people are trained, measured and managed in my mind Ian. Still far too many business leaders who reward behaviour A whilst expecting behaviour B. If you want your sellers to develop a genuine connection then STOP the old numbers game BS from yesterday. Given them time, space and the training that they need to create genuine connections. 90% of the salespeople that talk to are still complaining that their boss keeps asking, how many calls have you made, and how many meetings have you got. Monthly and quartelry madness never did allow for genuine connections. My two bobs worth.
you can't ever hope to acheive Trusted Advisor status unless you are prepared to spend the time getting to know (for real) the customers business, products, services, competitors, industry. Buyers don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Helping leaders pinpoint and build sustainable revenue performance
5 个月Nice post and prompt Ian J Lowe . My two cents… maybe twenty cents ?? 1. Old and new school sales skills are driven my the need for results. Time is often the enemy for sellers who are trained and asked to push the opportunity. Ya gotta convert the opportunity. This is often supported by leaders bringing oops or renewals forward. None of it is customer centric. 2. Sellers get rammed with learning but never supported to master the engagement. They’re time poor pushing the opps. Organisations must support sellers to apply the learning not just attend. 3. Enablement is now far beyond sales roles… it’s now the collective GTM functions who all need to link and support sellers to master the comms with real time feedback and dare I say leverage Ai to stimulate JIT learning and coaching. Thanks for the post mate and doubt anyone will ever scribe a song about Enablement. Back to you…
Thanks for this post, Ian! Now more than ever, it is critical to ensure that we understand what success and value looks and feels like to our customers in every touchpoint (meetings or otherwise)!